Life in the freezer *suitable for home teaching*

If there is life elsewhere in our solar system it’s likely to live in a pretty cold environment. In this resource, students investigate the effect of antifreeze on the freezing point of water and how it can allow fragile cells to survive extreme cold. In the video, Judith Green explains how students can plan an...

Radius and Volume of Exoplanets

This activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, uses data from NASA’s Kepler space probe to determine the size of an exoplanet, and provides students with an insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the transit method of exoplanet detection.

The History of the Universe

This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, introduces the age of the current universe and what its final fate may be.

The video answers some questions...

Biodiversity and habitat loss

This resource from the European Space Agency climate change resource pack explores the topic of biodiversity and how habitat loss is a key driver of global biodiversity loss occurring today. In a series of activities students explore the importance of biodiversity focusing in particular on distributions of common...

Mike Lawton - CEO of Oxford Space Systems

Mike is part of a space engineering company building a new series of very low mass foldable structures and antennas for satellites.  Oxford Space Systems are also working on constellations of satellites that will provide real time imaging from space. 

There are two cuts of the video – one aimed at primary...

Drama: Moon Lander

This resource, from the Association for Science Education (ASE), is a play script for students studying the Solar System. The play can be used as a stimulus for students to write their own scripts exploring other bodies in the Solar System.

Written by teachers at Paddock Wood Primary School, Tonbridge, the...

Solar System Simulation Activity

This activity introduces children to simulations - modelling or acting out real-world, or maybe imaginary, situations. Linking to the teaching of space, it asks what factors need to be considered when simulating the solar system. Out of these, the children then decide what the most important things to include in...

Splitting Earth, Space Weather and Robotic Dolphins

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Sue Nelson hears about the birth of an ocean in the Afar depression in the Horn of Africa. The continental crust is being ripped apart at a phenomenal rate – one metre every year over the last five years. In...

Science In a Social CONtext: Teachers' Guide

The SISCON teachers guide gives planning help and suggested approaches to each of the units. It includes sample questions, references for further study, suggestions for field trips, experiments and discussion questions. 

Exit Planet Earth

Produced by the Centre for Science Education, this Science Assessment Task for More Able Students, comprises of two investigations with a space-related theme. Students investigate what needs to be considered if humans are to colonise our solar system.

They look at:

* forces and the force of gravity...