Becta was the government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology in education. It was established in 1997 and closed in March 2011. Becta provided leadership to embed the effective use of technology and provided rigorous research to evaluate the impact of...

This report from Ofsted looks at low level classroom disruption. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) raised concerns about low-level disruption in schools in his Annual Report 2012/13. As a consequence, guidance to inspectors was tightened to place greater emphasis on this issue in routine inspections. In addition...

The Beyond 2000 report was the outcome of a seminar series initiated by Rosalind Driver and Jonathan Osborne at King’s College London. The series was funded by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation. There were four closed seminars and two open seminars. The report was edited by Robin Millar and Jonathan...

Looking to discuss the big, contestable questions in STEM? This collection of resources from The Economist Educational Foundation supports students to understand how the scientific and technological processes of the modern world are intertwined with political decisions and ethical calculations. They help develop...

This report, commissioned by the Wellcome Trust, evaluates Big Picture, its free publication on bioscience, and explores ways in which it could be developed. It was hoped that this summary of the main findings would be of use to other organisations developing materials for teachers and students, particularly those...

Simple and more advanced historical data sheets of survey data submitted by schools in previous years that can be used to answer statistical questions such as 'In which year did classes report the lowest number of starlings?' or 'Did we see more or fewer of each species than the average numbers from last year?'...

The Big Telescopes poster links ground and space based telescopes with the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that they are observing and their locations on Earth or in space.

The poster explains how larger telescopes allow scientists to learn more about the early universe and map our own galaxy with...

A global family of giant telescopes - on the ground and in space - provides an inspirational context for STEM learning. This collection of resources linked in to astronomy cover the following topics within the curriculum: telescopes, the electromagnetic spectrum, infra-red, redshift and Doppler shift, image...

This short video and accompanying booklet introduce pupils to biofilms formed by bacteria. 

The video starts by introducing an everyday example of a biofilm on our teeth and then links this to bioflims in rivers. It explains how important these biofilms are in the context of food chains and makes for an...

Biology and Chemistry for Middle Schools is one of the titles in the series of ASE Lab Books that were published in the early 1970s for the Association for Science Education by John Murray. Each title covered one or two topics and brought together the best of the...

Produced by Twig, this animated video is a clear and accessible explanation of how the Solar System fromed. The video describes how:

* the solar system grew from a ball of gas which formed the Sun

* gravity caused heavy material to cluster together and eventually form planets

* the inner...

This resource introduces the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (@BlackSeaMAP), a three-year...

These resources can be used independently or in conjunction with the STFC Borrow the Moon scheme.

This unplugged activity from Peter McOwan and Paul Curzon mingles computer science with biology. A group activity is used that mimics the firing of neurons within the brain. These trigger other neurons to fire – these can be compared to AND gates in logic circuits.

The ‘brain in a bag’ kits used in the...