A Science teacher by trade, I've also been known to be found teaching Maths and PE! However, strange as it may seem, my real love is designing resources that can be used by other teachers to maximise the experience of the students. I am constantly thinking of new ways to engage a student with a topic and try to implement that in the design of the lessons.
A Science teacher by trade, I've also been known to be found teaching Maths and PE! However, strange as it may seem, my real love is designing resources that can be used by other teachers to maximise the experience of the students. I am constantly thinking of new ways to engage a student with a topic and try to implement that in the design of the lessons.
This is a concise lesson that looks at Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table, the changes and tweaks that he made and compares it against the modern day version of the table. The aim of the lesson is to show students how accurate Mendeleev was with his table, even with those elements that had not yet been discovered. They will work through some examples with eka-silicon and eka-manganese and also compare eka-aluminium’s predictions against those of gallium. Links are made to the development of the atom so students can understand how the atomic number was used by Mendeleev and how it is used now.
Students are set homework to look at the developments that were made by other scientists as homework and this is not covered in this lesson.
This bundle of 4 lessons goes through the key details of ionic, covalent and metallic bonding. All of the lessons are detailed and focus on guiding students through the explanations of how the structure of these bonds is related to the properties of the substances. Students are shown how to draw dot and cross diagrams for both ionic and covalent substances and there is a focus on key terminology in all of them, such as delocalised electrons and electrostatic forces
This detailed and engaging lesson uses a range of tasks, discussion points and quick competitions to explore how the structure of metals is related to their properties. The lesson begins by providing the melting points for four metals and challenging the students to work out why mercury would be considered to be the odd one out. This task enables students to recognise that most metals are solid at room temperature and then the next part of the lesson guides students through explaining how this is related to the structure. The range of quick competitions are used to maintain engagement but also to introduce new terms such as lattice and delocalised so that students can recognise these in descriptions and use them accurately in their own. Students will recall that metals are good conductors of electricity and heat and now will be able to explain this with reference to the free electrons. Progress checks are written into the lesson at regular intervals so understanding can be checked at critical points and misconceptions addressed. The final part of the lesson makes link to related topics such as alloys and naming compounds.
This lesson has been written for GCSE aged students.
This bundle of 4 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic C2.1 (Chemical bonds) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Chemical bonds
Ionic bonding
Ionic compounds
Covalent bonding
Metallic bonding
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 6 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic C1.2 (The Periodic Table) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
The arrangement of the Periodic Table by atomic number and electron configuration
Development of the Periodic Table
Metals and non-metals
Group 0
Group 1
Group 7
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 7 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C1b (Elements, compounds and mixtures) of the Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Understand how to classify a substance as an element, compound and mixture
Understand that a pure substance has a fixed melting and boiling point
Separating mixtures by simple distillation
Separating mixtures by fractional distillation
Separating mixtures by filtration and crystallisation
Separating mixtures by paper chromatography
Interpreting and analysing chromatograms
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 7 lessons is ideal for students who are learning about the Periodic Table as part of KS3 or for their GCSE studies. The lessons include details of how the early Periodic Table was formed by Dmitri Mendeleev and how electron configurations relate to the position of elements in the Table and there are detailed lessons about the properties of group 1, 7 and 0 and the transition metals.
This is a fully-resourced lesson that looks at how the atomic number and electron configuration of an atom can be used to place an element in the Periodic Table. This lesson has primarily been designed for GCSE-aged students but can be used with younger students who are studying the Table and know about electron configurations.
The lesson begins by looking at the atomic number and ensuring that students recall how this number can be used to identify the number of protons (and electrons) in an atom. Time is taken to link to Dmitri Mendeleev and how he used the atomic number in his original formatting. Moving forwards, students will be challenged to write the electron configurations for a number of atoms from group 2 and then to identify the connection between the number of electrons in the outer shell and the group number. Again, time is taken to make links to other related topics such as the alkali metals, halogens and noble gases and how their chemical properties are similar based on this outer shell number. Students will discover how the period number is linked to the number of occupied shells. The remainder of the lesson uses two understanding checks to challenge the students to bring together their knowledge to place an element in the correct place in a blank Periodic Table when given information about the atomic number or electron configuration.
This bundle of 4 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C1i (Electrolysis) of the Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Understand why ionic compounds conduct electricity only when molten or in aqueous solution
Describe experiments to investigate electrolysis of molten compounds and aqueous solutions
Write ionic half equations for the reactions at the electrodes
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 4 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C1g (Covalent bonding) of the Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Know that covalent bonding involves the sharing of electrons
Be able to draw dot and cross diagrams for a range of structures involving covalent bonds
Describe the structure of simple covalent substances and relate this to their properties
Explain why substances with giant covalent structures are solids with high melting and boiling points
Explain how the structures of diamond, graphite and buckminsterfullerene affects their physical properties
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 10 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C1e (Chemical formulae, equations and calculations) of the Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Writing word equations
Writing balanced symbol equations (with state symbols)
Calculate relative formula masses
Know that the mole is the unit for the amount of a substance
Understand how to carry out calculations involving amount, relative atomic and formula mass
Calculate reacting masses
Calculate percentage yield
Know the terms empirical formula and molecular formula and be able to calculate both
Calculate concentration of solutions
Calculate gas volumes
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 4 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C1d (The Periodic Table) of the Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Understand how elements are arranged in the Periodic Table
Deduce the electron configurations of the first 20 elements
Identify elements as metals and non-metals according to their properties and position in the Periodic Table
Understand why the Noble gases do not readily react
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 3 lessons covers all of the content in Topic C1f (Ionic bonding) of the Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Understand how ions are formed
Know the charges the group atoms and charged molecules
Write formulae for ionic compounds
Draw dot and cross diagrams for ionic compounds
Understand ionic bonding in terms of electrostatic attraction
Understand why giant ionic lattices have high melting and boiling points
Know which type of ionic compounds can conduct electricity and which cannot
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This is a fully-resourced revision lesson that uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick differentiated tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the topics found within Topic C2 (Inorganic chemistry) of the Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry specification which has its’ first assessment in 2019.
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Group 1 (alkali metals)
Group 7 (halogens)
Gases in the atmosphere
Reactivity series
Extraction and uses of metals
Acids, alkalis and titrations
Chemical tests
Students will be engaged through the numerous quiz rounds whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which require their further attention during general revision or during the lead up to the actual assessment. The detail of this lesson means that it could be used over a number of lessons at school so that each topic is covered in sufficient depth.
This is a fully-resourced revision lesson that uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the sub-topics found within Topic C3 (Chemical change) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification.
The sub-topics and specification points that are tested within the lesson include:
Acids, pH and the concentration of hydrogen ions
The general reactions of the acids to produce salts
Electrolysis of molten salts
Electrolysis of aqueous solutions
Writing half equations for the reactions at the electrodes
Students will be engaged through the numerous quiz rounds whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which require their further attention during general revision or during the lead up to the actual assessment
This is a fully-resourced revision lesson that uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the sub-topics found within Topic C7 (Rates of reaction and energy changes) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification.
The sub-topics and specification points that are tested within the lesson include:
Explain the effects on rates of reaction of changes in temperature, concentration and pressure
Be able to define a catalyst and explain how this reduces the activation energy
Describe an endothermic and exothermic reactions
Calculate the energy change in a reaction
Draw reaction profiles for endothermic and exothermic reactions, identifying activation energy
Students will be engaged through the numerous quiz rounds whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which require their further attention during general revision or during the lead up to the actual GCSE terminal exams
This bundle of 4 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C2e (Extraction and uses of metals) of the Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Know the most metals are extracted from ores found in the Earth’s crust and the unreactive metals are often found as the uncombined metal
Explain how the method of extraction is related to the position of the metal in the reactivity series
Know that an alloy is a mixture of a metal and one or more elements
Explain why alloys are harder than pure metals
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This is a fully-resourced revision lesson that uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the sub-topics found within Topic C1 (Key concepts in chemistry) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification.
The sub-topics and specification points that are tested within the lesson include:
Describe how the model of the atom has changed over time with the discovery of the subatomic particles
Describe the structure of an atom and know that atoms contain the same number of protons as electrons
Calculate the number of protons, electrons and neutrons when given the atomic and mass number
Identify elements as metals or non-metals
Predict the electron configuration of the first 20 elements
Explain how ionic bonds are formed by the transfer of electrons
Explain the structure of an ionic compound as an ionic lattice
Explain how a covalent bond is formed
Be able to draw dot and cross diagrams for simple covalent structures
Describe the structure and properties of graphite and diamond
Calculate the relative formula mass
Explain the law of the conservation of mass
Calculate the concentration of a solution
Recall Avogadro’s constant and use in mole calculations
Students will be engaged through the numerous quiz rounds whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which require their further attention during general revision or during the lead up to the actual GCSE terminal exams
This is a fully-resourced revision lesson that uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the sub-topics found within Topic C8 (Fuels and Earth Science) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification.
The sub-topics and specification points that are tested within the lesson include:
The separation of crude oil into simpler, more useful mixtures by fractional distillation
The differing properties of the fractions
The complete and incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons
The chemical process of cracking
The Earth’s early atmosphere
Human activity and climate change
The composition of today’s atmosphere
Students will be engaged through the numerous quiz rounds whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which require their further attention during general revision or during the lead up to the actual GCSE terminal exams