Extra Resources

A variety of resources, from the Association for Science Education (ASE): a model spreadsheet exploring sound waves, two articles from Catalyst magazine, Hunt the Transmitter activity and Reading Rain Radars.

Sound Waves is a good example building spreadsheet models that students can interact with. Contributed by Simon Waters, Park Community School, this spreadsheet allows students to manipulate wavelength and amplitude. Please note that the spreadsheet uses Macros – when prompted by your computer click ‘enable’.

Catalyst magazine is produced by Philip Allan Updates. It offers:
Specially-written articles to help students get to grips with the key topics in GCSE science.
Regular features to help students develop skills and understanding. Useful advice for students preparing for exams.

Two articles, which follow the Only Connect? theme, are included here.

Hunt the Transmitter
This activity is designed to help students think about how mobile phone signals reach their handset and what sort of difficulties face telecommunications planners. All sorts of elements in the urban environment can get in the way of the radio signals that carry our conversations - tall buildings, trees, hills even heavy rain and snow.

In this exercise, students are asked to work in small teams of 4 or 5, each team representing a different fictional mobile phone company. Each team must decide where to place mobile phone transmitters on a map of Phoneville to ensure that all the potential customers receive a good signal. They need to avoid tall buildings or heavily wooded areas, to minimise interference between transmitters and to keep to a budget of £250,000. Depending on age, students usually take 20 to 30 minutes to complete the task to their satisfaction.

Reading Rain Radars
This activity aims to introduce students to the idea of using radars to look at the weather. A network of weather radars up and down the country tracks weather systems as they move across the UK. These brightly coloured radar images brighten up daily TV forecasts, showing everything from light drizzle to torrential rain.

The Chilbolton Observatory in Hampshire houses pioneering weather radars, used by researchers to hone the techniques that bring the latest images to our screens. One of the most sophisticated high-frequency radars on the site, the 94 GHz cloud radar, collects detailed data from clouds and rain as they pass overhead. This data builds up into colour-coded images that feature everything from clouds of ice particles to clouds of insects.

Hunt the Transmitter and Reading Rain Radar, two activities based around the theme of communication, were produced by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

HEALTH and SAFETY
Any use of a resource that includes a practical activity must include a risk assessment. Please note that collections may contain ARCHIVE resources, which were developed at a much earlier date. Since that time there have been significant changes in the rules and guidance affecting laboratory practical work. Further information is provided in our Health and Safety guidance.

• URL: http://stem.org.uk/rxh8