Less than 10% of plastic trash is recycled — compared to almost 90% of metals — because of the massively complicated problem of finding and sorting the different kinds. Frustrated by this waste, Mike Biddle has developed a cheap and incredibly energy efficient plant that can, and does, recycle any kind of plastic.

Study languages or other subjects using flash cards and quizzes

Shahi is a visual dictionary that combines Wiktionary content with Flickr images

From rockets to stock markets, many of humanity's most thrilling creations are powered by math. So why do kids lose interest in it? Conrad Wolfram says the part of math we teach — calculation by hand — isn't just tedious, it's mostly irrelevant to real mathematics and the real world. He presents his radical idea: teaching kids math through computer programming.

Free English courses online - all levels

Practice tests for various English exams (TOEFL, IELTS, CAE, FCE etc.)

List of free resources for learning English, including podcasts on listening, speaking, writing and grammar

Learning English exercises and resources

Listening, grammar, vocab, games, IELTS and business. There is a charge for the courses.

Listen to what*s on now or click on *programmes* to see an A-Z list of all the programmes available. I recommend *From our Own Correspondent* as a particularly interesting programme.

by Andy Gillet from the University of Hertfordshire

A collection of over 50 authentic listening exercises.

A small collection of novels, poems and other literature as listenings. You can also read along.

Videos with transcripts and quizzes - listening comprehension

Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom.

Recent news videos with transcripts

LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain. There are several options for listening - you can download the files or listen to them online

Downloadable tool that allows you to find subtitles online for your videos, both in English and your native language. Pause your video at any time to show dual subtitles, and get instant translation. Click words to get definitions and more. Use the arrow keys to jump forward and backwards, from line to line. Fleex has all you need to grasp all of that English goodness in your videos.

A library of almost 3000 short videos arithmetic to physics, finance, and history with practice exercises. A very useful resource to practice your listening and note-taking skills while learning something new.

Learn how vocabulary is used. Do the concordancer exercises and consider what they teach you about how words are used.

This site has a lot of information and exercises on both general and academic vocabulary. Click on *exercises* / *meaning* / *describing trends* for some extra IELTS practice!

Test and build up your vocabulary

A website for learning idioms in English

Vocab for English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese

A guide to help you judge the quality of sites you visit.

A guide to the process of writing.

A guide to paragraph writing.

Bring your word lists to life with an engaging array of activities, games and challenges – all powered by your own word lists.

Writing skills blog

Listening and writing exercises (using dictation)