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We’ve noticed there are a few areas where science teachers are looking for resources, but where we don’t have any great files at present. We would really like to see more contributions in these areas, and you would certainly be looked on favourably for our July competition if you could produce files for the following (in no particular order):

• Mitosis and Meiosis
• The skeleton
• Immunisation and infectious disease
• Polymers and their uses
• Biological pest control
• Cells and their organisation into tissues
• Catalysts
• Moments and turning forces
• Nuclear reactors and nuclear power
• Biofuels and renewable energy
• Emerging energy technologies (e.g. fuel cells)
• Electromagnets (KS3 level)
• Effects of human activity on the environment
• Human behaviour and basic psychology
• Drugs and their effect on long-term physical and mental health

Get digging on your hard drives!

If you’re thinking about the changes to Science curriculum at KS3 next year, you might want to browse through our contributions matched to the new curriculum. We’ve taken the new ‘Range and Content’ section of the new curriculum (Copyright QCA) and linked to the best current Teachable.net files for that topic. Just click on the topics for examples of content in that area.

3.1 Energy, electricity and forces (Physics)

• (This includes the properties and behaviour of light and sound, renewable energy sources and emerging technologies such as fuel cells)
• Energy can be transferred usefully, stored, or dissipated, but cannot be created or destroyed
• Forces are interactions between objects and can affect their shape and motion (including pressure effects, linear motion and turning moments)
• Electric current in circuits (including current and voltage in series and parallel circuits) can produce a variety of effects (electrical devices are designed to make a variety of effects caused by electric currents, including heating, chemical changes, and magnetic effects).

3.2 Chemical and material behaviour (Chemistry)

• the particle model provides explanations for the different physical properties and behaviour of matter
• elements consist of atoms that combine together in chemical reactions to form compounds (including the different properties of compounds due to the number and type of atoms and their arrangement)
• the development and organisation of elements in the periodic table
• elements and compounds show characteristic chemical properties and patterns in their behaviour (this can be exemplified by the reactions of metals and non-metals, and acids and bases).

3.3 Organisms, behaviour and health (Biology)

• life processes are supported by the organisation of cells into tissues, organs and body systems
• the human reproductive cycle includes adolescence, fertilisation and foetal development
• conception, growth, development, behaviour and health can be affected by diet, drugs and disease
• the importance of healthy eating complemented by regular exercise, and effect of drugs such as alcohol, tobacco and cannabis on mental and physical health. It also includes the effect of bacteria and viruses, such as those associated with transmitted infections
• all living things show variation (inherited and environmental variation and variation through genetic engineering and selective breeding), can be classified and are interdependent, interacting with each other and their environment
• behaviour (including human and animal behaviour) is influenced by internal and external factors and can be investigated and measured.

3.4 The environment, Earth and universe

• geological activity (including the rock cycle process, rock formation and weathering) is caused by chemical and physical processes
• astronomy and space science provide insight into the nature and observed motions of the sun, moon, stars, planets and other celestial bodies
• human activity and natural processes can lead to changes in the environment.

We recognise that is still takes a little while to upload each useful file you’ve got – especially if your school isn’t on the internet mainline (you’re not the only one..). We’re working on an even quicker way to contribute online, but in the meantime either put the kettle on and settle down while you upload your files, or we can do the waiting if you’re in a rush. You are welcome to burn a CD of your best files and post them to us. We’ll do all the tedious bit of editing, tagging and uploading … and still give you your Reward.

Just email contribute@teachable.net for more details.

We’re still looking for more entries for our competition for the most helpful contributor, to be held in July.

Three lucky winners will receive £200 in cash each for the best contributions.

This is on top of our generous Contributor Rewards, which offer a minimum of £5 per file contributed up until the end of July 2008. The finalists will be judged by our group of Teaching Advisors (who are all highly-experienced UK teachers), based on overall presentational quality, curriculum relevance and depth of their total contributions. The winners will get a cheque in the post by August.

We’ve had plenty of entries, but so far the best contributors have given us around 15 – 20 files each. So if you’ve got more than that lying around, you are in with a serious chance.

Teachers need fresh ideas and material to help their classes learn, and each new idea takes time to work into a fully useful learning resource. However, teachers (at least in the UK) are also under increasing pressure to spend more time marking, preparing for exams, filling out forms etc. How can anyone have time to fit it all in and still have a life outside of school?

I had the idea for a new resource sharing site for teachers back in July 2006. It seemed obvious from talking to many of my friends in teaching that the increasing time pressures of modern life meant something had to give, and increasingly it was the class preparation time getting squeezed. What if we could give teachers a simple way of finding the best material produced by other teachers on the subject they want to teach, plus enable them to download and adapt it how they want? Most teachers rely on textbooks for some of their classes; yet the internet allows this kind of sharing of resources to be more immediate, direct and democratic. Teachable.net is a textbook for the 21st century.

We got the site up and running in October 2007, and have been building up the content ever since. We don’t aim to be high-tech; we fit in with the current technology in schools (if you’re looking for acronyms and tech-speak, try http://www.adlnet.gov/!) and don’t require teachers to learn new IT skills. In fact, we aim to be very simple to use indeed. We’ll be building on the features as we go, but the core feature is that you can search for, download and use the right resource / file exactly when you need it – even if you’ve only got 10 minutes before the lesson starts.

We’ve started a blog at Teachable.net to keep everyone up-to-date on the developments on the site. It feels like everyone has to have a blog these days, so please excuse us if you can hear the bandwagon rumbling by! But browsing it is a good way of keeping in touch with what we do. Along with updates on the way the website works and the materials available for download, we will also have guest pieces on new teaching ideas in particular subjects.