A Catalyst article about the efficient use of heating systems. Many people complain of being too hot or cold. Coming soon are a new generation of intelligent heating controls which can learn how people live, and then deliver heating efficiently when and where they need it. These devices are known as Wattboxes and...

A Catalyst article about how the society can decide whether energy-efficient lighting is good for the environment. With the UK Government announcement that sales of filament lamps will be phased out over the next few years the article examines their replacements, CFLs, compact fluorescent lamps. Not everyone agrees...

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...

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 devoted to food chains. This article looks at photosynthesis and the loss of energy from plants to animals throughout the food chain. How this limits the number of animals that can survive on the energy fixed by a patch of vegetation is explained. Foraging characteristics and how many animals can...

This Catalyst article investigates the development of better, more energy-efficient solar cells. Every minute enough sunlight strikes the Earth to power our civilisation for a year, yet less than 1% of global energy generation is provided by solar energy. Solar cells convert sunshine directly to electricity, but to...

A Catalyst article about wood as a renewable source of energy. Wood and biomass products could be used to generate electricity in the UK, and the article looks at the advantages and disadvantages of doing this and the technologies such energy generation would require.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE...

A Catalyst article looking at the use of plant cells to generate electricity via photosynthesis. This branch of science is called biophotovoltaics. The Sun is the ultimate source of energy for almost all life on Earth and harnessing this energy is one of the great scientific and technological challenges....

This research article published in 2012 in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching investigates the effectiveness of an integrated science and literacy approach at primary school level. Teachers in 94 fourth-grade (Year 5) classrooms in one US Southern state participated.

Half of the teachers in...

A Catalyst article about light emitting diodes and how they are more energy efficient than existing light bulbs which waste most of the energy they receive. The article explains how LEDs work and how they can be applied in traffic lights. Creating white light from LEDs is difficult and the article looks at possible...

A Catalyst article looking at renewable energy. To tackle climate change and all the challenges imposed by the need to find alternative and reliable energy sources, there is one major resource that has remained untapped until now: wave power. This article describes the size of this resource and presents the leading...

This Catalyst article examines the differences between fossil fuels and biofuels. At present, fossil fuels are used to provide most of our global energy requirements. Fossil fuels are a finite resource as they take millions of years to form and the remaining supplies are being used at a greater rate than can be...

This CLIS report was intended to provide a longer term perspective on changes taking place in students’ understanding over the compulsory school years. The aim of the study was to inform teachers and curriculum designers about the ideas that students bring to and...

Global project ideas are based around Practical Action’s work, which uses science and technology to address global issues such as energy, water and food. They give students a real insight into how science and technology can be used to tackle challenges faced by communities in the developing world, and how they can...

A Catalyst article about devising better, more energy-efficient lighting. In particular the article focuses on LEDs. Like food, water, clothing and shelter, light is essential to daily life and is needed by most people for most of their waking hours. The article explains how LEDs work and how they are made.

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