NEW AQA GCSE (2016) Physics - Nuclear Fission & Nuclear Fusion

This lesson is designed for the NEW AQA Physics GCSE, particularly the ‘Radioactivity’ SoW.

For more lessons designed to meet specification points for the NEW AQA Trilogy specifications for Biology, Chemistry and Physics please see my shop: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/SWiftScience

This lesson with a ‘Think > Pair > Share’ task where students will consider what they think may be happening during a ‘Nuclear Fusion’ or ‘Nuclear Fission’ reaction. Once students have fed back as a class discussion, the definitions for each process can be revealed using the PowerPoint.

Students will now watch a video outlining the basic principles of these two processes, whilst watching the video they will answer a set of questions. Once this work has been completed they can self-assess using the mark scheme provided.

Next, students are shown a diagram of a chain reaction, students will need to sketch a cope of this into their books alongside an explanation of this process in context of nuclear fission.

The next activity requires students, in pairs, to teach each other about the principles of a nuclear reactor vs. fusion reactor, after being given a set of information on the topic. Students will then need to answer a set of questions into their books about these two types of reactors, the work can be self-assessed using the mark scheme provided.

Lastly, students will complete a radioactivity crossword based upon knowledge they have learned throughout the radioactivity topic, the answers to this task is also included so pupils can mark their own work.

The plenary requires students to complete a set of sentence starters to summarise what they have learned this lesson, what they already knew about this topic before the lesson and what they would like to learn more about.

All resources are included at the end of the presentation. Thanks for looking, if you have any questions please let me know in the comments section and any feedback would be appreciated :)