A report published in 2013 from the UK’s Institute of Physics looks at patterns of gender bias in six A-level subjects, all of which are taken by large numbers of students and all of which have a significant gender imbalance. The subjects considered are English, biology, and psychology (which are more popular with...

This APU report for teachers focuses on the performance of students aged 15 in a range of test questions concerning metals. This subject was chosen since metals are the commonest examples of elements which students meet in their everyday lives. Questions reported were...

This APU report for teachers differs from other reports in being jointly authored by members of the APU language and science teams. It reports the joint study of students’ written and spoken language in relation to science subject matter. This study addressed the...

This APU report for teachers presents a summary of the main findings likely to be of most interest to teachers from the first two surveys of students at age 11, conducted in 1980 and 1981. It also offers some conclusions about what students at this age were generally...

The APU report for teachers presents, in concise form, some of the data and findings of the APU surveys of students aged 13. It includes an outline of the assessment framework, some of the questions which were written to match it, a description of how well, and how...

The APU report number 4 for teachers presents, in concise form, some of the data and findings of the APU surveys of students aged 13. It includes an outline of the assessment framework, some of the questions which were written to match it, a description of how well, and...

The APU report for teachers presents, in concise form, some of the data and findings of the APU surveys of students aged 15. After outlining the assessment framework (see also...

This APU report for teachers describes the aspect of the science surveys where the science project broke new ground. The reason for including practical tasks was the emphasis placed on practical work in science, requiring a range of skills.

It was considered that science performance could not be adequately...

This APU report for teachers focuses on the performance of students aged 15 in a range of test questions concerning electricity. It presents the findings in a sequence in which it suggests that different activities are generally encountered by students. An...

This APU report for teachers focuses on students’ planning of investigations. Although considered important in several respects, Rep...

Published by the Wellcome Trust in October 201, this report looks at how one-year postgraduate Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses in England and Wales support trainees’ acquisition of subject knowledge and topic specific pedagogy across the sciences.

The study, which was the first of its kind to look...

Published by LSIS, these booklets summarise the STEM action research projects carried out by 16-19 institutions across the UK. They include a brief summary of the research and findings on topics such as: using electronic notebooks, electronic learning, peer review, computer-based assessment, kinaesthetic techniques...

Produced by the Learning Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), this case study looks at the theme of harnessing technology. It describes how Sussex Downs College set out to show students how to use more innovative features of technology to support collaborative and active learning. To begin with, this involved...

A Catalyst article about using the ISIS accelerator to study the structures of materials. ISIS is one of the UK's world leading research centres and this article explains how the centre uses neutrons to study materials at an atomic level. Acting as a super microscope the ISIS accelerator can be used for physics,...

A Catalyst article about the life and ideas of Albert Einstein. He is most famous for his ideas on relativity which formed the theory of general relativity, in which he showed that gravity could be explained as the effect of large masses on space. After the Second World War he also worked with other scientists and...