I currently teach IGCSE Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Also A level Biology. The resources I produce for my lessons are carefully planned and I try to involve a lot of self-learning to allow students to develop these important skills needed for further education.
I currently teach IGCSE Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Also A level Biology. The resources I produce for my lessons are carefully planned and I try to involve a lot of self-learning to allow students to develop these important skills needed for further education.
A series of 4 lessons covering the following points:
GPP = NPP + R
Calculating net primary productivity
Calculating the effficiency of biomass and energy transfers between trophic levels
Terminology
Biotic and abiotic factors
Concept of niche
Stages of succession
PPT include many tasks for students to promote independent thinking and learning plus exam style questions and answers.
Lesson 1 covers the CNS, receptors and responses. It also introduces neurones and their role.
Lesson 2 covers synapses and their structure/role in the nervous system
Lesson 3 looks at the 3 types of neurones found in the CNS which will link into reflex arc
Lesson 4 looks at the Reflex arc
There are activities and assessments in each of the power point. There are also questions to generate a class discussion and check points.
Help students prepare their revision for the topic of nutrition. The questions cover both plants and animal nutrition including core practicals (Edexcel).
I print the document on A3 paper and it takes around 45 - 50 minutes for able students to complete. I allow the task to be an open book activity in preparation for an exam.
A level Biology topic focusing on gene technology.
This unit includes:
the principles of genetic technology
the tools and techniques available to the genetic engineer
explaining the use of microarrays
outline the use of bioinformatics in sequencing genomes
describe examples of the uses of genetic technology in medicine and agriculture
Pros and Cons of GMO
In this unit includes powerpoint lessons, worksheets, videos and discussion/debate tasks.
The unit contains 4 lessons but this can be increased if you would like more time on a particular aspect e.g. debate.
This is an interactive lesson focusing on the different methods used by forensic scientists to determine the time of death.
This includes:
Algor mortis (body temperature)
Rigor mortis (muscle contraction)
Livor mortis (colour of skin after death)
Entomology (study of insects)
Decomposition
Students click on each link to gain information about each method. The information is in the form of text, diagrams and videos.
Students can summarise this information in their notes if the teacher wishes.
The students are then given information about 5 deceased people and the state of the body when found.
Working in pairs or groups, students use the information to predict and approximate the time of death (they are given a current time and work backwards).
A PDF worksheet with focused questions on determining the time of death of a body.
This focuses on factors that affect body temperature and the use of rigor mortis and entomology to determine the time of death.
I have included my answer sheet for guidance.
A PDF file with tasks that cover the key information studied regarding Biological Molecules including structure, names of bonds formed and types of reaction.
Activities include basic exam questions focusing on structure and properties; crossword to consolidate learning of vocabulary; match name to structure activity.
Answer sheet included
A Word document which can be modified.
It contains all of the specification points for unit 1.
I have included an exam progression tracker for the 12 exams available and have included the grade boundaries and UMS scores for each exam. These are the modular exams for unit 1 IAL but are also great exam practice for Biology A students in preparation for the May exam.
I have included page references for each specification point (from the IAL Book 1 and will need to be modified for Biology A). There is also a RAG section to support student learning.
A Word document which can be modified.
It contains all of the specification points for unit 4 “Energy Flow, Ecosystems and the Environment”.
I have included an exam progression tracker for the 8 exams available and have included the grade boundaries and UMS scores for each exam. These are the modular exams for unit 4 IAL but are also great exam practice for Biology A students in preparation for the June exam.
I have included page references for each specification point (from the IAL Book 2 and will need to be modified for Biology A). There is also a RAG section to support student learning.
I print these and give them to each student so they can follow the course but also monitor their performance in each exam.
6 PDF worksheets with exam questions focusing on sexual reproduction. There is an answer sheet to go with this resource.
The worksheets focus on
gametogenesis
fertilization
pregnancy and hormones
gamete structure
Welcome to Hollow Grove, a small town surrounded by dense forests and whispered legends of the supernatural.
As a group of students on a camping trip, you arrive at the mysterious old mansion rumored to be haunted. The wind howls through the trees as you approach the creaky gate.
The story runs alongside tasks to test students’ knowledge and understanding of cell structure to include:
Organelles inside of the cell
Microscope structure
Calculating size of specimen
The escape room is interactive. Students can move objects and click on them to reveal clues. No handouts are required but scrap paper is useful as some clues need to be written down and rearranged.
There are gentle hints at the top of each page but students should click around the whole room to move or reveal clues.
It is important clues are solved as they are required to pass to the next page.
The escape room is a great end-of-topic task to check student´s understanding in a novel way.
What is a digital escape room?
Digital Escape rooms are an interactive activity that promote both individual learning and peer collaboration through problem-solving. Each escape room has a range of activities to challenge the students whilst also covering the specification. This means they are an excellent resource to use as a revision tool. All of the activities are online, eliminating the need for printing materials.
How does the escape room work?
Students will be given a link to access the digital escape room. You do not need to provide an email address or have a google account to access the material. Escape rooms can be completed on laptops, tablets and mobile phones, so they can be set as homework or used in cover lessons.
Starting the Task
• Give students the link to the escape room
• Students can enjoy working through the challenges with a partner but they can be completed alone.
• Students will need to look closely at the images. Some objects can be moved to reveal clues, other need to be clicked on.
This is a 2 part lesson for muscle contraction. It introduces actin-myosin interactions in the sliding filament theory. I have included some PPT slides from boardworks which highlight this interaction very well. I have also included 2 videos from youtube which I find very helpful. The crash course video can be used in either lesson 1 or 2. The Biology ATP Myosin video is a resource I use along slide the boardworks presentation on muscle contraction where students use both resources and their books to produce a flow chart or bullet points explain what occurs in the sarcomere.
There is also an exam question at the end of lesson 2.
*please note that you will need to enable macros on PPT to allow boardworks to be interactive
A formative assessment task which can take 2 lessons or be set as a homework. I set this before the end of topic test to allow students time to clarify the ideas behind the unit. Students can use their text books and tablets but the work must be explained in their own words.
I have included the criteria to include in the poster and the mark scheme which would be used to grade the work. This works well as a peer assessment as well as a teacher assessed task.
A power point which introduces the structure and function of the parts of a flower. Students then analyse the differences between the insect and wind pollinated flowers. There is a brief explanation of fertilisation and formation of the pollen tube. Finally looking at asexual and sexual reproduction in plants.
The power point contains the whole lesson and it is easy for the teacher to follow the plan of the lesson with tasks for students clearly highlighted and check points to ensure learning.
I have used a ppt slide from the author clickbiology as I think it is one of the best slides on flower structure I have seen.
This series of 3 lessons covers:
the terms magnification and resolution
the differences between light and electron microscopes
the importance of staining in microscopy; a series of practicals with instructions
how to make plan drawings of specimens
how to use a graticule.
I have included different tasks, some individual and some group work. I have encouraged my students to study independently rather than give all of the information. There are also a series of exam questions to test understanding.
These lessons provide support towards the core practical
Welcome to Hollow Grove, a small town surrounded by dense forests and whispered legends of the supernatural.
As a group of students on a camping trip, you arrive at the mysterious old mansion rumored to be haunted. The wind howls through the trees as you approach the creaky gate.
The story runs alongside tasks to test students’ knowledge and understanding of muscles and movement to include:
Structure of a muscle
Labelling of a sarcomere
Sliding filament theory
Differences between slow and fast twitch muscle fibres
The escape room is interactive. Students can move objects and click on them to reveal clues. No handouts are required.
There are gentle hints at the top of each page but students should click around the whole room to move or reveal clues.
It is important clues are solved as they are required to pass to the next page.
The escape room is a great end-of-topic task to check student´s understanding in a novel way.
**What is a digital escape room?
Digital Escape rooms are an interactive activity that promote both individual learning and peer collaboration through problem-solving. Each escape room has a range of activities to challenge the students whilst also covering the specification. This means they are an excellent resource to use as a revision tool. All of the activities are online, eliminating the need for printing materials
**How does the escape room work?
Students will be given a link to access the digital escape room. You do not need to provide an email address or have a Google account to access the material. Escape rooms can be completed on laptops, tablets and mobile phones, so they can be set as homework or used in cover lessons.
**Starting the Task
• Give students the link to the escape room
• Students can enjoy working through the challenges with a partner but they can be completed alone.
• Students will need to look closely at the images. Some objects can be moved to reveal clues, other need to be clicked on.
• There is a teacher answer sheet provided if you need to guide students. Hints also appear on the screen after one minute.
Welcome to Hollow Grove, a small town surrounded by dense forests and whispered legends of the supernatural.
As a group of students on a camping trip, you arrive at the mysterious old mansion rumored to be haunted. The wind howls through the trees as you approach the creaky gate.
The story runs alongside tasks to test students’ knowledge and understanding of standard and compound units.
General content includes
calculate time intervals in terms of the 24-hour and the 12-hour clock
make sensible estimates of a range of measures
measure an angle to the nearest degree
understand and use the relationship between average speed, distance, and time
use compound measures such as speed, density and pressure
convert measurements within the metric system to include linear and area units e.g. cm2 to m2 and vice versa
find the area of simple shapes using the formulae for the areas of triangles and rectangles
find the area of parallelograms and trapezia
find the surface area of simple shapes using the area formulae for triangles and rectangles
The escape room is interactive. Students can move objects and click on them to reveal clues. No handouts are required but scrap paper is useful as some clues need to be written down and rearranged.
There are gentle hints at the top of each page but students should click around the whole room to move or reveal clues.
It is important clues are solved as they are required to pass to the next page.
The escape room is a great end-of-topic task to check student´s understanding in a novel way.
What is a digital escape room?
Digital Escape rooms are an interactive activity which promote both individual learning and peer collaboration through problem solving. Each escape room has a range of activities to challenge the students whilst also covering the specification. This means they are an excellent resource to use as a revision tool. All of the activities are online, eliminating the need for printing materials.
How does the escape room work?
Students will be given a link to access the digital escape room. You do not need to provide an email address or have a google account to access the material. Escape rooms can be completed on laptops, tablets and mobile phones, so they can be set as homework or used in cover lessons.
Starting the Task
• Give students the link to the escape room (on next page)
• Students can enjoy working through the challenges with a partner but they can be completed alone.
• Students will need to look closely at the images. Some objects can be moved to reveal clues, other need to be clicked on.
• There is a teacher answer sheet provided if you need to guide students.
A power point presentation introducing the concept that pathogens are constantly evolving against treatments we have.
Students discuss how HIV and TB have managed to evade detection by the immune system
Article about people who have protection against the HIV virus (CCR5 gene) with questions.
Exam questions
A power point to aid students understanding of breathing and the pressure/volume differences that occur during inhalation and exhalation.
This links directly to the edexcel syllabus - 2.47 understand the role of the intercostal muscles and the diaphragm in ventilation.
I have included a worksheet from edexcel AS biology to calculate the surface area of the lungs as a starter activity.
Also included is the video on breathing by TedEd which gives a nice introduction to the process and also links into respiration.
Plenary - edexcel exam questions
A lesson which introduces the idea of electrical activity in the heart, including the roles of SAN; AVN and bundles of His.
It also includes how to interpret an ECG.
This a complete lesson - possibly could take 2 lessons. It contains worksheets, video clips and exam questions. All answers provided in PPT so students can self assess their own work.