Tunnelworks: Introductory Video
Tunnelworks is a series of teaching and learning resources linking mathematics and science to the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, a major new sewer that will help protect the River Thames from increasing pollution. Background to the project is given in this introductory video which explains when and how the sewer system, which still…
Dye-sensitized Solar Energy
The activity, from the Biomimicry 3.8 Institute, provides an illustration of biomimetic technology. Students explore how to produce electricity by constructing a dye-sensitised solar cell at ambient temperatures, using a few simple materials. In the manufacturing of most solar cells, silica must be heated to separate the silicon…
Concrete Without Quarries
This practical activity, from the Biomimicry 3.8 Institute, allows students to explore how nature creates calcium carbonate, a compound needed to manufacture cement, at ambient temperatures and using abundant, readily available raw materials. The cement used in concrete is manufactured from calcium carbonate, which is extracted from…
Colour Mixing
This video from the Royal Institution describes how colour mixing works. Colours of light cannot be mixed in physics but different cones in your eyes are sensitive to different colours. The brain interprets a mixture between the two as a colour somewhere between the two. In the case of magenta, your brain invents this colour…
Cloud Chamber
This video from the Royal Institution shows tracks within a cloud chamber. A supersaturated layer of alcohol vapour exists just above the floor of the chamber and the ionisation radiation causes vapour to condense along the path of the radiation. An Americium source is introduced into the chamber so that tracks from alpha radiation…
Tales from the Prep Room: Liquid Oxygen
This video, from the Royal Institution, shows how liquid oxygen is made using an oxygen gas cylinder and liquid nitrogen to condense it to a liquid. Pouring liquid oxygen between the poles of a magnet demonstrates how the unpaired electrons within the material have a residual dipole and can act as a weak magnet. This called paramagnetism.…
Tales From the Prep Room: Alkali Metals
This video from the Royal Institution shows how a small piece of sodium on the end of a match head will burn if a few drops of water are added to the sodium. All alkali metals are very reactive in air and with water. Potassium is more reactive than sodium, and the video shows how only one drop of water can make the potassium burn…
Lithium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. In this short film, physicist Jim Al-Khalili focuses his attention on the very strange nucleus from an isotope of lithium that only exists due to the…
Potassium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Internet technologist Ben Hammersley explores the powerful properties of the "really awesome" element, potassium. This soft metal is kept…
Oxygen
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Dame Jane Goodall expresses her love of oxygen and its vital role in sustaining all animal and human life. Having studied chimpanzees in the rainforests…
Copper
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Jerry Hall demonstrates the beauty and versatility of her favourite element, copper. Copper turns green when exposed to the atmosphere on buildings,…
Nitrogen
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. In this short film, children's presenters Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood (Dick and Dom) explain why they are big fans of nitrogen. Not only…
Hydrogen and Oxygen
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Demo developer and science presenter Fran Scott has two favourite elements: hydrogen and oxygen. She demonstrates the explosive nature of hydrogen…
Alkali Metals
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Whilst on the set of Science Club, presenter Dara O'Briain explains why he is such a fan of the group of elements known as the alkali metals.…
Veritasium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. From the roof of the Royal Institution, Derek Muller from the Veritasium YouTube channel stresses the need to communicate the beauty and importance…
Carbon and Phosphorus
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Nobel Laureate Sir Harry Kroto relives his discovery of the third form of carbon, the Buckminsterfullerene, before talking about another ground-breaking…
Boron
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Comedian and songstress Helen Arney gives element number five an image makeover. She describes how the other elements in the periodic table have names…
Sodium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. University of Nottingham chemist Professor Martyn Poliakoff reveals a symbolic attachment to his favourite element, sodium. As a child, his mother’s…
Caesium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Despite forgetting his periodic table party trick, presenter Dallas Campbell explains why travelling around the world made him partial to element number…
Praseodymium and Neodymium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements in the periodic table that really excite and inspire people. Chemist Andrea Sella, from the University College London, picks praseodymium and neodymium as his favourite elements. He explains…
Carbon
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Structural biologist Professor Stephen Curry talks about the multiple forms of carbon - an element vital for life on earth but one that could also…
Calcium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Helen Czerski explains why her favourite element is vital for life, but also important in death because 'it sticks around'. Many organisms…
Quarks
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Professor Brian Cox ponders whether an advanced knowledge of sub-atomic particles will one day allow us to dispense with the notion of chemistry. He…
Helium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. From the floor of the Science Museum in London, Roger Highfield explains why the scarcity of his favourite element should concern us all. Roger describes…
Beryllium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. In this short film, biochemist Liz Bonnin looks to the stars for her pick from the periodic table. The properties of beryllium make it the perfect…
Oxygen
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. In this short film, former Christmas Lecturer Professor Mark Miodownik admits an addiction to his favourite element, oxygen. Making up almost 21% of…
Mercury
Andrew Marmery and Olympia Brown, from the Royal Institution, celebrate filming the Christmas Lectures by sharing their love of element number 80. Mercury, called quicksilver by the ancient alchemists, is the only metal which is liquid at room temperature. Olympia shows how beautiful the metal looks as she moves it around a…
Thorium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Physicist Suzie Sheehy demonstrates how element thorium could be used as a fuel in future nuclear reactors. Unlike uranium, thorium needs to be bombarded…
Robert Smyth Academy
The chemistry of UV reactive beads provides activities from Key Stage Two to Post-16, using photochromic beads. The beads can be used to investigate the effect of temperature on the rates of reaction, where the beads are returned to their normal colour. At Post-16 level, the activation energy/enthalpy can be calculated using the…
Magic Gas
Simon Quinnell, from the National Science Learning Centre, demonstrates the properties of gases in this surprising Christmas table experiment. He drops an effervescent digestion tablet into a wine glass containing some water to generate carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is heavier than air, and can be poured over a candle flame.…
Jumping Candle Flame
Simon Quinnell, from the National Science Learning Centre, shows how to carry out some ‘magic’ at the Christmas dinner table using a candle and a match. After letting the candle burn for a minute, Simon blows the flame out so that the smoke continues to rise above it. Then when a match is placed near the wick, the…
Jelly Liquidiser
In this Christmas table experiment, Simon Quinnell, from the National Science Learning Centre, demonstrates why pineapple should not be added to jelly. When he adds pineapple to a bowl of jelly, the jelly liquefies due to the action of an enzyme in the fruit which breaks down the gelatin. This is an example of a defence…
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