This STEMNET activity case study describes Jenny Tillotson's work as a STEM Ambassador. Jenny's activities include speaking at schools, running workshops and offering internships in her company, Sensory Design and Technology Ltd. Her presentations look at science fiction and fashion and include film clips and...

In this STEMNET activity case study, Graduate Engineer Andrew Keen describes a 'real life' project that he designed for sixth formers which involved developing an engine component. The Fuel Systems Team of his company was so impressed with the project that it is now working on a prototype component.

Andrew...

In this STEMNET activity case study, STEM Ambassador Chris Robbins describes how he works with children and teachers on projects such as building a musical dinosaur crest out of plumbing materials. This gave pupils hands-on engineering experience and an understanding of acoustics.

"You have to learn to...

In this Catalyst article, Laura Plant describes the time she spent in the Amazon rainforest in northern Peru on a project researching the impacts of forestry on the plants and animals that live there.

In tropical regions, large areas of rainforests have been untouched for centuries. This means that many rare...

Steve analyses the flow of air over racing cars.  He studied aero-mechanical engineering at university and following a two week summer placement, at Lola cars, he was offered a position in the company.

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This Catalyst article investigates the nature of aerogels, which are among the least dense solid materials, not much denser than air. Aerogels were made as the result of a bet and ended up going into space to capture comet dust. They are the lightest solids which exist and have some unusual features.

The...

A Catalyst article about using the ISIS accelerator to study the structures of materials. ISIS is one of the UK's world leading research centres and this article explains how the centre uses neutrons to study materials at an atomic level. Acting as a super microscope the ISIS accelerator can be used for physics,...

Introduction to the Grand Challenge resources

This resource forms part of the ageing society resources from the Grand Challenges resource collection.  The introductory video can be found here.

The ageing society – level 3 resource package consists of activities designed to run for around two to three hours...

These technical briefs look at agricultural production in many parts of the world, carried out on a small-scale by farmers. Relatively small improvements in agricultural practice can have a big impact on yield and dramatically improve the life of a farmer and their family.

Technical briefs are documents...

Alan works at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, and is designing software for the James Webb Space Telescope.  Alan talks about his work on the mid infrared instrument which will look at the formation of galaxies in the early universe.  He uses coding in his job and explains how you need to write algorithms to a...

A Catalyst article about the life and ideas of Albert Einstein. He is most famous for his ideas on relativity which formed the theory of general relativity, in which he showed that gravity could be explained as the effect of large masses on space. After the Second World War he also worked with other scientists and...

A Catalyst article about alchemy, the study of eternal life, salvation, and the answer to the ultimate questions about life, the universe and everything. It flourished for more than 1500 years until, in the late 1600s, the beginnings of modern, scientific chemistry edged it aside. The article looks at what was...

This Catalyst article looks at the work of Alfred Russel Wallace who developed a theory of evolution in parallel with Charles Darwin; they published their findings jointly. As a scientist he was interested in lots of different things, from how different species came into existence to the question of whether ghosts...

This reliable practical allows students to use algae to look at the rate of photosynthesis with quantifiable and replicable results. In this protocol, the...