Body systems
How do humans digest food?
From chewing to pooing. Learn how our bodies get what they need from food. Bitesize 2nd Level Science guide on the digestive system for Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).
What does the heart do?
Learn how the heart pumps blood round the circulatory system to deliver oxygen and nutrients. Bitesize 2nd Level Science guide for Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).
How do different animal circulation systems work?
Find out about the different ways blood circulates around mammals, fish and insects.
How do plants get energy and food to grow?
Learn about photosynthesis and respiration, and how plants gain nutrients to grow.
How do humans breathe?
Learn about human lungs, respiration system, breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. Bitesize 2nd Level Science in Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).
How do different animals breathe?
Learn how a fish, frog and grasshopper breathe in different ways.
How does a human skeleton work?
Learn how bones and the human skeleton let us move, hold our bodies up and protect our organs. Bitesize 2nd Level Science guide for Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).
How do humans maintain temperature and water balance?
Sweating, drinking and the kidneys help keep body temperature and water levels balanced.
How do animals control their body temperature?
Find out how animal behaviour helps them maintain their body temperature.
How do different animals control their body temperature?
Find out how conformers and regulators maintain their body temperature in different ways.
What is inheritance?
Find out why children look like their parents and how we inherit traits.
What is adaptation?
Find out how animals are adapted to their environments with Emmett the explorer.
What is evolution?
Find out about evolution and how living things change over time.
What is the digestive system?
Discover how the food gets into the body, through the digestive system.
What happens to food in your mouth?
Find out how the teeth and tongue help break down food before it is swallowed.
What are the types of teeth?
Find out the functions of different teeth types including canines, incisors and molars.
What happens in your stomach?
Find out about the role that the stomach plays in the digestive system.
What happens in your intestines?
Find out about the role of the small and large intestines in the digestive system.
What is the circulatory system?
Find out how the circulatory system takes oxygen around the body.
What is in your blood?
Discover how blood vessels and blood cells help keep your body working.
What are blood vessels?
Inside every person is an amazing network of blood vessels. Find out how they carry blood around the body.
How does your heart work?
Find out how the heart keeps all the blood in your circulatory system flowing.
- 7 videos
Senses
How does the human eye work?
Find out how the eyes and brain work together to help people see.
How do humans hear?
Find out how the ear and brain work together to let people hear.
How does human touch work?
Find out how your skin and brain work together to help you to feel things like pressure, pain and whether it is hot or cold.
How does human smell work?
Find out how the human nose detects and identifies different smells.
How does human taste work?
Find out how taste buds and our sense of smell work together to tell us what we're eating.
- 2 videos
Living things
What is classification?
Discover how animals can be classified by common features.
What is a vertebrate?
Find out how to classify an animal as a vertebrate.
What is an invertebrate?
Find out how to classify an animal as an invertebrate.
Why do animals taste things differently?
Find out why the way animals taste is linked to their diet.
How do different animals taste things?
Find out how different animals can detect taste with more than just their tongues.
Why do animals have different teeth?
Find out why some animals have sharp pointy teeth and others have smooth flat teeth.
How do animals and plants use smell?
Find out how animals and plants use smell to communicate with 大象传媒 Bitesize.
How do different animals smell?
Learn how different animals, like bears and salmon, smell.
How do animals sense temperature?
Find out how different animals respond to changes in temperature.
How do plants and animals sense touch and vibrations?
How elephants, fish, crickets and the venus fly trap sense changes in pressure.
Why do animals hibernate?
Some animal hibernate to protect themselves from harsh winter weather conditions.
Why and when do animals migrate?
Find out how changing seasons and weather conditions cause animals to migrate (move from one place to another).
What is a plant?
Find out about the different parts of a plant, including the flower, leaves, stem and roots.
What does a plant need to live?
Find out about what a plant needs in order to live and grow.
Why are bees attracted to flowers?
Find out why flowers need bees to pollinate them and what bees get in return.
What are the requirements for plant growth?
Plants have certain requirements that need to be met in order to grow. Find out what these requirements are.
Why are plants important?
Find out how plants help the environment and benefit society.
What is fertiliser?
Find out how organic and synthetic fertilisers give plants the minerals they need to grow.
What is a microorganism?
Microorganisms are very tiny living things. They are so small that you need a microscope to see them.
What is a life cycle?
Compare how different animals grow and change during their life.
How do animals reproduce?
Discover how different animals grow and reproduce throughout their life.
How do humans change during their lifetime?
Find out about the different stages of a human life cycle and how we change as we grow up.
What are the stages of a plant's life cycle?
Find out how a plant changes through its life and produces offspring.
How do flowering plants reproduce?
Find out how flowering plants make seeds.
How do plants spread their seeds?
Find out why plants can be found everywhere from the waterside to hilltops.
Food chain challenge - Savannah
Explore the African savannah and find out how the animals and plants are connected in different food chains.
Food chain challenge - Tundra
Explore the Arctic tundra and find out how the animals and plants are connected in different food chains.
Food chain challenge - Woodland
Explore a British woodland and find out how the animals and plants are connected in different food chains.
What is a food chain?
Find out how food chains can show the relationship between different animals and plants.
How do ecosystems work?
Many plants and animals live together in ecosystems. They rely on one another to survive.
What is adaptation?
Find out how animals are adapted to their environments with Emmett the explorer.
- 33 videos
Earth and space
Planets of our Solar System
Learn about the role of the Sun in the Solar System, the different types of planets and the key features of the planets.
What is the Earth?
The Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago. Find out about the speed it spins and how it orbits the Sun.
What is the solar system?
Explore the solar system and learn the order of the planets.
What is the Sun?
Find out how the Sun is a star that gives out heat and light.
What are the rocky planets?
Find out which planets are the rocky planets and how to identify them.
What are the gas planets?
Find out which planets are the gas planets and what makes them different from the rest.
How does the Sun affect the weather?
Find out how the sun affects our weather.
Why is the temperature different in different places on Earth?
Find out how the Equator affects temperature around the world.
How do reactions power rockets?
Tim Peake and Fran Scott explore the explosive power of rocket fuel and how astronauts get to the International Space Station.
How do you stay alive in space?
Tim Peake and Fran Scott explore the effect of space on the body.
Do waves hold the secrets of space?
Tim Peake and Fran Scott explore what sound and light waves tell us about space.
Can you make outer space in your kitchen?
Tim Peake and Fran Scott explore outer space and comets.
How do astronauts get home?
Tim Peake and Fran Scott explore how astronauts make the trip from the International Space Station back to Earth.
Tim Peake: Ask an astronaut
Select from the list of questions to find out about Tim Peake's mission to the International Space Station.
What is evaporation and condensation?
Find out about changing state from a liquid to a gas by the process of evaporation and condensation.
What is the water cycle?
Find out how water is constantly moving around the environment through the water cycle.
How does the water cycle affect weather?
Find out about the journey water makes every day and how it affects the weather.
- 13 videos
Electricity
What is electricity?
Find out what electricity is and how appliances can convert electricity into sound, movement, heat and more.
All about batteries
Learn what batteries are, how they work and how to make your own batteries,
What are conductors and insulators?
Find out about electrical conductors and insulators and which items allow electricity to pass through them.
Circuit symbols
Learn about circuit symbols for electrical components and how to draw circuit diagrams.
How can you change a circuit?
Find out what circuits are and how you can change them by adding in items like switches and batteries.
How do you draw electrical symbols and diagrams?
Find out how to draw a circuit using a circuit diagram, and learn the symbols used to represent each component.
What is power?
Find out what electrical power is and how to increase it in an electrical circuit.
Making sounds with different pitches. Video
Using pieces of string to produce sounds with different pitches.
Forces
What is a force?
Find out how how forces, like pushes and pulls, move objects.
All about friction
Find out about how friction acts against movement and how this can be useful.
What is friction?
Find out about friction, a force between two surfaces that are sliding across each other.
What are water and air resistance?
Find out how air resistance affects falling objects and how water resistance affects the speed of things travelling in water.
Magnetic, electrostatic and gravitational forces
Find out about how gravity, magnetism and electrostatic forces can affect objects over a distance.
What is gravity?
What does gravity do? Who was Sir Isaac Newton? How is gravity different on the moon?
What is a magnet?
Learn about the north and south poles of magnets and how we use magnets in everyday life.
Which metals are magnetic?
Learn more about magnets and which metals are attracted to them.
All about buoyancy
Find out how buoyancy keeps objects afloat and try out a buoyancy experiment.
What is buoyancy?
Find out why some objects float and others sink in this introduction to buoyancy.
- 4 videos
Light and sound
Sound and communication
Learn how sound travels through solids, liquids and gases and how people and animals use sound to communicate.
How are sounds made?
Sounds are made when objects vibrate. The vibrations enter your ear and you hear them as sound. Find out more about how sound travels.
How are sounds detected?
Sound waves make the eardrum vibrate and then send messages to the brain. Find out more about how the ear detects sounds.
What is pitch?
A drum with a tight skin makes a high pitched wave. Find out more about sound waves and pitch.
What is the volume of sound?
Sounds are vibrations that travel through the air. A weak vibration doesn't travel very far. Discover more about volume.
All about light
Learn how light travels and how we see different colours.
What is light?
Light comes from different sources, like lamps, bulbs and the sun. Find out more about how light travels.
What is reflection?
When light hits an object it is reflected (bounces back) and enters our eyes. Find out about different reflective surfaces and how we see things.
How does the eye detect light?
Light bounces off some surfaces. But light travels right into your eye. Explore how your eye detects light.
- 9 videos
Materials
How to identify materials
Find out why we don't have chocolate mugs and woollen umbrellas by learning about the uses of different materials.
What is dissolving?
Find out how dissolving works and why some substances appear to disappear when you mix them with water.
What is separation?
Find out about the different methods of separation and how to use them to reverse a mixture.
What are irreversible changes?
Find out how to tell the difference between reversible and irreversible reactions.
What are the states of matter?
Find out about the difference between solids, liquids and gases.
What are freezing and melting?
Discover how water turns into ice and back again to water, through the processes of freezing and melting.
What is soil made from?
Find out about the main components of soil and how these affect its properties.
What is a rock?
Find out how igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks are formed.
Game - Junkateers
Join the Junkateers on their mission to tidy up the planet. Work scientifically by sorting through scrap and running experiments to identify materials for recycling.
- 7 videos
Sustainability
Saving energy
Learn about how we use and waste energy in our daily lives and the impact this has on the environment.
Impact on the environment
Find out about the ways in which we can make a positive impact on our local and global environments.
How can we live more sustainably?
Find out what sustainability means, why it matters and how to make sustainable choices.
Transport and sustainability
Find out why some forms of transport damage the environment, what we can do to make a positive change and what the benefits and challenges ahead are.
Food and sustainability
Learn about the impact of food choices on the environment and how eating local, seasonal food, reducing food waste and composting can help sustainable living.
Water and sustainability
Learn about the impact of our water use on the environment and how we can use it more sustainably.
Plastic and sustainability
Find out about what plastic is, the impact it has on the environment, and how we can reduce, reuse and recycle plastic to live more sustainably.
Metal and sustainability
Learn about metals, how they are produced and why we use them. Find out how they affect the environment, and how we can reduce, reuse and recycle metals to live more sustainably.
Wood and sustainability
Find out why wood is used, why trees are important, what deforestation is and how we can make more sustainable choices.
Glass and sustainability
Learn about glass, how it is produced and why we use it. Find out how it affects the environment, and how we can reduce, reuse and recycle glass to live more sustainably.
Textiles and sustainability
Find out about textiles, their impact on the environment and what we can do to make a positive change.
What is energy?
Find out where energy comes from and what the main types of energy are.
What is renewable and non-renewable energy?
Discover the differences between renewable and non-renewable energy.
How is electricity generated?
Find out how power stations generate electricity from different energy sources, and how the electricity we use every day gets to our homes.
What are batteries and energy stores?
Learn how batteries store energy and how they can help make our energy use more sustainable.
What is biomass energy?
Learn how biomass can be used as a renewable energy source and find out about its advantages and disadvantages.
What are fossil fuels?
Learn how we use fossil fuels and why burning them causes climate change.
What is geothermal energy?
Learn how geothermal energy from underground can be used as renewable energy and find out about its advantages and disadvantages.
What is hydroelectricity?
Learn how hydroelectric dams generate renewable energy and find out about their advantages and disadvantages.
What is nuclear energy?
Learn how nuclear energy can be used to generate electricity and find out about its advantages and disadvantages.
What is solar energy?
Learn how solar energy is used to generate renewable energy and its advantages and disadvantages.
What is tidal energy?
Find out what causes tides and how their renewable energy can be used to generate electricity.
What is wave energy?
Learn how wave energy is being developed to generate renewable electricity and find out about its advantages and disadvantages.
What is wind energy?
Learn how wind turbines generate renewable energy and find out about their advantages and disadvantages.
What are new renewables?
Learn about some of the new developments in renewable energy and how these might help reduce climate change.
What is waste?
Waste is rubbish that is thrown in the bin or recycled. What else can you do with waste?
How do humans impact the environment?
Discover how humans have a positive and negative impact on the environment.
- 6 videos
Scientists and discoveries
- 3 videos