This practical activity uses a simple and convenient model of the real environment in order to demonstrate the principles of random sampling and how to estimate biodiversity. Students use different coloured sugar balls to represent different species in order to put Simpson's Diversity Index to the test, which takes...

In this activity, students explore the miss-match between real and perceived risk by exploring the risks of dying unexpectedly from various causes. Starting from known fears and comparing them with real-life data, students can recognise that these fears are often unfounded. Students have the opportunity to learn...

One of the units from the Nuffield Primary Solutions in Design and Technology materials in which students design and make a calendar illustrated with monsters, one for each month of the year. Each monster is designed and produced by a team of children using suitable computer software. The calendar must be made to...

This resource considers how pollution from copper mines affects growth of plants, including a data analysis activity and a practical. The resource aims to address aspects of working scientifically.

The materials...

A Catalyst article about a Kenyan scientist who is searching for better treatments for malaria, a disease which kills more than a million people in Africa each year. The article also explains some of the challenges of doing science in Africa, where funding is low. Often the illness shows a remarkable ability to...

One of the units from the Nuffield Primary Solutions in Design and Technology. Students in groups write a short story with a message before designing and making the puppets and theatre that can be used to tell the story.

Planning the production is an important part of the activity, with the performance as...

A Catalyst article about ants. A colony consists of hundreds, even thousands, of ants working diligently and cooperatively, perhaps to kill and carry a large prey item, build a large nest structure or develop and use road-like networks for foraging. Collectively, colonies of social insects can do amazing things and...

In this resource, aimed at primary level, children take measurements of their height using leaves. Using different sized leaves to measure different children, and then comparing their actual height with that measured in leaves, will help them to see the importance of using standard measurements.

Produced by...

This activity sheet looks at the changing state of water. Children think about the way water behaves when it is heated to boiling point or cooled to freezing point and discuss the changes in state. They then look at some of the properties of water in its liquid state and write them down.

This resource has...

From Teachers TV, this video contains an ideas for a lesson starter suitable for lower primary children. They look at how ears are used to hear and locate sound. The short video shows two children playing hide-and-seek in the woods. Gabby is wearing earmuffs and, due to her muffled hearing, she's having difficulty...