All classroom activities

Browse all ‘Big Picture’ classroom activities. All activities include ready-made resources such as teachers’ notes, activity sheets, presentations and homework sheets.

Melodic Marvels
Listen to various audio files to explore the nature of auditory illusion and delusion, the effect of music on our minds and bodies, and the potential for music in medicine.
From ‘Music, Mind and Medicine’, May 2009

Climate Health Challenge
Using a simulation game, students must sustain the health of the global community by implementing strategies and performing research in order to prevent disease and combat the effects of global warming.
From ‘Health and Climate Change’, January 2009

ImageLab
Find out how beauty products work and make your own videos advertising or scrutinising them.
From ‘How We Look’, June 2008

Power to Prescribe
Based around a simulation of a pharmaceutical company planning future spending, role-play various characters working for the company to consider which pharmaceutical to develop.
From ‘Drug Development’, January 2008

The Devil’s Alliance
Based around a play in two parts - the first set in prison, the second in a hospital isolation ward. It is about one man's personal experience of TB and the emotional consequences of isolation.
From ‘Epidemics’, September 2007

Big Word
Based around different styles of scientific writing, students have the chance to read, analyse and evaluate articles on evolution written in a variety of styles, including a scientific journal, a newspaper article, a web article and an exam question essay.
From ‘Evolution’, January 2007

Are You Responsible?
Uses two podcasts - news reports of a high-profile murder case, produced in completely different styles. The accused has brutally slain a colleague. His defence is that he was suffering from a brain tumour at the time, the physical changes in his brain causing him to become more aggressive and impulsive, making him less responsible for his actions. Students are encouraged to debate the issues surrounding this.
From ‘Thinking’, September 2006

Debating Sex Selection
Should parents be allowed to choose the sex of their child? Students have their say and find out more about key issues in the sex selection debate.
From ‘Sex and Gender’, January 2006

Democs
Based on the format of Deliberative Meeting of Citizens (Democs), a card game developed by the new economics foundation. In this game, specially adapted for post-16 students, students work in groups to find out more about nanoscience and nanotechnologies, think about a selection of case studies and mull over some key issues.
From ‘Nanoscience’, June 2005

The OBs
A web-based game enables students to explore the complex interactions between genotype, socio-economic setting, upbringing, and chance in the context of obesity. They then transfer the experience of playing into real-world learning.
From ‘Obesity’, January 2005