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KS3 - Evolution Detectives
In this lesson, students will be making and studying the properties of their own mud using pH experiments. They will be thinking about how pH affects microbes, and the ways that mudstones form, erode and break down. They will look at water, earth and air as they explore the science of evolution and wonder about how to identify traces of early life on Mars.
KS4 - A Geological Blink
In this lesson, students will be coming to grips with the geological timescale of the Earth, of life on Earth, and of human history. They will be exploring the colourful history that explains how scientists can detect the colours of creatures long dead, and identify hints of early microbial life interacting with the atmosphere and lithosphere.KS4 - Fingerprinting Mars Mud
In this lesson, students will be exploring x-ray diffraction, the analytical technique used by scientists to explore the underlying structures of muds and comparing them to their own observations. Their detective skills will come in useful when samples gathered by rovers on Mars are compared to samples from Earth’s history. Astrobiologists hope to detect traces of minerals that could be “fingerprints” of early life. This lesson is better suited to higher ability classes.KS5 - Fingerprinting First Life
In this lesson, students will be exploring x-ray diffraction, the analytical technique used by scientists to explore the underlying atomic structures of minerals, isotopic dating, and using microscopes to image microstructure.KS3 - What is nanoscale?
In this lesson students explore some of the reasons why scientists use SI units and become more familiar with the SI units for very small objects, particularly nanometres.Student worksheet
KS4 - Carbon Copy
. In this lesson students find out more about the allotropes and, in particular, the allotropes of carbon by building models.Student Worksheet
KS4 - Logically Speaking
In this activity students learn about the development of electronic components through history and learn about logic gates from their diagrams and truth tables.KS5 - Wave Machine
In this lesson students look at some of the other uses of interference (of light waves) and prepare a ‘news item’ about the recent discovery of gravitational waves.Student Worksheet