Planet Science Sci Teach

jump to main menu

science hot spots... stories to intrigue & inspire

Science isn't confined to the school lab as we all know. It’s alive and kicking all over the globe!

Aimed principally at Key Stage Three pupils, these are science stories from the past and the present to intrigue and inspire. Each story has activities, teachers’ notes and almost all have a practical activity.

Please Note: If any teachers would like to adapt them for younger pupils then do be aware of the risk/safety implications and consult a book such as the 2001 edition of Be Safe! by the ASE.

texas, usa

Calling Batman! Can malaria be defeated by building bat towers?

Click here to download PDF worksheet - File size approx. 130k


At the turn of the century, Dr Charles Campbell, a doctor in San Antonio believed he had found a unique way to eradicate malaria from swamplands around the city...

<< Back to Top

princetown, usa

Can you really be a burger addict?

Click here to download PDF worksheet - File size approx. 550k

Last July, a 56-year-old American diabetic and double heart-attack victim sued several fast food chains claiming they were partly to blame for his illnesses. He claims that having eaten for years in their restaurants, he should have been told that the food he was eating was damaging his health...

<< Back to Top

egypt, 1st century BC

Dissolving 1 : The world's most expensive cocktail!

Click here to download PDF worksheet - File size approx. 470k

The first in a series of stories about dissolving...

All over the world statues are disappearing bit by bit. Statues that have lasted hundreds or even thousands of years are dissolving at a rapid rate. In Japan a statue of Saigo-san is weeping. Who or what could be the culprit?

<< Back to Top

athens, greece

Dissolving 2 : Are we all losing our marbles?

Click here to download PDF worksheet - File size approx. 600k

The second in a series of stories about dissolving...

The story goes that sometime during the first century B.C., the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, bet her lover, Marc Antony, that she could invite him to the most expensive dinner in history.

<< Back to Top

copenhagen, denmark

Dissolving 3 : WWII tale of hiding Nobel medals from the Nazis.

Click here to download PDF worksheet - File size approx. 80k

The third in a series of stories about dissolving...

Gold is one of the Earth’s most un-reactive metals. Gold objects dug up, after hundreds and even thousands of years, are often still shiny. While some metals react easily with acids, it takes a special mixture of very strong acids called ‘Aqua Regia’ to dissolve Gold.

<< Back to Top

london, uk

Dissolving 4 : John Haigh the gruesome 'Acid Bath Murderer'.

Click here to download PDF worksheet - File size approx. 90k

The fourth in a series of stories about dissolving...

John Haigh, the notorious ‘Acid Bath Murderer’, killed 9 people during the 1940’s... then dissolved them!

<< Back to Top

university of the united arab emirates

Is Jojoba oil the new black gold?

Click here to download PDF worksheet - File size approx. 720k

Click here to download Dr Selim's Q&A - File size approx. 90k

In 2000, two Indian scientists – Sudhir Ghatnekar and Mandar Ghatnekar – told farmers to ‘cultivate their lands with jojoba to harness liquid gold in the new millennium’...

<< Back to Top

jaipur, india

Colourful Art meets science.

Click here to download PDF worksheet - File size approx. 220k

What’s your favourite colour for clothing, or maybe your favourite paint? Where do they get their colours from? What is used to make these colours for paints and dyes? Do they come from plants, flowers, minerals – or from something else?

These stories and activities from around the world will help you to find some of the answers…

<< Back to Top

northern india

The problem with traditional cooking stoves.

Click here to download PDF worksheet - File size approx. 260k

The Parminders live in a simple mud house and all of their cooking is done on a traditional stove called a chula. Unfortunately, there are several problems in using this cooker...

<< Back to Top

lucknow, india

A scientific method of rice growing to cut greenhouse emissions.

Click here to download PDF worksheet - File size approx. 160k

Click here to download Dr Singh's notes - File size approx. 90k

Dr Srinath Singh is a scientist in India. He is worried about global warming. He knows that methane gas contributes to global warming. Bacteria which live in rice fields make lots of methane gas...

<< Back to Top


<< Go Back