Skill 6.4 Designing a Scientific Research Poster
These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, gives students an opportunity to design and produce a science poster similar to one that could be presented at a conference. The scientific poster format is an excellent way of presenting students’ work. It necessitates a brief and fluent presentation of…
Skill 6.2 Reflecting on Presentations
These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to reflect on a presentation they have practised and delivered. Working with a partner, they evaluate their presentations to consider points that include: • What were the key points of the presentation? • Were key points made in a clear…
Skill 6.1 Making a Good Presentation
These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to make oral presentations. Students are encouraged to prepare a short presentation and, in doing so, consider the following points: • Who are the audience? • What does their audience know about the subject of the presentation? •…
Skill 5.4 Writing a Scientific Article
These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, challenge students to write a scientific article. Students are presented with a writing brief and guidelines which contain the required structure for their article. The activity could be extended into the production of a class newspaper containing scientific articles…
Skill 5.3 Arranging a Scientific Article
These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to look at the structure of a scientific research paper. The materials contain two activities. Each relates to a scientific paper that is provided in separate sections. Students are presented with the different sections of the paper (also used in…
Skill 5.2 Structuring a Scientific Article
Produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, in this activity students examine a scientific article and answer questions which encourage them to consider: • What is the main subject? • Who are the researchers? • Why is the study interesting and important? • What questions does it address? •…
Skill 5.1 Writing a Summary
These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to consider the best way to write an abstract or a short summary. The activity is a useful learning tool as it enables students to: • organise learning materials and texts. • understand and remember information. • focus on the…
Skill 3.5 Identifying Different Types of Text
Produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, this activity helps students to further examine scientific texts. Texts can be characterised according to the type of information or knowledge they deal with. There are different kinds of texts and they can be classified and sorted in various ways. This activity focuses on four…
Skill 3.4 Making Sense of a Text
These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to identify different sections in scientific texts which help to create an order and logical progression of the information conveyed. It encourages students to look at how the information is split into several principal types and practise methods for…
Skill 3.3 Understanding the Value of Titles
Produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, this activity helps students to consider how useful and informative article titles are. During the activity, students: • browse a scientific article. • look for information such as the author, publication date and content of the abstract. • look for key words…
Skill 3.2 Deciding if an Article is Worth Reading in Detail
These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to look at a text, after an initial skim read, to judge if it is worth considering in more detail. This ‘second glance’ activity serves several aims: • It enables students to assess quickly what is the subject of the article and…
Skill 3.1 Deciding Quickly if an Article is Useful
Produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, this activity gives students the opportunity to practise quickly skim-reading a text to assess its usefulness. A guided activity asks students to quickly browse through a scientific article and extract information such as its title, author and the subject of any illustrations and…
The Placebo Effect
This investigation, provided by Planet Science, covers three lessons. The aim of the lessons is to introduce students to the concept of the placebo effect - that something which cannot have any effect does in fact have the same or similar effect as the drug or experiment being tested. This is usually due to the person being tested…
Let’s Get Detoxed: Scientific Claims from Advertising
This resource, from Planet Science, examines the claims made by AquaDetox that toxins can be extracted from the body by electrolysis of a salt solution in which feet are bathed. The lesson activities revise the way in which toxins are removed from the body naturally and use practical work to investigate and question the claims made…
Ageing
This opinion piece was written by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded researcher to provoke debate and discussion about the issue of ageing. The piece was written for the Debating Matters competition, which the ESRC sponsors, and discusses vital questions about whether extending the human lifespan should be welcomed…
The Science of Social Interaction
The Science of Social Interaction document is a one-page summary of some recent Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) research into the area of human interaction. As our society becomes ever more interconnected, with each person experiencing hundreds of social encounters every day, the way we communicate is very important.…
Energy Transfer
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 live on an area…
Quick Reactions
A Catalyst article which explores how the nervous system works. Sensitivity, the ability to respond to stimulation, is a product of nervous system activity. How nerve impulses pass around the body, and why these responses are so fast are investigated in the article. Neurones, reflexes, synapses and receptors are also looked at. This…
Fertilisers
A Catalyst article about what happens as plants grow. During their growth, plants remove compounds of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from soil which need to be replaced to maintain the soil’s fertility. For centuries farmers have used organic manures, crop rotation or ploughed in specially grown crops; today many use chemical…
Keeping Things Steady
A Catalyst article about homeostasis describing how the process enables birds and mammals to be active on cold days when other species are not. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2004, Volume 14, Issue 3. Catalyst is a science magazine for students aged 14-19 years. Annual subscriptions to print copies of the…
4/5- Publication year: 2000 - 2009
- Article
Photosynthesis
This Catalyst article looks at the process of photosynthesis, by which plants make a range of biochemical compounds. The article explains how photosynthesis actually ties in with growth. Respiration is happening all the time in all cells in all living organisms. Taken on its own, photosynthesis adds materials to the structure of…
Discovering DNA
This Catalyst article explains the code structure of DNA and looks into how it is copied across generations. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1. Catalyst is a science magazine for students aged 14-19 years. Annual subscriptions to print copies of the magazine can be purchased from Mindsets.
Drink Driving
A Catalyst article about preventing drink driving. Since 1980, the UK's government estimates it has saved over 20,000 lives by its campaign to reduce drink driving. The article looks at how this result is achieved and how the body copes with alcohol and how it breaks alcohol down. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science…
In Vitro Fertilisation
A Catalyst article about in vitro fertilisation. About one in six couples gets help from specialists because they cannot conceive. One possibility is to use in vitro fertilisation (IVF). ‘In vitro’ means ‘in glass’ and refers to the fact that fertilisation takes place in a laboratory dish or test tube, hence…
John Snow
A Catalyst article about John Snow who discovered the cause of cholera, how it spreads and how to avoid it. Snow's work is what is now referred to as epidemiology and his persistent investigative work and resulting publications resulted in health authorities using his findings. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science…
Twenty-First Century Plant Hunter
A Catalyst article about one botanist's exploratory expeditions around the world looking for new plant species. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2. Catalyst is a science magazine for students aged 14-19 years. Annual subscriptions to print copies of the magazine can be purchased…
Oxygen Supply
A Catalyst article about oxygen and how it is essential for most respiration, which goes on all the time in all live cells all living organisms. The article looks at how organisms get the oxygen they need from their surroundings and how it reaches cells. It also explores how oxygen transport is monitored, which of vital importance…
Plants and Mineral Nutrients
A Catalyst article looking at the chemicals that are in plants and trees and the role they play in the life of the plant. Starting with photosynthesis the article moves onto naturally occurring chemicals and explains why plants need fertilisers. Growing salad crops hydroponically is also examined. This article is from Catalyst:…
Kidneys
A Catalyst article discussing how the human body has to handle all sorts of variations, balancing its inputs and outputs, if it is to work efficiently. The article concentrates on one organ, the kidney, and the way it helps to keep things on an even keel through the functions of homeostasis and excretion. What happens when things…
Predators, Prey and Populations
A Catalyst article about predators. The article explores some general principles about predator–prey relationships and looks in some detail at the adaptations shown by a predatory insect being used in the control of an insect pest. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1. Catalyst is…
Dr Gillian Lockwood
A Catalyst article about the working life of Dr Gillian Lockwood, a reproductive biologist who specialises in IVF. The article looks at the ethical issues surrounding fertility treatments for problems such as polycystic ovary syndrome. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2007, Volume 17, Issue 4. Catalyst is…
Measuring Carbon Cycling
A Catalyst article looking at how to measure parts of carbon cycling as it happens in forests. Two of the processes used, flux towers and soil chambers, are described. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2007, Volume 17, Issue 4. Catalyst is a science magazine for students aged 14-19 years. Annual subscriptions…