Research Champions is primarily targeted towards older KS2 students. However it also covers topics that are relevant to younger KS3 students.
As these students are likely to be more adept readers, the stories could form part of their homework. Alternatively, the questions and overview of the research could be used during relevant lessons.
The stories cover the following topics from the KS3 Science curriculum:
The Truth about Tortoises.
- Differences between species.
- Competition and natural selection.
Bacteria-banishing bandages.
- How the digestive system digests food.
- The importance of bacteria in the human digestive system.
- Structural adaptations of unicellular organisms.
- Microorganisms, medicines, and antibiotic resistance.
The Power of Prostheses.
- Structure and functions of the human skeleton.
- Biomechanics.
- Function of muscles and examples of antagonistic muscles.
- Forces as pushes or pulls arising from interactions between two objects.
Plants in Space.
- Plants using photosynthesis and gaining nutrients/water from the soil via roots.
- Photosynthesis as a process; the role of photosynthesis in sustaining almost all life on Earth.
- How organisms affect, and are affected by, their environment.
- Space physics, particularly the force of gravity.
Spinosaurus: a dinosaur like no other.
- The processes of adaptation and extinction, as a result of changing environments.
- Relationships in an ecosystem.
- The rock cycle and the formation of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.
- Fossilisation.
Ice Cream Chemistry
- Properties of different states of matter.
- Changes of state in terms of the particulate model.
- Mixing.
Glorious Glaciers
- the production of carbon dioxide by human activity and the impact on climate.
- speed and the quantitative relationship between average speed, distance, and time (S = D/T).
KS3 Geography
“Glorious Glaciers” features both maths and ‘earth science’, which means it crosses over with many aspects of the KS3 Geography curriculum. These include:
- develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places, including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide geographical context for understanding the actions of processes.
- understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.
- learning about polar deserts
- understand key processes in physical geography relating to weather and climate, and glaciation.
- understand how human and physical processes interact to influence and change landscapes, environments, and the climate; and how human activity relies on effective functioning of natural systems.
Research Champions 