This PowerPoint contains details about running the lesson as well as resources. Students are told that they are trialling a new type of chocolate which claims to improve short-term memory. They then take place in a trial to find out if the claims are true. Take a look at the Snapshot Science blog for further lesson ideas and free resources.

Pembrokeshire council is planning to start turning off 14 000 of its street lights in order to save money. This resource gives GCSE students practice at calculating electricity costs in order to work out if this will save the council as much money as they think. For more topical teaching ideas and resources please visit the Snapshot Science blog.

Contains two instruction sheets for fun science activities. The first is a make your own buzzer game which requires the students to apply what they know about electrical circuits. The other is a sleigh race which teaches about forces. For more free teaching resources and ideas for lessons based on topical news stories, events and technology please visit the blog.

In this resource students learn about the process by which spider goats were made: transgenic animals that produce spider silk proteins in their milk. It is ideal way to test their understanding of genetic engineering in a new and interesting context. For more topical teaching ideas and resources please visit the Snapshot Science blog.

This resource contains a starter which introduces the students to the red-fleshed Redlove apple and an activity where they have to write an article for a magazine which explains how it was created and why it took so long. For more ideas on how to use this in science lessons please visit the website.

This resource contains a starter and an activity that asks students to place sounds like a jet engine in the correct place along a decibel scale. After revealing the answers, they are then asked about the vuvezela – just how loud is it?

The PB&C milkshake packs a whopping 2010 calories per serving. Not exactly a great snack if you’re aiming for a balanced diet. This resource contains a starter and main activity based on the shake. See the blog post for more ideas linked to this resource.

In this activity students take the role of elements and carry out a speed dating activity to find the perfect partner to bond with. For full details on how to carry out the activity please visit the Snapshot Science website.

This PowerPoint presentation shows the forces acting on a man using a jetpack and asks students to think about the size of the forces. For more ideas on how to use this jetpack, and see a video of it in action take a look at the post on the blog.

Students create their own diagrams to show the forces involved when flipping a pancake. For further information on how to use the resource, please visit the Snapshot Science website.

Victoria Beckham is pregnant but is it possible that she might have a girl this time? This resource takes students through what we mean by sex chromosomes, what happens to chromosomes during fertilisation and sex cell production and finishes with a Punnett square that students can use to tell the Beckhams what the probability of their baby being a girl is. For more topical teaching ideas and resources please visit the blog.

Includes three news-stories from the past month with web-links and questions for students aged 8-12. Linked to the KS2/3 curriculum content and supplied with a teacher guide that includes links to news stories for background information and model answers to the questions differentiated by key stage. Can be used as a homework, competition, extension activity, revision task or simply to show on your 'science in the news' display board. For more science lesson ideas and free resources based on topical news stories, please visit the Snapshot Science blog.

This newsletter contains links to five news stories from the past week. Each story has associated questions to focus student research and link them to the KS4 curriculum. Students access the web-based stories using QR codes or shortened URLs. Useful for a 'science in the news' display board, as a homework activity or an enrichment task. For further topical news stories, ways to use them in science lessons and free, downloadable resources please visit the Snapshot Science blog.

A rare newsletter this week as it contains not one but four chemistry news stories (plus one physics). Your students can read stories on how pebbles contain evidence that there was once moving water on Mars, how Japanese scientists have created a new element, the news that asteroid dust could potentially halt climate change and how changing your washing powder could help reduce pollution.

The June edition of the Junior Newsletter for KS2/3. Stories included look at food webs, infectious diseases and forces. As always there is a question suitable for KS2 and one to extend KS2 students or for KS3. Teacher notes are included. For more lesson ideas and free resources based on topical events please visit the Snapshot Science blog.

In this week’s newsletter your students can find out about how we may soon reach the tipping point when it comes to climate change as it looks likely that there will be a major release of methane, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere from melting permafrost. Also, how sailors are helping scientists to measure plankton population in the oceans, a world record for the discovery of the deepest hydrothermal vent, good news in the fight against the ‘flu virus and how a woman in Texas beat odds of 1 in 70 million to give birth to two sets of identical twins on the same day.

Stories this week include the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs Boson (or is it?). Also, the finding of a well-preserved dinosaur fossil that hints that nearly all dinosaurs were feathered and the news that the controversial Three Gorges Dam in China has been completed. For more topical lesson ideas and teaching resources please visit the Snapshot Science website.

Are your students pro or anti-nuclear power and what arguments can they use to support their views? Do they understand what ‘pharming’ is or what scientists use the LHC for? In the week’s Science in the News-letter they can find all this out and more. For more lesson ideas and free resources based on topical events please visit the Snapshot Science blog.

Introducing the May edition of the Junior Newsletter for KS2/3. This edition contains three stories with accompanying questions from the past month, suitable for younger students. Download your copy to find out how a travelling gnome has been helping science! For more lesson ideas and free resources based on topical events please visit the Snapshot Science blog.

If you are living in the UK then there is no doubt that you are fed up with the torrential rain we are experiencing at the moment. Is this indicative of our future summers? Scientists have announced this week that some extreme weather is due to climate change caused by human activities. However, the rain may not be due to this, we will have to wait a few more years to find out. This story and four others from the news last week feature in this week's newsletter. For more topical teaching ideas and resources please visit the Snapshot Science blog.

This edition of Snapshot Science's newsletter contains 5 science stories, questions and links to the news stories. All contain science relevant to the GCSE science curriculum.