This cross-curricular computing / ICT activity helps children to understand decomposition. They choose a poem and create an animation using Scratch; this encourages them to think deeply about the poem, and to explore the tools available. Children break the poem into pieces (decomposition), then plan the animation...

Sovon, a Dutch bird protection organisation, counts birds. The number of greylag geese is increasing. Students are asked to investigate whether this increase is worrying for the diversity of water bird species? Students explore what the concept biodiversity means, how it can be described mathematically and what are...

A set of simple scratch ‘debugging’ activities that children can use to apply their understanding of programs and codes.  Children are shown a series of faulty programs which are based around the water cycle.  They are then supported to use logical reasoning to locate and fix the bugs within them.  Notes for...

Produced by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, this resource contains an overview of the techniques involved in making a BAC (Bacterial Artificial Chromosome) library. It consists of an animation that covers the key stages in the process:

From the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, this animation shows a detailed overview of the processes involved in the dideoxy or Sanger method for sequencing DNA. This is the method used to sequence the human genome. The animation demonstrates the principles and techniques involved in the Sanger sequencing method,...

In this activity students consider the questions: Where does rain water go? How can we model the flow of rainwater in real life? What can be done to prevent flooding? When is rain dangerous? Where do floods come from? How can we reduce the damage that flooding causes? Over the last decade some parts of Europe have...

The generation of energy with solar power plants in the desert is a highly controversial issue. In this activity students consider the questions: Which arguments do the opponents and the proponents put forward? To what extent do solar power plants have the potential to contribute to meeting Europe’s energy needs?...

In this activity students consider the questions: Which components of food are healthy and which are not? Why should we care about this? What are the effects of the individual components of food on the human body? What do our families eat? What are the likely effects of what we eat? How can we ensure that the...

From the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, this resource introduces the Human Genome Project (HGP).

A short animation gives:

* an introduction to DNA and genomes;

* an overview of which countries were involved in the international Human Genome Project;

* a description of the processes,...

In this activity students make a comparison of conventional and energy saving light bulbs and ask the questions: How can individuals contribute towards the needs of society? Why have traditional light bulbs been abolished by the EU? In Germany, as in many other European countries, conventional light bulbs are to be...

In this multi-lesson project pupils design and code a computer game. It uses a rainforest theme but can be adapted to any topic, with learners of varying age or ability.

The project includes:

• Decomposition of the elements of a game
• Designing the game
• Creating assets for the...

In this resource from SAPS, students learn about random sampling, diversity and different measures of abundance, before looking at close-up photographs of quadrats and using the field guide to identify them. The resources are intended to help students develop skills and plant identification techniques before going...

This online ecology practical, by SAPS, is designed to give students an opportunity to see how systematic sampling can be used to

• investigate changes in species richness across a footpath
• the distribution of species across a footpath

These online exercises are not intended as a...

This Barefoot Computing resource builds on the ‘Maths quiz with selection’ learning activities which should be undertaken first.

It involves improving an existing Scratch maths quiz and adding score-keeping using...

In this activity, students explore the questions: What are the main sources of air pollution? What is the impact of transport emissions on air pollution and the natural environment? What can we do to reduce air pollution coming from transport? To what extent can emissions be reduced if solar powered cars instead of...