I am a secondary science teacher from Plymouth, United Kingdom. I have a passion for designing interactive, engaging and well scaffolded resources that are inclusive for all pupils. I teach all years, from years 7-13. I teach KS3 Activate (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), AQA GCSE Combined Science Trilogy (Biology and Chemistry), AQA GCSE Biology, AQA GCSE Chemistry, and A Level Biology (OCR A).
I am a secondary science teacher from Plymouth, United Kingdom. I have a passion for designing interactive, engaging and well scaffolded resources that are inclusive for all pupils. I teach all years, from years 7-13. I teach KS3 Activate (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), AQA GCSE Combined Science Trilogy (Biology and Chemistry), AQA GCSE Biology, AQA GCSE Chemistry, and A Level Biology (OCR A).
A full 1 hour lesson designed for a lower attaining year 11 class studying the AQA GCSE Combined Science syllabus, from spec point 5.1.1.5 - Size and mass of atoms.
This lesson is focused around:
Students recalling the radius of an atom, and radius of the nucleus
Students being able to write in standard form
Students determining the mass number of an element using the periodic table
This lesson includes:
A retrieval “5 in 5” starter
Interesting lesson hooks with exciting facts
Plenty of models to help students understand the scale of an atom
An embedded video explaining the size of an atom
Worked examples
‘Checkpoints’ such as multiple choice questions
Independent practice tasks with answer slides
Exam practise with mark schemes
A written plenary
A full 1-hour lesson resource designed for a mixed ability year 10 class studying the AQA GCSE Chemistry topic on “electrolysis”.
This lesson focuses on the extraction of aluminium from its ore using molten cryolite.
This resource contains:
A ‘5-in-5’ retrieval-style starter
A lesson hook - how many ways have you used aluminium this week?
Introduction slides (dual coding, reduced cognitive load)
Embedded YouTube video
Written multiple choice quiz based on the video, with answers
‘Speed exam questions’ - short answer questions from ExamPro with answers
Written exam questions for students to practise, with scaffolding if necessary
Answer slides
Game of splat as plenary task - practising key words
This lesson is designed for a mixed ability year 9 class studying the AQA GCSE Combined Science Trilogy specification, at the start of the topic ‘Quantitative Chemistry’.
This lesson is focused on calculating relative formula mass.
From this lesson, students should be able to independently calculate relative formula mass.
All of my lesson resources contain:
A 5-in-5 retrieval-style starter
An interesting lesson hook, careers link, or retrieval practice to start the lesson
Teacher input slides with dual coding and reduced cognitive load
Teacher models
Regular ‘check for understanding’ slides, such as hand signals quizzes
Regular student independent practice slides, with optional scaffolds, challenges and answer slides
A plenary task
A full 1 hour lesson designed for a mixed ability year 7 class.
This is the 5th lesson in “Chapter 1 - Particles and their behaviour” from Activate 1, Chemistry.
This lesson is on ‘boiling’.
This lesson should be suitable to teach to any KS3 Chemistry class, even by those where chemistry is not their specialism.
This lesson (and all lessons in this unit) is designed to be interactive and engaging, with plenty of real world examples and independent tasks.
From this lesson, students should be able to:
Explain what is meant by the term ‘boiling’
Describe what happens to the particles in a liquid when it boils
Use given information about a substance’s melting point and boiling point to predict its state at room temperature
All of my lesson resources contain:
A 5-in-5 retrieval-style starter
An interesting lesson hook, careers link, or retrieval practice to start the lesson
Teacher input slides with dual coding and reduced cognitive load
Teacher models
Regular ‘check for understanding’ slides, such as hand signals quizzes
Regular student independent practice slides, with optional scaffolds, challenges and answer slides
A plenary task
A full 1 hour lesson designed for a mixed ability year 7 class.
This is the 4th lesson in “Chapter 1 - Particles and their behaviour” from Activate 1, Chemistry.
This lesson is on ‘melting and freezing’.
This lesson should be suitable to teach to any KS3 Chemistry class, even by those where chemistry is not their specialism.
This lesson (and all lessons in this unit) is designed to be interactive and engaging, with plenty of real world examples and independent tasks.
From this lesson, students should be able to:
Explain what is meant by the terms ‘melting’, ‘freezing’ and ‘change of state’
To describe what happens to the particles in a substance when it melts or freezes.
To state the factor in the particle model that explains why different substances have different melting points
Estimate the melting point of a substance from its temperature-time graph
All of my lesson resources contain:
A 5-in-5 retrieval-style starter
An interesting lesson hook, careers link, or retrieval practice to start the lesson
Teacher input slides with dual coding and reduced cognitive load
Teacher models
Regular ‘check for understanding’ slides, such as hand signals quizzes
Regular student independent practice slides, with optional scaffolds, challenges and answer slides
A plenary task
A full 1 hour lesson designed for a mixed ability year 7 class.
This is the second lesson in “Chapter 1 - Particles and their behaviour” from Activate 1, Chemistry.
This lesson should be suitable to teach to any KS3 Chemistry class, even by those where chemistry is not their specialism.
This lesson (and all lessons in this unit) is designed to be interactive and engaging, with plenty of real world examples and independent tasks.
From this lesson, students should be able to:
Identify and draw particle diagrams for solids, liquids and gases
Describe the arrangement and movement of particles in solids, liquids and gases
Use the particle model to explain the properties of solids, liquids and gases (e.g. explain why solids and gases cannot be compressed)
All of my lesson resources contain:
A 5-in-5 retrieval-style starter
An interesting lesson hook, careers link, or retrieval practice to start the lesson
Teacher input slides with dual coding and reduced cognitive load
Teacher models
Regular ‘check for understanding’ slides, such as hand signals quizzes
Regular student independent practice slides, with optional scaffolds, challenges and answer slides
A plenary task
A full 1 hour lesson designed for a mixed ability year 7 class.
This is the 6th and penultimate lesson in “Chapter 1 - Particles and their behaviour” from Activate 1, Chemistry.
This lesson is on ‘more changes in state’. I have chosen to focus this lesson on evaporation and condensation, and not discuss sublimation.
This lesson should be suitable to teach to any KS3 Chemistry class, even by those where chemistry is not their specialism.
This lesson (and all lessons in this unit) is designed to be interactive and engaging, with plenty of real world examples and independent tasks.
From this lesson, students should be able to:
Explain what is meant by ‘evaporation’
Describe the changes in the arrangement and movement of particles when a liquid evaporates
Compare boiling and evaporation
Explain what is meant by ‘condensation’
Describe the changes in the arrangement and movement of particles when a liquid condenses
All of my lesson resources contain:
A 5-in-5 retrieval-style starter
An interesting lesson hook, careers link, or retrieval practice to start the lesson
Teacher input slides with dual coding and reduced cognitive load
Teacher models
Regular ‘check for understanding’ slides, such as hand signals quizzes
Regular student independent practice slides, with optional scaffolds, challenges and answer slides
A plenary task
A full 1 hour lesson designed for a mixed ability year 7 class.
This is the first lesson in “Chapter 1 - Particles and their behaviour” from Activate 1, Chemistry.
This lesson should be suitable to teach to any KS3 Chemistry class, even by those where chemistry is not their specialism.
This lesson (and all lessons in this unit) is designed to be interactive and engaging, with plenty of real world examples and independent tasks.
From this lesson, students should be able to:
Recall that materials are made up of particles
Recall that all particles in a substance are the same
Use the particle model to describe the properties of a substance
List the four factors that affect the properties of a substance
All of my lesson resources contain:
A 5-in-5 retrieval-style starter
An interesting lesson hook, careers link, or retrieval practice to start the lesson
Teacher input slides with dual coding and reduced cognitive load
Teacher models
Regular ‘check for understanding’ slides, such as hand signals quizzes
Regular student independent practice slides, with optional scaffolds, challenges and answer slides
A plenary task
A full 1 hour lesson designed for a mixed ability year 7 class.
This is the 7th and final lesson in “Chapter 1 - Particles and their behaviour” from Activate 1, Chemistry.
This lesson is on ‘diffusion’.
This lesson should be suitable to teach to any KS3 Chemistry class, even by those where chemistry is not their specialism.
This lesson (and all lessons in this unit) is designed to be interactive and engaging, with plenty of real world examples and independent tasks.
From this lesson, students should be able to:
Recall the definition for the key term ‘diffusion’
Explain why diffusion happens in terms of particles
Explain how temperature, particle size and state affect the rate of diffusion
All of my lesson resources contain:
A 5-in-5 retrieval-style starter
An interesting lesson hook, careers link, or retrieval practice to start the lesson
Teacher input slides with dual coding and reduced cognitive load
Teacher models
Regular ‘check for understanding’ slides, such as hand signals quizzes
Regular student independent practice slides, with optional scaffolds, challenges and answer slides
A plenary task
This unit of work contains seven 1-hour lesson resources designed for a mixed ability year 7 class.
This unit follows "Chapter 1 - Particles and their behaviour” from Activate 1, Chemistry. However, it would be suitable for any KS3 curriculum studying particles, states of matter and changes of state.
This unit of work is designed to be engaging and interactive, with plenty of practical demonstrations and teacher models.
The lessons are designed so that they can be delivered by any member of staff, regardless of whether chemistry is their specialism. They are also suitable for students working outside the classroom, e.g. in isolation.
The lessons should be delivered in this order:
The particle model
Density
States of matter
Melting and freezing
Boiling
More changes of state
Diffusion
All of my lesson resources contain:
A 5-in-5 retrieval-style starter
An interesting lesson hook, careers link, or retrieval practice to start the lesson
Teacher input slides with dual coding and reduced cognitive load
Teacher models
Regular ‘check for understanding’ slides, such as hand signals quizzes
Regular student independent practice slides, with optional scaffolds, challenges and answer slides
A plenary task