Where's the impact?

This resource looks at life-cycle analysis and how it is used to work out the environmental impact of different products.

Six R's

This resource from Practical Action helps students look at the 6Rs, their definitions and products which illustrate the 6Rs in action. These are: rethink, reuse, recycle, repair, reduce and refuse. Students look at the definitions carefully again and rank each of the Rs in terms of which contributes most and which...

Design abacus

From Practical Action, this resource is an eco-tool used to compare the sustainability of two products or design ideas.

Bottle It - Re-use or Recycle?

From Practical Action, these activities help students explore sustainable development and the difference between re-use and recycle. The resources look at re-use (using a product or component for another purpose without any processing) and recycle (processing a waste material or component and using it in a new product...

Less is more!

This resource gets students to look at how a product could be redesigned to require less packaging. Companies are being encouraged to develop ‘environmentally-smart’ retail packaging design. In this activity, students are challenged to redesign a familiar product so that it has less (and more sustainable) packaging....

The Paper Cup Company

A National STEM Learning Centre and Network Engineering Case Studies resource investigating the design process involved in developing a paper cup for manufacture.You wouldn't believe making a paper cup could be complicated, but there's a lot of science reasoning behind the product design.Your students can compete in...

Recycling and Sustainability

This booklet is part of the ‘Innovations in Practical Work’ series published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). ‘Sustainability’ is about using resources in a way that does not deplete them. An increased emphasis on renewable energy is part of the move to greater sustainability, but so is the idea of...

QTC - Making the Most of a Novel Material

A Catalyst article about Quantum Tunnelling Composite, a material discovered in 1997 and whose resistance decreases dramatically under pressure. How does it work and what uses will it have? The material has been carefully characterised (to understand its composition and how it works), and its first applications have...

QTC: A Remarkable New Material to Control Electricity

Metals and Smart Alloys

This booklet is part of the ‘Innovations in Practical Work’ series published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP).Metals have been used for many thousands of years, but it was only in the 20th century that an understanding developed of how their properties could be explained in terms of their structures....