This series of activities from NASA take a mathematical approach to looking at black holes. They are intended as supplementary problems for students looking for additional challenges in the maths and physical science post-16 curriculum. Problems consist of a student page and an answer sheet. Students need to be...

In this activity, students create colour images from satellite data. This allows them to study how different surfaces reflect different wavelengths of light, how coloured images are created using an RGB model, and how band combinations can be chosen to examine a particular landscape effectively.

Mathematics plays a vital part in space flight, it gives us a way both to predict what should happen in the future and also ways to measure what’s actually happening in the present, and adapt to it. In this resource we look at a few places where maths helps in space flight. The maths is made simple here (it’s far,...

The premise of this activity is that the school is sending a rover to Mars. Its mission is to search for evidence that life has ever existed there. The class must decide where the rover should land on Mars. They will do this by working in groups and investigating six potential  landing sites and weighing up the...

The premise of this activity is that the school is sending a rover to Mars. Its mission is to search for evidence that life has ever existed there. It is the job of the class to decide where the rover should land on Mars. They will do this by working in groups and investigating six potential landing sites and...

The premise of this activity is that the school is sending a rover to Mars. Its mission is to search for evidence that life has ever existed there. It is the job of the class to decide where the rover should land on Mars. They will do this by working in groups and investigating six potential landing sites and...

In this resource from ESA, students' mission is to design and build a vehicle that will protect their Eggnaut from the perils of re-entry from space. The objective is to have your Eggnaut survive the fall without a crack. The project can be adpated for either primary or secondary students. The resource was produced...

This is one of a series of resources from the IET designed around the theme of the future of flight with the purpose of developing pupils knowledge and skills in science, design technology, engineering and mathematics. 

In this activity pupils calculate the amount of energy needed to launch a space...

This interactive online game from Siemens sets students a series of challenges to design a roller coaster which needs to reach the end of the ride and at a safe speed. Students use problem solving and mathematical reasoning skills to change some of the track features and see how this affects the speed of the...

This resource shows how you can successfully lift a person off the ground using two cordless leaf blowers, problem-solving skills and some STEM knowledge: the same knowledge and skills that are used to design hovercraft.

Curriculum links include:

forces ...

In order to understand the orbits of planets, comets and other celestial bodies, it is necessary to examine the principles of how gravity, and the velocity of an object, interact to produce an orbit. It is a common misconception among students that planetary orbits are circular. This practical activity gives a...

Measuring the diameter of our star This simple exercise allows students to measure the diameter of the Sun using a metre rule and two pieces of card. An image of the Sun needs to be projected on the card using a small hole in one piece of card.

Measuring the number of hours in a day...

From the Integrating Mathematical Problem Solving project by Mathematics for Education and Industry (MEI), this activity for post-16 students demonstrates that coffee cools gradually because it is hotter than room temperature and heat is lost to the room. Mixing the coffee with milk also cools it but this effect is...

From the Integrating Mathematical Problem Solving project by MEI, this series of activities explores how mechanical oscillations are important in many areas of everyday life. Sometimes they are useful, for example the motion of the suspension on a car, sometimes they...

In this activity students roll rice filled balls (to mimic boccia balls) down a slope and measure the distance that they roll after the end of the slope. The ball is released from different heights up the slope and a graph of stopping distance is plotted. Students must then compete to roll their balls to a target...