In The Art of Scientific Investigation, originally published in 1950, W.I.B. Beveridge explores the development of the intuitive side in scientists. The author's object is to show how the minds of humans can best be harnessed to the processes of scientific discovery. This book therefore centers on the "human factor...

From April 1989 SEAC assumed responsibility for the management of the existing contract of the Assesssment of Performance Unit (APU). A new section formed within the SEAC was created – the Evaluation and Monitoring Unit (EMU).  The unit has responsibility for monitoring and evaluating the...

The Birmingham Institute for Forest Research (BIFoR) is home to the BIFoR F...

The Youth Grand Challenges is a new STEM competition that aims to inspire students aged 11-to-19.  This resource provides a selection of ideas for research or practical projects on the subect of the spread of disease.

Curriculum links include pathogens, bacteria, epidemics, pandemics, malaria, water borne...

Chameleon bubbles are formed when a sodium alginate solution is dropped into a calcium chloride solution.  The bubbles are filled by an acid‐base indicator solution; so, adding the beads to acids or bases leads to colour changes inside the bubbles by diffusion and pH change. Students can learn about acids, bases,...

The chemical garden is a well‐established experiment from the chemistry of salts, solubility, diffusion, and solutions. The nice thing is that if metal salts are put in sodium water glass solution, it can lead to an effect reminiscent of plants growing. This growing process can be observed and analysed. In the end...

Two translucent liquids are mixed. At first, nothing happens: the resulting solution is still translucent. Suddenly, with no warning, the solution turns blue-black all at once.

Curriculum links include redox reactions, rate of reaction, kinetics

In this activity, students plan an investigation to compare two clinical thermometers or two blood pressure devises.   They will need to investigate:

• the key features needed by a clinical thermometer or blood pressure monitor. The generic features required by physiological measuring devices are...

In this project, students make their own aspirin or paracetamol and then test the purity of the pain-reliever and compare it to shop-bought.  This covers titrations, chromatography and other analytical techniques.

The aim of this project is to investigate the properties of alcohol/water mixtures, and how these properties can be used to measure alcohol content. The alcohol in drinks is ethanol, C₂H₅OH. However, the ethanol used in the laboratory has been methylated by adding 5% of methanol, CH_3...

In this activity students investigate the mystery of a light beam which seems to bend.  Students can investigate:

• Qualitative behaviour of light  when the medium in which it propagates changes its refraction index. 
• Quantitative evaluation of the behaviour of light in refraction by means of...

These activities allow students to model how environmental scientists compare diversity in different ecosystems by using ordinary playing cards as ‘species’ to generate data to calculate Simpson’s Diversity Index. This can be completed in a single lesson. Some students find the concept of species diversity quite...

Students observe what happens to blood added to salt solutions of different concentrations. This is done in test tubes, although it may also be possible to observe what happens under a microscope. The students record their observations and attempt to explain what has happened to the red blood cells. They then...