The new English Curriculum requiring not only the study of sedimentary and igneous rocks but also understanding of fossil formation, is a great opportunity to make this one of the most exciting units any science teacher can present. When an animal or plant dies, it "disappears" completely as it is degraded by a range of organisms. It may…

In 2011, OFSTED produced its triennial report, "Successful Science" (OFSTED, 2011), celebrating the successes of science in English schools over the previous three years and informing educators of what things still needed to be addressed. The Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM, www.psqm.org.uk) was highlighted as helping to address many…

The idea that everything is made of the four "elements", earth, air, fire and water, goes back to the ancient Greeks. In this article, the author talks about the origins of ideas about the elements. The author provides an account that attempts to summarise thousands of years of theoretical development of the elements in a thousand words or so.