One year on Earth - Understanding seasons

In this set of two activities, pupils will develop their understanding of seasons and the basic mechanism behind the different seasons on Earth. Pupils will learn that trees look different at different times of the year due to seasons, that seasonal changes can be seen from space and how to analyse images and...

Force of gravity

Produce by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, this booklet provides a brief overview of Newton’s law of gravitation, speed, distance and time, standard form and cosmological units. A description of Newton’s law of gravitation is supported by an online video that discusses the end of the Universe. This is followed by...

Journey times to alien worlds

Produced by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, this booklet uses the context of exoplanets and alien worlds to develop students understanding of speed, distance and time. Included is an online video that discusses where and how we might find alien worlds. Questions and answers are included that test a student’s...

The Transit Method

In this activity, developed by the Institute of Physics, students use a lamp and polystyrene balls to model how astronomers detect exoplanets using the transit method. After completing this activity, students should: *Understand that the transit of a planet in front of its star temporarily reduces the star’s...

Seeing Pink Elephants

This resource will let students see pink elephants.

When the human eye is exposed to one colour for a relatively long period of time, the cone cells will become saturated with that colour. Once the eye is exposed to a broad range of colours again, the brain will pick up weaker signals from that colour and...

Cooking a Comet

Comets are considered to be time capsules containing information about the conditions of the early Solar System. In order to understand what comets are, where they come from, and their influence on the evolution of Earth, it is necessary to find out what material they contain. This teacher demonstration and student...

Marble-ous Ellipses

In order to understand the orbits of planets, comets and other celestial bodies, it is necessary to examine the principles of how gravity, and the velocity of an object, interact to produce an orbit. It is a common misconception among students that planetary orbits are circular. This practical activity gives a...

Special Relativity

This animated clip describes Einstein’s theory of special relativity: if the speed of light is constant then time and space must be experienced differently, depending on the observer. Richard Feynman showed how this can be proved using a moving light clock compared to stationary clock. 

What Keeps Us Stuck to the Earth?

Alice wonders why we don’t float out into space. Their thoughts lead on to the idea that gravity is an acceleration and that they may need Einstein’s ideas of space-time to explain why they are accelerating. This clip could provide a lead in to topics such as relativity, acceleration and gravitational force. 

Training in Space

In this activity pupils will be able to discuss various ways of simulating gravity in space and the importance for maintaining a healthy body for the return to Earth. Working in teams of four, pupils should choose their favourite exercise or sport and adapt it for space. They should identify the forces required for...