In this design challenge from the National STEM Learning Centre and Network, students build an electric racer powered by a super-capacitor. Students must construct the racer and choose which pulley ratio will enable it to cover the greatest distance.

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Build simple circuits from pictures or demonstrations.
• Identify components from their circuit symbols, and draw the circuit symbol for common components.       
• Identify...

This is a unit of three two hour lessons to consolidate understanding of the specialised materials and mechanisms used on exploration robots. Students build or test, or build and test these to develop knowledge and evaluate them.  These resources are aimed at the 14-16 age group.  The context is focussed on the...

This guide for students allows them to explore technology used in space through the Arduino tool. They can build circuits to blink an LED and to measure temperature, pressure and altitude. The basics of programming in C++ will be introduced using the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) software. This...

This edition of the Computing at School newsletter contains articles covering:

*Increasing the number of girls studying computing

*Inclusion in computing

*Network of Excellence and CAS Hubs

*Learning about programming through knitting

*Programming with GameMaker

*...

In this activity students design and model a 3D robot arm. Robot arms are an example of a programmable system. They are used in a wide variety of industrial applications, ranging from loading machines to assembling cars, welding parts together and spray painting products. They are also used in applications such as...

This pack is about music technology and was developed to accompany the Musical Moods mass participation project for National Science & Engineering Week 2011 which aimed to find a new way of classifying online content based on mood. The activities are linked to the British Science Association’s CREST Awards...

These materials, from the National Science Learning Network, look at electronics, electricity, robotics and control. A range of activities include teachers' notes as well as student activity sheets.

Topics on electricity are aimed to give support and guidance to teachers through articles on:

*current...

The Nuffield 13 to 16 project grew out of an investigation set up by the Nuffield Foundation Science Teaching Project in 1974. This was CESIS: Curriculum and Examination Systems in Integrated Science. The main finding was that what teachers needed was a project to help them make the best use of all the resources...

The 10 Further Science ('D') units in the Nuffield 13-16 programme each included enough material for eight double periods. Together they provided for a double-award in science by covering the content of a second Science course when combined with three X units. Schools were expected to cover about two and a half...

This simulation demonstrates how Ohm's law relates to a simple circuit. The voltage and resistance can be adjusted to see how this affects the current. The sizes of the symbols in the equation change to match the circuit diagram.

This guide is suitable to support a full introductory wearable-technology project using Arduino. It gives an overview of the Arduino system as well as the key terms surrounding ‘making’ and ‘hacking’. After a brief review of basic electrical theory, a closer look at the inputs and outputs of a basic board, and of...

This resource is an introductory lesson to electronic systems. Its content looks at system diagrams (I.e. circuit diagram, flow charts), open loop systems and closed loop systems. Using the key terms input, process, output and feedback, students are given examples of products and asked to describe the system that...

This collection of sample teacher guides is from Damien Kee, who works with teachers and students around the world to improve teaching with robots. The resources can get you up-and-running using a range of robotics platforms in the classroom, and are written in an easy-to-follow, practical style.

The Future Morph website was created in 2008 by the Science Council to provide a range of careers-related contexts to support teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The materials helped students to understand the relevance of STEM subjects to a wide range of career routes, many of...