As the number of smartphone users worldwide exceeds 2 billion, and as users update their devices with ever-increasing frequency, there are growing concerns about the impacts of smartphone manufacture and disposal on the environment and human health. In this activity, students use knowledge about Earth resources, as well as applying their working scientifically skills, […]
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 […]
Now that scientists have discovered that sugar is like an addictive drug, pressure is building for action to reduce the amount of sugar that children and young people consume in sugary drinks. In this activity, students consider the evidence for causal links between sugar consumption, obesity and disease. They then weigh up arguments for and […]
Revolutionary roads which stay snow-free, claim developers. A click of a switch they can transform the road into a car park or even sports pitches. In this activity students consider whether solar roadways are worth funding. They critique claims using reasoning and evidence, and apply what they know about generating electricity in solar cells, to make […]
In preparation for a summer holiday many people turn to sunbeds to top up their tan but could this habit be endangering their life? In this activity students are working as researchers on a TV show planning a report about the claim that sunbeds cause skin cancer. Students will use knowledge about UV light to […]
We use the viral video to raise a serious question: can we understand animal talk? ‘Bowlingual’ detects a dog’s emotions by analysing a bark’s sound waves. Students look at emerging research to decide what else the technology can do. Can we translate the sound waves into human speech? Learning objectives Apply knowledge about sound waves […]