Taking metal to extremes

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom or shared with students online.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 Physics, Chemistry and Engineering.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Alexander (Sandy) Knowles and his team at the University of Birmingham, in the UK, who are searching for metals that can withstand the extreme temperatures inside nuclear fusion reactors.
• This resource also contains an interview with Sandy and insights from the team. If you or your students have a question for them, you can submit it online – go to the article using the Futurum link below and scroll to the bottom of the page. The team will reply!
• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Sandy’s research, and tasks them to consider if nuclear energy is better value than renewables.
• The PowerPoint reiterates the key points in the article and includes further talking points to encourage students to reflect on their own skills and aspirations.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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