Impact of Solar Power

Produced by Solar Spark, this activity allows students to consider the impacts of an available source of electricity on communities in developing nations. People who have unreliable or no access to electricity find their lives changed for the better if they do have access to reliable electricity. One of the ways of...

Solar Cells and Light Absorption

Produced by Solar Spark, this activity looks at the relationship between light and absorption in solar cells. Using a photovoltaic cell and different colour acetate sheets, it demonstrates the ability of solar cells to absorb at different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum and shows how the more it can...

Key Stage Three: Space Science

These resources from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) cover the QCA Key Stage Three unit of work 7L 'The Solar System and beyond' through an 'ideas and evidence' approach. It is a unique opportunity to use contemporary information and images.

Each lesson is designed to last an hour, but...

Pixel your space: geometry behind science and art images

This resource, aimed at primary learners, links mathematics, art and science. Children explore how how the number of pixels affects an image and how images from space have become clearer as technology has advanced. They then...

Atacama Desert

Astrobiologist Dr. Lewis Dartnell talks from the Atacama Desert about a research trip to find extremophiles that might give scientists some clues as to the kind of life that may exist on the surface of Mars.  Lewis shows how quartz can act as a natural sunscreen to enable cyanobacteria to grow in the dry desert...

Astrobiology

Dr Claire Cousins and Mark Fox-Powell explain how scientists look at life that exists in extreme environments on Earth, to see what kind of life scientists might see on the surface of Mars.  This knowledge helps scientists plan the best target for a rover.

Professor Cockell takes us through the astrobiology...

Why we explore

Planetary scientist, Professor Andrew Coates, explains why scientists look for the evidence of signs of past life on Mars.  He talks about the history of Mars and the current harsh environment on the planet. This video is part of a series of ten which look at the one of the elements of the European Space Agency’s...

Collaborative science

Professor Sanjeev Gupta explains how scientists from many different disciplines have been brought together for the European Space Agency Aurora programme.  Scientists and engineers also speak about how exciting it is to be working on a search for life on other planets. 

This video is part of a series of ten...

Raman spectroscopy

Dr. Lewis Dartnell takes a sample from the Atacama desert, to the Open University, to be analysed by a Raman spectrometer.  The spectrometer shows the organic compounds that Lewis found on the quartz, as well as the composition of the quartz itself.

This video is part of a series of ten which look at the one...