Motion 11-14
From the Institute of Physics, this resource provides extensive teacher guidance and suggested classroom activities to support the teaching of: • Speed • Resultant force zero predicts constant speed • Resultant non-zero - changes in speed Each topic is explored from the following perspectives: • The…
Machines 11-14
From the Institute of Physics, this resource provides extensive teacher guidance and suggested classroom activities to support the teaching of: • Levers • Pressure Each topic is explored from the following perspectives: • The physics narrative explains the physics of the topic using text, diagrams and video…
Electric Circuits 11-14
From the Institute of Physics, this resource provides extensive teacher guidance and suggested classroom activities to support the teaching of: • Modelling simple electrical loops • Adding elements to circuits • Power and voltage Each topic is explored from the following perspectives: • The physics…
Magnetism 11-14
From the Institute of Physics, this resource provides extensive teacher guidance and suggested classroom activities to support the teaching of: • Exploring magnets • Electromagnets at work Each topic is explored from the following perspectives: • The physics narrative explains the physics of the topic using…
Exo-planets
Finding exoplanets Exoplanets are planets outside our own solar system. Find out how scientists use ingenious methods to spot them. Goldilocks zone Finding the right conditions to support life is a delicate balance, and scientists are on the look out for exoplanets in the ‘Goldilocks zone’ – Not too hot, and…
Life in Our Solar System
Life in the extremes Microbes can survive in the most hostile and inhospitable environments. Might similar places in our solar system be able to support them too? Why are scientists interested in Mars? Why are scientists interested in Mars? Four scientists talk about why they are interested in the red planet, and how they plan…
Are We Alone?
It really is a small world We live in a global network of diverse communities, sharing resources, ideas and technology. As a species, we have always looked to the sky and asked ‘are we alone?’ A sample of one So are we alone? The simple answer is ‘yes’. Right now, we are alone. Despite all our searching…
Key Stage Three Posters
These posters from the National Physical Laboratory are ideal for the Key Stage Three classroom. The accuracy and precision poster explains the difference between the two concepts. These ideas are equally applicable for Key Stages Four and Five. The sound poster explains the terminology of volume (amplitude) and frequency…
Key Stage Two Posters
These posters from the National Physical Laboratory are ideal for the Key Stage Two classroom. All three posters suggest everyday objects that could be measured in the classroom. The length poster looks at the millimetre, centimetre, metre and kilometre and the conversions between them. The mass poster looks at grams and kilograms. The…
Fact Sheets
These fact sheets, from the National Physical Laboratory, are ideal posters for the classroom. They include illustrations and images to accompany the text. The following curriculum areas are covered Acoustics: sound, frequency and ultrasound Einstein: relativity, mass energy relation and speed Electricity: current and voltage Ionising…
Forces and Springs
This resource from Physicists in Primary Schools (PIPS) supports the teaching of forces and springs at Key Stage Two. A presentation introduces springs and explores the elastic and inelastic properties of materials. A whole class activity focuses on applying different forces to 'stretchimals' (stretchy toy animals).…
Sunlight and Space Travel
This resource from Physicists in Primary Schools (PIPS) supports the teaching of Earth, Sun and Moon and light and shadows at Key Stage Two. A presentation introduces light and how shadows are formed leading into an investigation. It moves on to look at the spin of the Earth and how we have day and night, the orbit of the Earth…
Earth and the Solar System
This resource from Physicists in Primary Schools (PIPS) supports the teaching of Earth and Space at Key Stage Two. A presentation introduces Earth and the planets of our solar system, with an activity in which children help demonstrate the relative sizes of planets and the distances between them. It moves on to look at our galaxy…
Light
This resource from Physicists in Primary Schools (PIPS) supports the teaching of light at Key Stage Two. A presentation introduces sources of light and how we see them, demonstrating how we see objects, reflection of light, composition of white light and primary colours. The presentation is interspersed with class experiments,…
Sound
This resource from Physicists in Primary Schools (PIPS) supports the teaching of sound at Key Stage Two. A presentation looks at vibrating objects as the sources of sound and at how sound travels as a wave. It demonstrates the types of material through which sound can travel and how frequency is affected by the size of a vibrating…
Forces and Magnets
This resource from Physicists in Primary Schools (PIPS) supports the teaching of magnets at Key Stage Two. A presentation introduces class investigations on magnetic materials and on the forces of attraction and repulsion using bar magnets. It demonstrates how to make a compass and looks at the Earths’ magnetic field. The…
Forces and Gravity
This resource from Physicists in Primary Schools (PIPS) supports the teaching of forces and gravity at Key Stage Two. A presentation introduces pushes and pulls, gravity and weight, demonstrating forces acting on falling objects and how to measure force using forcemeters. It also looks at gravity on the Moon and how planets orbit…
Electricity
This resource from Physicists in Primary Schools (PIPS) supports the teaching of electricity at Key Stage Two. A presentation looks at simple circuits, electrical insulators and conductors, use of materials relating to their conductivity and electrical safety. Throughout the presentation there are class experiments, games and…
Passive House
Heating accounts for over half of the energy used in homes in the UK. This Catalyst article looks at buildings designed to cut heating demand almost to zero. There are over 70,000 passive houses in Europe – just a few of them in the UK. To be described as ‘passive’, a house must meet strict criteria for energy…
Extremophiles - How to Find Life on Mars
This Catalyst article looks at life in extreme environments on Earth which can suggest how life might exist on Mars. One of the developments in recent years that really opened up scientists’ eyes to the possibility of life on Mars has been the realization of just how adaptable and versatile life on Earth is. The extremophiles…
Ice - Water - Steam
This Catalyst article describes an experiment in which, using a microwave oven, water can be boiled in a cup made of ice, allowing all three states of water to be seen at once. The article explains what equipment needed to carry out the experiment, instructions, and a detailed explanation of why it works.
Mount Etna - Europe's Biggest Volcano
This Catalyst article takes a look at Mount Etna on the Italian island of Sicily, the biggest and tallest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world. The article explores the geology of the volcano, its history and the local habitat surrounding it including how the volcanic conditions create rich fertile soil.
A Century of Crystallography
This poster, from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, celebrates 100 years since two scientists in the UK pioneered a technique for crystallography. Crystallography uses x-rays to create a diffraction pattern to examine the atomic structure of crystals. The poster explains Bragg’s Law, which allows the calculation…
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…
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…
Activities
This resource contains a number of ideas for both teaching about space and for using space as a context for learning in other subject areas. They are: • Poems - using different types of poems in science and some space poetry words. • Songs and music - lists of songs concerning space and examples of space songs from…
Lesson Ideas and Examples of Children's Work
This contains detailed notes and lesson ideas on how one teacher used the space images and the Spooky Space Sounds presentation as a basis for a range of cross curricular work. The cross-curricular work includes non-fiction writing, speaking and listening, narrative, and music composition. There are also examples of children’s…
Our Address
This game invites children to work as a team to build up a sequential model of the Universe in stages, each stage being many times larger in scale than the last. The resource contains copies of the pictures (as PDF files) and detailed teachers' notes. There is a set of solutions as a PowerPoint presentation. This activity…
Crater Shadows
This activity involves perspective, modelling, light and shadow. Close up photographs of the Moon’s surface show all sorts of interesting features. Craters are amongst the most interesting, especially when the Sun’s light grazes low across the lunar landscape. The aim of the exercise is to recreate a realistic lunar…
Selenia in the Dead Sea Adventure
Learn about the properties of solids and liquids and dissolving in this colourful comic aimed at students in Key Stage Two. Written to promote enquiry skills in a context, it focuses on planning investigative work and evaluating evidence before carrying out an investigation on the different densities of salt and fresh water. This…
Selenia and the Victorian Adventure
Learn about the forces of air resistance and gravity in this colourful comic aimed at Key Stage Two. Written to promote scientific enquiry, it includes an air resistance investigation to find which is the best shape and size for a parachute. It also focuses on asking questions that can be investigated scientifically. This comic,…
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