This activity is designed to engage a wider range of students. Using the principles of ‘science capital’, it makes the issue of Vitamin D deficiency highly accessible and relevant to students’ everyday experience. Rickets and other bone diseases in young people have risen 400%, Some scientists are recommending teenagers take vitamin D supplements, particularly in autumn and winter. […]
The extraction of gas from shale rock – hydraulic fracturing, or fracking – is widespread in the USA. Whilst some countries in Europe have banned fracking following concerns that substances used in the process pollute water, others want to exploit shale gas reserves to provide new – and cheap – sources of natural gas. In […]
December 2015 was the wettest month in the UK since records began and devastating floods affected thousands of people. Scientists believe climate change may have caused this extreme weather. In this sequence students apply their knowledge to create an apocalyptic weather report. Then they learn the skill of examining consequences, and judge solutions for limiting the temperature […]
Sports records are continually being broken – balls hit harder, javelins thrown further and bicycles travelling faster – but are these improvements down to the athlete or the engineering? In this activity students apply their knowledge of frictional forces to design a racing bicycle to help team GB smash more records on the cycling track […]
Turkey, Wales, Normandy and parts of Canada have recently banned the use of electronic cigarettes indoors, and the EU is considering following their example. Campaigners in support of an EU-wide ban point out that nicotine from e-cigarettes may contribute to heart disease and cancers, as well as damaging the brains of developing foetuses. In this […]
1.2 million EU citizens have signed a petition for the complete ban of animal testing. Their argument being it is both unethical and not useful. In this activity students are asked to decide whether they agree. They apply their knowledge about how asthma affects the gas exchange system to examine evidence and decide if animal […]