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 fully-resourced lesson that looks at the meaning of a limiting reactant in a chemical reaction and guides students through how to apply this to a number of calculations. Step by step guides are used to go through worked examples so students are able to visualise how to set out their work.
The lesson begins with a fun analogy involving sausages and potatoes so that students can identify that the potatoes limited the sale of food. Alongside this, students will learn the key term excess. Some time is then taken to ensure that students can spot the limiting reactant and the one in excess in actual chemical reactions and method descriptions. Moving forwards, students will be guided through two calculations that involve limiting reactants - those to calculate the theoretical yield and the other to calculate a balanced symbol equation. Other skills involved in these calculations such as calculating the relative formula mass are recalled and a few examples given to ensure they are confident. The question worksheet has been differentiated two ways so that any students who need extra assistance can still access the learning.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students.
This bundle of 6 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C2 (States of matter and mixtures) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science & GCSE Chemistry specifications. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Particle arrangement in the states of matter
Physical and chemical changes
Pure and impure substances
Separation methods
Paper chromatography
Interpreting a chromatogram
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 19 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C2 (Elements, compounds and mixtures) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Chemistry specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Relative formula mass
Empirical formula
Pure and impure substances
Filtration and crystallisation
Distillation
Chromatography
Metals and non metals
Electronic structure
Forming ions
Ionic compounds
Simple molecules
Giant covalent structures
Polymer molecules
Metallic bonding
Allotropes of carbon
Graphene and the fullerenes
Changing state
Nanoparticles
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 16 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C5 (Monitoring and controlling chemical reactions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Chemistry specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Theoretical yield
Percentage yield
Atom economy
Concentration of solution
Titrations
Titration calculations
Gas calculations
Rates of reaction
The Collision theory
Temperature and the rate of reaction
Concentration and the rate of reaction
Particle size and the rate of reaction
Catalysts and the rate of reaction
Reversible reactions
Temperature and pressure and equilibrium
Choosing reaction conditions
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 an engaging and informative lesson that looks at the group of unsaturated hydrocarbons known as the alkenes and focuses on a few properties, their displayed and chemical formulae and identification. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students and works nicely with the “alkanes” lesson as students can use learning from both lessons.
The lesson begins by ensuring that students recognise a key difference between the alkenes and the alkanes in terms of the carbon-carbon bond. This shows them that there is no such substance as methane. They are guided through the rules of drawing alkenes, with examples of ethene and propene used so that they can then apply this technique to draw butene. Working together with the teacher, they will be able to write the general formula that connects this group of substances. The rest of the lesson focuses on the term unsaturated and how this affects them in terms of the identification test with bromine water as well reactions with hydrogen. The lesson finishes by getting students to recognise a use of ethene in making the alcohol, ethanol.
This bundle of 10 lessons covers a lot of the content in Topic B3 (Genetics) of the Edexcel GCSE Biology specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Advantages and disadvantages of asexual reproduction
Advantages and disadvantages of sexual reproduction
The role of meiosis
The structure of DNA
Transcription and translation
Understanding and using genetic terminology
Monohybrid inheritance
Sex determination
Sex linkage
The causes of variation
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 5 lessons some of the content in Topic C8 (Fuels and Earth Science) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science & GCSE Chemistry specifications. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Hydrocarbons
Fractional distillation of crude oil
Complete and incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons
Cracking
Formation of the early atmosphere
The modern day atmosphere
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 lesson has been designed to enable students to recognise the key stages in the formation of the early atmosphere and to also show how today’s atmosphere was formed. The lesson has been primarily designed for GCSE students but is suitable for higher ability younger students who perhaps are studying the Earth and its formation.
The lesson begins by checking that the students know the percentages of the different gases found in the modern day atmosphere. Some time is taken to check on their mathematical skills by challenging them to produce a pie chart to represent these different percentages. Students are then asked to predict how they think the percentage of oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour would have differed from now to the early atmosphere. The key steps in the formation are then introduced and critical points discussed. Students will learn about the volcanic activity, formation of the oceans and photosynthesis as crucial points in the change to the percentages of those three gases. A number of progress checks are written into the lesson, which check knowledge from this lesson and related topics such as the reaction of acids and gases.
This bundle of 12 lessons covers a lot of the content in Topic C5 (Separate Chemistry 1) of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
The transition metals
Alloys
Concentration of solutions
Acid-alkali titration
Titration calculations
Calculating the percentage yield
Calculating the atom economy
Molar volume
The Haber Process
Factors and the position of equilibrium
Choosing reaction conditions
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 an engaging and informative lesson that looks at the properties of water and challenges students to be able to explain how these properties are related to the numerous functions of this biological molecule. This lesson focuses on the link between properties and functions which is the area where students commonly struggle.
A range of tasks and activities, including a quick competition are used to introduce the different properties and the key terms and then time is taken to look at how this property enables water to be used for a range of functions. Students will learn that water has both a high specific heat capacity and a high latent heat of vaporisation and be able to explain why this is important. Water is a crucial solvent which enables it to perform many roles in living organisms and these are explored. Progress checks are written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can constantly assess their understanding and build on any knowledge that was there from GCSE.
This bundle of 8 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic B3 (Infection and response) of the AQA GCSE Biology specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Communicable diseases
Viral diseases
Bacterial diseases
Fungal diseases
Protist diseases
Human defence systems
Preventing disease by vaccinations
Antibiotics
Discovery and development of drugs
Producing monoclonal antibodies
Uses of monoclonal antibodies
Plant disease
Plant defence responses
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 an informative lesson that builds on the knowledge that students gained at GCSE on the topic of inheritance to enable them to carry out genetic crosses for the inheritance of a single gene at A-level. The start of the lesson focuses on the terminology that is associated with this topic which has to be recognised and understood if students are going to be able to begin a cross. Time is taken to go over key points such as the genotypes and working out the different possible gametes that would be produced by meiosis. Students can save time by only showing the different gametes so assistance is given on this. As can be seen from the cover image, a step by step guide is used to go through a number of examples so that students can visualise how to set out their diagrams in order to maximise the marks gained. There are progress checks written into the lesson throughout so that assessment is constant.
This lesson can be taught alongside another upload called “understanding genetic trees”
This lesson focuses on the nature of the genetic code in terms of being near universal, non-overlapping and degenerate and specifically focuses on this latter term to explain how a mutation may not result in a change to the sequence of amino acids. The PowerPoint has been designed to cover point 2.1.3 (f) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification and there are clear links to gene mutations which students will meet in module 6.
The lesson begins by introducing the terms near universal and non-overlapping in addition to degenerate. A quick quiz competition is used to generate the number 20 so that the students can learn that there are 20 proteinogenic amino acids in the genetic code. This leads into a challenge, where they have to use their prior knowledge of DNA to calculate the number of different DNA triplets (64) and the mismatch in number is then discussed and related back to the lesson topic. Moving forwards, base substitutions and base deletions are briefly introduced so that they can see how although one substitution can change the primary structure, another will change the codon but not the encoded amino acid. The lesson concludes with a brief look at the non-overlapping nature of the code so that the impact of a base deletion (or insertion) can be understood when covered in greater detail in module 6.
This bundle of 6 lessons cover all of the content in the sub-topic P2.1 (Motion) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics or specification points covered within these lessons include:
Measuring distance and time to calculate speed
Conversion from non S.I. units to S.I. units
Be able to distinguish between scalar and vector quantities
Relate changes in motion to distance-time and velocity-time graphs
Calculate distance travelled from a velocity-time graph
Calculate average speed for non-uniform motion
Apply the equations of motion
Calculating acceleration
Calculating kinetic energy
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 9 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic P3.2 (Simple circuits) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
The differences between series and parallel circuits
Represent direct current circuits with the common electrical symbols
Current and the dependence on resistance and potential difference
Recall and apply the relationship between I, V and R
The graphs for thermistors and LDRs
Diodes
Net resistance
Current, potential difference and resistance calculations in series and parallel circuits
Power transfer in a circuit
Applying the equations to do with electrical circuits
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 most of the content in sub-topic P4.3 (Radioactivity) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics or specification points covered within these lessons include:
Atomic nuclei
Isotopes
Unstable nuclei and emitting particles or gamma rays
Writing balanced equations to represent decay
The concept of the half-life
The different penetrating powers of alpha, beta and gamma
Recall the differences between irradiation and contamination
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 lesson that looks at the role of transformers in the National Grid, explains why they increase or decrease potential difference and then uses the given equation to calculate potential difference or the number of turns on the primary or secondary coil. This lesson includes an informative lesson presentation (25 slides) and two question worksheets.
The lesson begins by introducing the devices that are transformers and showing the students that there are two types, step-up and step-down. Students will learn that step-up transformers increase the potential difference and step-down transformers decrease the potential difference. Moving forwards, a series of calculations are used to get the students to understand why these changes in potential difference occur. Students are guided through this section so that they are able to complete a summary passage about the roles of these devices. They will then be shown the equation connecting potential difference and number of turns which they do not need to recall but have to apply. Again, a worked example is used to visualise how workings should be set out before students are challenged to answer two sets of questions, the second of which involves the use of a second equation. Progress checks like these are found at regular intervals throughout the lesson so that students can assess their understanding.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students
This bundle of 6 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic P6.1 (Radioactive emissions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Physics specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Atoms and isotopes
The properties of alpha, beta and gamma radiation
Nuclear decay equations
Half-life
Background radiation
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 an engaging lesson that looks at the structures and actions of the two parts of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and shows students where this particular system fits into the whole organisation of the nervous system.
The lesson begins by introducing the students to the idea that motor neurones are not simply somatic motor neurones but will actually be classified as autonomic motor neurones if they innervate the involuntary muscles. A range of tasks, progress checks and quick competitions are used during the lesson to engage the students in this topic and show them how it relates to other topics such as motor neurones and neurotransmitters. Key terminology is used throughout, such as ganglions, so that students can recognise and access the marks if an exam question on this topic arises.
This lesson has been written for A-level students
This bundle of 6 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic C5.1 (Controlling reactions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Practical methods for determining rate of reaction
Interpreting rate graphs
Describe and explain the effect of temperature, concentration and particle size on the rate of reaction
Describe and explain the effects of a catalyst on a reaction, through use of the understanding of activation energy
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.