Free lesson plans

During his 2015/16 Principia mission to the International Space Station British ESA astronaut Tim Peake filmed physics and chemistry demonstrations for the National Space Academy to create free resources for teachers to use in a project called “Astro Academy: Principia”. You can download these separately, or access a free lesson plan related to this resource created by our own Head of Teaching and Learning, Andy McMurray. A self-confessed physics fan, Andy has been an outstanding physics teacher for over 20 years and leads all of the National Space Academy’s education programmes.

This lesson plan is aimed at Key Stage 4 or 5, or equivalent, but the demonstration videos and associated written teacher guides for Astro Academy: Principia help to explain physics at early secondary level too.

Take advantage of Andy's free lesson plan and you will also have access to over 40 video clips of Tim's demonstrations; 5 teaching films introducing the topics of Momentum and Collisions, Kinetic Theory of Gases, Circular Motion, Gravity and Careers in Space; and three teacher guides with classroom activity guides and associated student worksheets.

The National Space Academy uses space contexts to engage students with the curriculum in physics, chemistry, biology, and maths at secondary and FE level. We do this by offering student masterclasses both at the National Space Centre or in school, and through teacher-training programmes.