In this unit of work students work together in teams to produce a set of information boards for an exhibition to explain conservation and investigative techniques used to preserve ancient artworks from Pompeii and Herculaneum. The purpose of the unit is to show pupils how processes for conserving and interpreting...

This unit looks at biofuels and how these relate to the climate crisis, fossil fuels and the food industry and whether they are the future of fuels.

In this unit students consider the relationship between the growing of crops for food or for fuel and conduct independent research to write a policy brief on...

In this biochemistry-based activity students consider why many industrial chemical reactions are being catalysed by enzymes. They find out about an important coenzyme, NADH and act in role as industrial chemists by evaluating the different ways of recycling it.

This unit of work enables students to understand the risks, costs and potential benefits in the commercial exploration of space; and why decisions about scientific and engineering solutions need to take account of expert opinions from a broad range of disciplines.  Initially students work...

This project encourages students to make contact with a business that performs quality control analyses, such as a public analyst who tests samples for the Trading Standards Department.  Students will need to carry out both quantitative and qualitative analysis on tablets with a single active ingredient, such as...

The premise of this activity is that the school is sending a rover to Mars. Its mission is to search for evidence that life has ever existed there. It is the job of the class to decide where the rover should land on Mars. They will do this by working in groups and investigating six potential landing sites and...

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...

What is the perfect curve of a ball’s trajectory, what must the ideal turf be like, and...

This unit looks at 'fracking', the extraction of shale gas by hydraulic fracturing, as an application of science and considers who has access to, and influence over, decision-making processes which determine what risks are acceptable, and who they...

Scientists at the University of Oxford often use mathematical modelling as a key part of their research.  Modelling how information travels through social media sites is a part of understanding ways to analyse and potentially reduce the spread of misinformation.

Many of the chemicals we use as drugs, flavourings and perfumes originate from natural sources but often the most economical way of obtaining them is to produce them artificially on an industrial scale.

In this...

This builds on from GCSE work on resistance to investigate the resistivity of a series of metals in the form of wires.  This is common and simple investigation where students can look at developing their measuring skills, especially with calculating the area of the wires.

Impulsive, socially anxious, uncompromising - these are some of the characteristics you may recognise in the teenagers you know. Scientists at the University of Oxford are researching into changes that take place in the teenage brain that may explain this change in...

This resource contains a synopsis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth assessment on wildfires written in language suitable for A level students, so can be used as an exercise in reading comprehension and note taking. It looks at natural and anthropogenic causes of wildfires, their benefits and...

Dr Laura Hobbs is a research scientist at the University of Strathclyde and the Scottish Association for Marine Science. She uses data from instruments, called echosounders, that use sound waves to monitor the depth and abundance of zooplankton in the Arctic Ocean. Studying copepods, her research has shown that...