Members' Blogs

Celebrating Mole Day in the STEM Community

By Tim Bradbury posted 22-10-2025
Every year on 23 October, between 6:02 am and 6:02 pm, the chemistry world celebrates Mole Day. The date is a nod to Avogadro’s number (6.02 × 10²³), a constant that underpins so much of chemistry. However Mole Day is more than a quirky date in the calendar. It is a chance to explore one of the most challenging concepts for students, to make the abstract tangible, and to bring creativity into the classroom. Why celebrate Mole Day? As Sarah Sephton explained in her STEM Community blog , many students see mole calculations as a source of worry. A dedicated celebration provides an opportunity to slow down, unpick the concept, and even have some fun with it. ...

Evolving How We Teach Evolution

By Linda Crouch posted 11-07-2025
How confident are you in teaching evolution? Whether you're a classroom teacher, home educator, or work in an educational setting such as a museum, the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath wants to support you in teaching this fundamental concept clearly and effectively. At the recent National Secondary Science Conference, Beth Morillo-Hall from the Milner Centre shared exciting developments—including free training and classroom resources designed to deepen understanding and spark curiosity in evolution. If you’re not yet familiar with the Centre’s research published in 2017, it’s worth a closer look. The findings revealed that: ...

Agriculture: the giant, muddy, real-world lab you’re missing

By Linda Crouch posted 26-05-2025
There’s one place where science quite literally comes to life—and that’s the farm . At a recent chat with two farmers (Anne and Tom), it became crystal clear: farms are scientific goldmines . We’re talking ecosystems, biodiversity, microbes, weather patterns, genetics, soil chemistry, business maths, engineering, and even a bit of psychology (mainly yours, as you try to herd 30 pupils past a field of curious cattle). Yet, many students leave school without even the faintest idea where their food comes from—beyond “the supermarket”—let alone how farming links to climate change, sustainability, or the periodic table. Anne, a tenant arable farmer ...

🌍 Earth Day – Powering Up for the Planet 22nd April

By Linda Crouch posted 11-04-2025
Back to school and straight into saving the planet! Earth Day 2025 falls in the first week of the summer term – the perfect time to plug students back in with a jolt of climate awareness and curriculum-linked learning. This year’s Earth Day theme, "Our Power, Our Planet," offers a brilliant hook for revisiting renewable energy – or introducing it in a meaningful, real-world context. Whether you're teaching KS3, GCSE, or aiming to inspire a sixth-form think tank, Earth Day offers a powerful platform to explore sustainability, climate change, and future career paths. 🌱 Greener Futures, Brighter Careers A recent report from ...

Quick Revision Wins

By Linda Crouch posted 07-04-2025
Did you miss the first AI sprint? If not, don't worry, the recording is on the STEM Community website here: https://community.stem.org.uk/browse/scl-od In it Darren Coxon walks you through how to create a quick revision website, and supporting quiz, from a piece of text using two free AI-tools. Gamma app is known as a free website that will create presentations for you - but did you know that it will also create a website for you? Simply paste in your piece of text, or upload a document - and opt to make a website. If you use the same text in quizziz you can also create a quiz that can be embedded into the revision website -checking your students recall and ...

👶 Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures – World Health Day, 7 April 2025

By Linda Crouch posted 28-03-2025
A timely prescription for science lessons that make a difference This World Health Day, the World Health Organization is shining a spotlight on a topic that truly matters – maternal and newborn health . The 2025 theme, “Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures,” reminds us that a strong start in life isn’t just about biology – it’s about opportunity, equality, and survival. As the WHO puts it: "The health of mothers and babies is the foundation of healthy families and communities, helping ensure hopeful futures for us all." So why not let this global campaign deliver more than just awareness? For UK secondary science educators, it’s ...

NEW! Inclusion in practice website - call for information

By Linda Crouch posted 20-03-2025
Just in case you haven't seen it, I wanted to let you know that your help is needed to build a repository good practice around inclusion - https://inclusioninpractice.org.uk/about/ As the websites says ' We are now inviting teachers, school leaders, and those involved in delivering education to contribute their experiences and insights through our open submission process. Over the coming months, your examples will help us to develop actionable insights to support schools across the country.' As Tom Rees, the chair of the DfE's expert advisory group for inclusion, says " Inclusive education is a national priority—and a shared responsibility. While there ...

Upcoming Awareness days – and Amazing FREE Biology resources

By Linda Crouch posted 21-02-2025
The week beginning 3 rd March is a busy week. Not only is it National Careers Week , but we also have World Wildlife Day on 3 rd March and World Engineering Day on 4 th March – all relevant to STEM educators. The week ends with World Book Day on 7th March. Don’t forget the following week is British Science Week - see the STEM Community Live Q&A recording here which talks about how to incorporate BSW into your lessons https://community.stem.org.uk/browse/scl-od Whilst its unlikely that you will celebrate each one of these events in your science lessons, STEM Learning’s resource collection makes it really easy for you to find resources ...

National Careers Week

By Linda Crouch posted 17-02-2025
By far the easiest way to fit Careers Week into your teaching is to show short videos of different jobs and careers – and STEM Learning have come up trumps with their collection of resources for National Careers Week. The videos are up to about 5mins, so not too long and easy enough to squeeze into your lessons. If you find any gems that link to your curriculum, remember to add them to your SoW before you forget! Go to https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/collection/533809/national-careers-week-3rd-8th-march-2025 To save you going down a rabbit hole and not reappearing for quite a while, I’ve listed below the videos that are available. I’ve tried to remove ...

Let Your Creative Juices Flow!

By Linda Crouch posted 07-02-2025
Many young people tend to see subjects in black and white. Over the years in science teaching, I’ve often heard students say things like, “Science isn’t for me—I’m more creative than that.” This simple dichotomy between the arts and sciences—that science (and engineering) is somehow devoid of creativity—is simply not true. We must help our young people understand that there is science in art and art in science. After all, to be creative means “producing or using original and unusual ideas” (Cambridge Dictionary). Scientists and engineers are constantly striving to find novel and innovative solutions to complex problems. In fact, the challenge of designing ...

National Apprenticeship Week – Step into the NHS Resources

By Linda Crouch posted 05-02-2025
Next week (wb Mon 10 th Feb) is National Apprenticeship week – and why not recommend a career in the NHS? A 2 minute video that will be easy to include into lessons – short sound bites from young apprentices in the NHS which I think will appeal to many students is here: https://www.stepintothenhs.nhs.uk/careers/videos/apprenticeships Show your young people the roles that other like them have taken up (if you can’t see it, you can’t be it!) here – this is text based information so would provide an opportunity for paired or popcorn reading in your lesson https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/career-planning/study-and-training/nhs-apprenticeships/apprenticeship-real-life-stories ...

STEM Community Featured resources

By Linda Crouch posted 03-02-2025
If you click on the ‘featured resources’ link at the top of the STEM Community ( https://community.stem.org.uk/browse/featuredresources ) you’ll find quick access each month to relevant resources from STEM Learning’s e-resource library for upcoming events and celebration days, as well as links to new resources. I particularly like the new resource ‘Investigating the distribution of one of the world's tiniest trees’ from Birmingham Institute for Forest Research (BIFoR) - https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/elibrary/resource/542019/investigating-distribution-one-worlds-tiniest-trees . There’s a virtual visit to the mountains of Norway to carry out field work ...

Quick Science Dept Wins for National Apprenticeship Week 10th -16th February

By Linda Crouch posted 31-01-2025
Why bother with National Apprenticeship Week? If, like me, you work in a school that serves a community with a strong working-class heritage, you may find that some of your most capable students opt out of higher education due to concerns about accumulating student debt. This is why National Apprenticeship Week is so important to feature in your registrations, lessons, and assemblies in school – it can help to show your young people that there is a path to degree-level qualifications, and beyond, that doesn’t incur student debt. To help you out, here is a quick review of some of the resources that you and your Science department may find useful for National ...

Born to engineer resource review

By Linda Crouch posted 17-01-2025
Born to Engineer Resources https://www.stem.org.uk/elibrary/collection/4201 This is a collection of short videos (3 to 5mins) which are part of the International Women in Science collection, promoting engineering However some will also enhance your teaching schemes for KS3 to KS5 science nicely! Each resource has a set of linked tasks / worksheets that could be used to follow up. Of particular note are: The 4minute video on Cancer and bioengineering which showcases the work of Dr Eleanor Stride to develop precision delivery of chemotherapy drugs in order to reduce side effects is powerful and would be effective in a lesson or assembly ...

Build Science Identity and Capital with a quick win

By Linda Crouch posted 17-01-2025
Date: February 11th, 2025 Event: International Women in Science Day 2025 Get Involved: It’s been well documented that as teachers we should support students in developing their science capital, as this helps to develop their science identity. At the end of primary school nearly a fifth of young people express an interest in becoming a scientist. Professor Louise Archer explained in her Keynote talk at ASE recently that, as students move through secondary school, the proportion aspiring to be a scientist drops – with the profile of those interested in science becoming increasingly male and privileged over time. Attainment is an important ...

Chemistry is a piece of cake

By Linda Crouch posted 06-01-2025
Too many years ago, at a job interview for a research scientist post, I remember being asked if I was a good cook - and naively answering no.... somehow I still got the post, but the parallels between science practical work and cooking are clear to me now, if not to the 20 year old me. Cooking is all about chemical reactions that you can smell, taste, and (sometimes) burn. From emulsions in mayonnaise to the volcanic eruptions of baking soda in a cake, it’s a hands-on way to see chemical reactions in action - have a look at these excellent videos by Dr Joanna Buckley here . Recently, I started teaching food to a Year 9 group. Now, I’m no Mary Berry, but ...

Technicians ARE magicians after all!

By Linda Crouch posted 06-01-2025
I thought I'd take a quick flick through the technician tip competition entries, just in case there were a couple of things that I could share with our technician - and nearly an hour later I'm still looking at it! Please do encourage your technicians to have a look through - even very experienced technicians might find one or two that they haven't come across before. The competition thread is here . Here are a few that I think are great, but there are a number of other really useful tips too in the competition thread that could save time, or frustration. Colour coded reagent bottles - this was mentioned a few times - either colour-coded writing on labels ...

Maths resources from Generation Logistics and STEM Learning

By Elizabeth Hooper posted 19-06-2024
Do you want to show students how maths is applied in the real world? Check out these latest maths resources , from Generation Logistics and STEM Learning, created for students aged 14 to 19 which ask them to solve real-life problems faced by the logistics industry. Great for small groups to discuss information and decide upon the strategies to use to find a solution. These resources have been created as part of Generation Logistics week - running from 24-28 June. This week of videos and a virtual careers fair highlight the huge array of job roles and careers available in the logistics industry and the routes into those careers. The Generation Logistics ...

Bring your students to the Summer Science Exhibition this July

By Ajay Sharman posted 15-03-2024
School group booking for the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition is now open via Eventbrite here Visiting school groups will be able to explore the whole of the Exhibition between 3 – 5 July, alongside the visiting public. The content of the Exhibition is best suited to groups of STEM students aged 14+ at GCSE and A-level (or equivalent) who actively wish to pursue a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). During their visit, school groups will have the opportunity to talk directly with a wide range of researchers at 14 flagship exhibit stands and also engage with a variety of publicly accessible interactive activities ...

Enter the Cyber Explorers Cup 2024

By Ajay Sharman posted 17-01-2024
Could your students save Cyber City from attack? Picture this: Cyber City is under threat, and your school has the chance to save the day. Herbert the Hacker, enroute to prison, has cunningly left behind a trail of intricate digital puzzles within the city. These mysteries hold the key to saving Cyber City and its citizens. The question is, is your team up for the challenge? Enter here Enter the Cyber Explorers Cup 2024 This isn't just a competition for students aged 11-14; it's an opportunity to inspire and nurture the next generation of cyber security enthusiasts. Beyond competition, students gain hands-on experience in critical thinking, teamwork, ...