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...

A Catalyst article about alchemy, the study of eternal life, salvation, and the answer to the ultimate questions about life, the universe and everything. It flourished for more than 1500 years until, in the late 1600s, the beginnings of modern, scientific chemistry edged it aside. The article looks at what was...

The report from the Children’s Learning in Science Project (CLIS) gives an account of a number of aspects of students’ ideas about particles including:
*What do students understand about the particulate nature of matter?
*Do they understand the scientific...

This Catalyst article describes the work of five young people who work in the pharmaceutical industry. The industry employs more than 70 000 people in the UK in a variety of roles including drug development and scientific research, manufacturing and making the medicines, IT, statistics, testing the drugs and...

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...

A Catalyst article about how catalysts affect the rate of reactions and why catalysts are important in nature and in industry.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2008, Volume 18, Issue 3.

Catalyst is a science magazine...

A Catalyst article about chemical reactions that occur in a blast furnace during the steelmaking process. This short article features a diagram of a blast furnace showing the active ingredients used to produce iron from ore.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2006, Volume 16, Issue 3.

This Catalyst article explains how zeolites, sponge-like materials developed from naturally occurring minerals, are used as chemical sieves and as catalysts. Zeolites have incredibly widespread applications. They are used in consumer products such as washing powder and cat litter while many of the petrochemicals...

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...

Published in 2009 by LSIS, this report describes an action research project undertaken by Longley Park Sixth Form College. The research undertook a comparison of the different GCSE science specifications and an analysis of the January results for an AS chemistry unit to investigate the impact of GCSE qualifications...

A Catalyst article about the work of a scientist from the British Antarctic Survey, gathering data about climate change by studying ice cores from Antarctica. One of the areas of research was to find out whether it is possible to learn how much sea ice there was around Antarctica in the past by measuring how much...

A Catalyst article about Dorothy Hodgkin who was a pioneering scientist, a peace activist, a mother of three and a Nobel Prize winner. The article looks at her life and work in science. She did valuable work as an X-ray crystallographer and in finding the structure of biologically important molecules such as...

This Catalyst article looks at how people lived in the past, archaeologists look at the items (artefacts) these cultures left behind. Using chemical analysis of residues in the artefacts an enormous amount of additional information can be gleaned. This article investigates early dairy farming. Analysis of tiny...

A Catalyst article investigating a few of the uses of naturally occurring oils. These oils are extracted from animal fats or plant seeds and can be turned into a variety of compounds including soaps, fuel and margarine. The article looks at oils as fuels, their use in paint and detergents and problems with their...

A Catalyst article about careers in forensic science covering the work of the reporting officer. The article explains what it takes to become a forensic scientist and what qualities are required to join this profession.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1.

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