Whether you're at home or at school, you can use BBC Teach for free. Our website is home to thousands of free curriculum-mapped videos, arranged by age-group and subject.
Whether you're at home or at school, you can use BBC Teach for free. Our website is home to thousands of free curriculum-mapped videos, arranged by age-group and subject.
This film is from the series Materials: How They Work available on BBC Teach.
Materials scientist, Mark Miodownik describes the discovery of graphene.
It’s the toughest material we know: 200 times stronger than steel, and able to carry electricity at 1 million metres per second.
It was discovered in 2004 by the Noble Prize winning duo, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, from the University of Manchester.
Mark meets Andre Geim who explains some of the properties of his discovery.
Teacher Notes
This clip can be used as a stimulus for research into new materials and designer polymers and alloys.
Students can begin by researching the uses of graphene
Then other examples of new materials such as smart alloys, water absorbing polymers, super strong magnets and hydrophobic sand can be demonstrated and their properties investigated.
Students can suggest a use for an ideal material which fill a gap in the market and then make suggestions as to how it can be filled.
Curriculum Notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching Chemistry at KS3 and GCSE Level. This topic appears in OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC in England and Wales, CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland and SQA National 4 and 5 in Scotland.
The purpose of BBC’s content is to inform, educate and entertain. As such, students, teachers, schools, and other established educational bodies may utilise such content for educational purposes via an ERA Licence.
Without an ERA Licence, reasonable use of the content (for the purposes set out above) may still be possible, however; any such use must be in line with the BBC’s Terms of Use.
Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, when using and or sharing BBC Education content, you must comply with the BBC’s Terms of Use and where relevant, YouTube’s terms and conditions, ensuring that:
a) there aren’t any advertisements on or around the BBC content;
b) there aren’t any charges for access and or charges associated with the content (clearly stating that the content is free to
access); and
c) you do not state or imply (in any way) that there is a relationship and or any endorsement from the BBC to you.
We ask that you read the said terms before using any of BBC’s services. When you use BBC’s services and content, you’re agreeing to the BBC’s terms of use.
This film is from the series The Imagineers available on BBC Teach.
Fran Scott meets Dr Eleanor Stride from the University of Oxford who is working on using nano-bubbles to deliver drugs to specific parts of the human body.
Dr Stride explains that cancer drugs are poisonous and have many side effects.
Her research uses microscopic bubbles of gas coated with a special shell containing these drugs which are then injected into the patient’s blood.
More than half of the drugs we develop are too poisonous to work. Using nano-bubbles means a much smaller dose is required and so this technology may allow us to use more drugs in the future.
Teacher Notes
This clip could be shown as an example of how a basic product (chemotherapy drugs) can undergo significant change through concentrating on one aspect (in this case, delivery).
As a class, discuss the basic brief and its aims. Students should see that the chosen solution, involving use of magnets and ultrasound, is not dictated by the brief, but is just one way of answering it.
A practical exercise could then be carried out, based on a delivery system for a fragile object. In groups, students could invent systems that will transport eggs from one side of the class to the other, leaving the contents (without shell) in a bowl, ready for use. When the egg is broken, how the shell is separated, and how automated the system is, is up to them.
Curriculum Notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching Design & Technology and Chemistry at KS3 and GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 3rd and 4th Level in Scotland. Appears in AQA, OCR, EDEXCEL, CCEA, WJEC, SQA.
The purpose of BBC’s content is to inform, educate and entertain. As such, students, teachers, schools, and other established educational bodies may utilise such content for educational purposes via an ERA Licence.
Without an ERA Licence, reasonable use of the content (for the purposes set out above) may still be possible, however; any such use must be in line with the BBC’s Terms of Use.
Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, when using and or sharing BBC Education content, you must comply with the BBC’s Terms of Use and where relevant, YouTube’s terms and conditions, ensuring that:
a) there aren’t any advertisements on or around the BBC content;
b) there aren’t any charges for access and or charges associated with the content (clearly stating that the content is free to
access); and
c) you do not state or imply (in any way) that there is a relationship and or any endorsement from the BBC to you.
We ask that you read the said terms before using any of BBC’s services. When you use BBC’s services and content, you’re agreeing to the BBC’s terms of use.
This clip is from the series The Alchemist’s Apprentice available on BBC Teach.
Three students try out hands-on experiments with carbon dioxide in a science lab.
With the help of Dr Peter Wothers at the University of Cambridge, they explore the properties of the air around us.
They measure the density of carbon dioxide, they create ‘dry ice’ by extracting carbon dioxide from calcium carbonate, and they explore how limewater is made.
Teacher Notes
Students could be asked to write down word and symbol equations for the processes occurring in this clip.
They could also be challenged to criticise the on-screen graphics and the use of the = sign.
Symbol equations can be balanced.
The thermal decomposition of calcium carbonate can be repeated by students in the lab, using large marble chips on the edge of a piece of gauze and heating for ten minutes with a hot Bunsen flame.
During this time, the teacher can circulate with a butane brûlée torch and heat each chip for one minute until limelight is seen.
After cooling, the chips can be reacted with water and tested using universal indicator drops.
Curriculum Notes
This topic appears in OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC KS3, KS4 and GCSE in England and Wales, CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland.
The purpose of BBC’s content is to inform, educate and entertain. As such, students, teachers, schools, and other established educational bodies may utilise such content for educational purposes via an ERA Licence.
Without an ERA Licence, reasonable use of the content (for the purposes set out above) may still be possible, however; any such use must be in line with the BBC’s Terms of Use.
Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, when using and or sharing BBC Education content, you must comply with the BBC’s Terms of Use and where relevant, YouTube’s terms and conditions, ensuring that:
a) there aren’t any advertisements on or around the BBC content;
b) there aren’t any charges for access and or charges associated with the content (clearly stating that the content is free to
access); and
c) you do not state or imply (in any way) that there is a relationship and or any endorsement from the BBC to you.
We ask that you read the said terms before using any of BBC’s services. When you use BBC’s services and content, you’re agreeing to the BBC’s terms of use.
This film is from the series Real World Chemistry available on BBC Teach.
Fran Scott learns how glass is made in a factory.
The raw materials are described, together with the use of soda ash to lower the melting point and make it easier to form into useful shapes.
The production process is described, including the use of gas burners to maintain the high temperature.
Automated equipment is used on a continuous production line that works at very high speed to produce glass bottles.
Finishing processes include adding a coating to improve strength, heating and slowly cooling to remove weaknesses and another surface treating to make them harder and more resistant to scratching.
Quality control mechanisms are described.
Teacher Notes
Teachers can also refer to the Mark Miodownik clips from the BBC series ‘Materials: How They Work’.
Students can be given a list of questions for them to answer whilst they watch the clip that focus on your intended learning outcomes.
Students could be asked to suggest why the factory works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Curriculum Notes
These clips will be relevant for teaching Science and Chemistry at KS4 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 4/5 in Scotland.
The topics discussed will support OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC GCSE in England and Wales, CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland and SQA National 4/5 and Higher in Scotland.
The purpose of BBC’s content is to inform, educate and entertain. As such, students, teachers, schools, and other established educational bodies may utilise such content for educational purposes via an ERA Licence.
Without an ERA Licence, reasonable use of the content (for the purposes set out above) may still be possible, however; any such use must be in line with the BBC’s Terms of Use.
Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, when using and or sharing BBC Education content, you must comply with the BBC’s Terms of Use and where relevant, YouTube’s terms and conditions, ensuring that:
a) there aren’t any advertisements on or around the BBC content;
b) there aren’t any charges for access and or charges associated with the content (clearly stating that the content is free to
access); and
c) you do not state or imply (in any way) that there is a relationship and or any endorsement from the BBC to you.
We ask that you read the said terms before using any of BBC’s services. When you use BBC’s services and content, you’re agreeing to the BBC’s terms of use.