Resources

Silver award: comparing oral re-hydration therapies

In this independent research project students research the causes and consequences of diarrhoea and dehydration. They find out about the different treatments available for dehydration and design some experiments to compare commercial and homemade oral rehydration salts.

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Silver award: design and build a disco light

How do the lights and sound at a nightclub coordinate together? The lights appear to flash in time to the beat, and change colour with the pattern of the sound. How is the signal from a sound source such as a CD player or DJ deck converted into a pattern of lights? In this project,...

Silver award: design and build a model catamaran

In this project, students will design and build a simple model catamaran. They will then use their model to test the effectiveness of a range of different types of sail.

Silver award: design the ultimate pizza box

Students investigate the best material for a pizza box, with possible tests including:

• Thermal conductivity - Design a test to see which materials keep a pizza the hottest.
• ...

Silver award: Detecting drugs

Students research, and then try out, ways of detecting analgesic compounds in mixtures:

• Chemical tests for particular organic functional groups.

• Paper and/or thin-layer chromatography to separate and identify analgesic...

Silver award: Fraud detection using chromatography

In this project students use chromatography to detect forged cheques and other documents and various types of counterfeit goods.  They will also investigate the best solvents to extract the inks and run TLC plates in order to compare the inks from the same part of a document printed on different models of a printer...

Silver Award: Future Travel

 These materials look at three possible projects that relate to sustainable transport:

* Communications project - students gather information and produce a balanced view on the costs and benefits of using hydrogen as fuel for vehicles.

* Practical project - students investigate the factors that affect...

Silver award: Hit-and-run investigation

Students devise a procedure for investigating how mass and speed affect the length of a skid. They will need to find out what determines whether a skid leaves a skid mark, and what accident investigators can deduce from skid marks. They may like to find out how an anti-lock braking system (ABS)...

Silver award: how do fertilizers affect plant growth?

Despite the high rate of growth in rainforests the soil in these forests is poor in nutrients. The nutrients have been washed out of the soils by heavy rainfall. In this project, students are going to investigate how different kinds of compost and fertiliser affect the rate of growth of plants.

Silver award: how does cooking change pasta?

In this independent research project, students investigate how cooking pasta affects its properties and see if this is linked to how starch in pasta in altered during cooking. They can investigate the effect of...