With the reduction of interest in science subjects by students, the impact has led to a significant reduction in staffing levels across colleges. This project, although still in its early stages of development, has created a virtual science department beginning with physics to reverse the feeling of isolation and...

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...

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...

The aim of this Children’s Learning in Science Project (CLIS) research study was to describe aspects of secondary school students’ ideas about light and to set these in the context of results from other studies in the area and of the history of ideas about light and...

The report from the Children’s Learning in Science Project (CLIS) gives an account of a number of aspects of students’ ideas about energy including:

*Do students use ideas about energy spontaneously to help them interpret phenomena?

*When students are ‘cued’ that energy is involved in a situation,...

A Catalyst article about a visit to CERN, the particle physics lab and what the centre has to offer a science student by way of a case study.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2007, Volume 17, Issue 4.

Catalyst is a...

From The Centre for Industry Education Collaboration (CIEC), this information booklet is useful for those wishing to develop successful partnerships between schools and local science-based industries. It is a collection of papers that describe how different groups have encountered and handled major issues and...

The award of a Royal Society Partnership Grant allowed Chichester College to purchase a powerful telescope for use in teaching and by their STEM Club. The project aimed to give learners the opportunity to select and use equipment whilst working with external partners and organisations, including STEM Ambassadors,...

This activity sheet is based on the Inventive Podcast.  It introduces two engineers involved in the development of hydrogen as a fuel, and links their work to chemistry and physics topic. The activity sheet also supports Careers Benchmark 4: Careers in the curriculum by introducing a career and role model. There...

This report explores the differences in uptake of 'gendered' subjects at A level in schools between girls and boys. In a previous report, It's Different for Girls (2012), the Institute of Physics looked at progression into A Level physics and the patterns...

A Catalyst article about the work of Damian Murphy a music technologist. Acoustics and sound are examined in addition to the physical modelling and acoustics of buildings and environments, both real and virtual.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2007, Volume 17, Issue 3.

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A Catalyst article about the first generation of nuclear power stations. When these stations reach the end of their useful life this article looks at what is involved in decommissioning them and how the process is affected by the properties of radioactive elements.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science...

Published by LSIS, this research report describes a project undertaken by New College Nottingham. The project describes the creation of a webquest to aid the learning of space exploration for a BTEC first diploma.

Using a blog facilitated a dialogue between the students themselves and also with the class...

A Catalyst article about a brilliant new light source under construction in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside - the Diamond Light Source. Diamond will be a source of synchrotron light. Many of the everyday commodities people take for granted, from chocolate to cosmetics, from revolutionary drugs to surgical...

A Catalyst article about what causes faults in electrical appliances and the wiring installations in homes, and why people receive electric shocks. How regulations can reduce the risk of electrical faults and electric shocks is also examined together with the use of fuses, fuse wire and modern RCDs (residual...