This longer-duration activity involves prototyping a low-power lighting system. It could be used in an off-timetable workshop or across a series of lessons.

Students are challenged to work through the whole design process, and to place a micro-controller (in this case a BBC micro:bit) at the centre of the...

Dr. Mark Woods explains how the rover technologies must be partly autonomous, since the signals from Earth to Mars take too long for every command to be send from Earth.  The technologies developed for space, also have applications on Earth.

This video is part of a series of ten which look at the one of the...

This Catalyst article presents the work of three chemists - Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel - who won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Their work allowed the development of complex computer models of compounds and reactions.

The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2014,...

These physics resources for students in Years 9-11 are part of the BRaSS initiative and should be used in conjunction with the Teachers' Pack.

Aims:-

• to explore the scientific aspects of the Big Bang
...

These physics resources for students in Years 9-11 are part of the BRaSS initiative and should be used in conjunction with the Teachers' Pack. There are five lessons of approximately 50 minutes’ duration and teachers are free...

This lesson explores the ways in which scientific methods and theories develop over time and the nature of progression in physics.

Students are encouraged to contrast the way in which physics is presented to them, as something fixed, with the actual process of doing physics through history, to gain a sense...

The Broadening Secondary School Science, or BRaSS initiative, seeks to develop teachers’ and students’ understanding and insight about:-

• how knowledge works
• cross-curricular links in science 
• the place of...

These wide-ranging resources provide information and guidance that will help practitioners and employers consider issues such as gender equality, subject choice, inclusive pedagogy and providing successful work placements.

The Big Picture on pages 10-11 of this issue of Catalyst shows scientists in Antarctica launching a balloon which will travel up through the atmosphere to a height of 34 km above the Earth’s surface. This balloon is part of NASA’s BARREL mission, probing the radiation belts which surround the Earth.

...

In this activity students work as researchers on a TV show and plan a report about the claim that sunbeds cause skin cancer.

Learning objectives:

*Use knowledge about UV light to explain the link between sunbeds and skin cancer.

*Understand how scientific evidence can support a claim.

...

This resource uses the context of the INEOS TEAM UK America's cup base in Portsmouth for students to explore the factors surrounding, using and installing solar panels on the roof of the building.  It includes the modeling required to maximise the roof area that can be used for solar panels and the data anlysis...

This video introduces an interesting problem of two balls placed in beakers of water.  A ping pong ball is fixed to the bottom of one beaker of water and an acrylic ball suspended into another beaker of water.  Both beakers contain the same amount of water and both balls displace equal amounts of water (they have...

In this resource, students use their STEM skills to help them design and build a model of a flood- proof house. Activities to help them with their design include testing materials (for strength and absorbency) and structures. Set on a fictitious island coping with the devastating effects of flooding caused by...

An investigation looking at how beta radiation is absorbed when it passes through different thicknesses of aluminum.  From this you can then calculate the absorption coefficient for aluminum.  When doing this investigation please ensure you have followed CLEAPSS guidance or the safety body for your country.  This...