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.
An engaging lesson presentation (80 slides) and associated worksheets that uses a combination of exam questions, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the topics found within Topic 3 (Quantitative chemistry) of the AQA GCSE Chemistry specification (specification point C4.3). The lesson includes useful hints and tips to encourage success in assessments. For example, students are shown how to recognise whether to use Avogadro’s constant or the moles formula in a moles calculation question.
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Conservation of mass and balanced symbol equations
Relative formula mass
Mass changes when a reactant or product is a gas
Moles
Amounts of substances in equations
Concentration of solutions
Atom economy
Molar volume
Students will be engaged through the numerous activities including quiz rounds like “Number CRAZY” and “In the BALANCE” whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which need further attention
This is a fully-resourced lesson that looks at how the transfer of electrons from metals to non-metals causes ionic bonds and compounds to form and then explores the different properties of these structures. The lesson includes a detailed and engaging lesson presentation (43 slides) and a task worksheet which has been differentiated two ways.
The lesson begins by introducing the name of the type of bond, but does not go into any more detail at this stage. This is because the lesson is designed to allow the students to discover that in order for both of the atoms involved to get a full outer shell, electrons have to be transferred from one to the other. Over the course of the lesson, students will recognise that it is the metal that loses the electrons and becomes a positive ion whilst the non-metal gains the electrons and becomes a negative ion. There are lots of discussion and discovery points like this written into the lesson so that students can take ownership for their learning. Students are guided through drawing dot and cross diagrams to represent these compounds and as a result links are made to the topics of naming compounds, writing chemical formulae, forming ions and electron configurations. There are a number of quick competitions in the lesson which introduce new terms to the students. One such competition introduces the term lattice and the lesson builds from here to understand why ionic compounds have high melting and boiling points. Moving forwards, students will also learn that solid ionic compounds cannot conduct electricity whilst those in molten form or in an aqueous solution are able to. The final task of the lesson challenges the students to bring all of the information together they have seen to draw a dot and cross diagram for aluminium oxide, explain how it was formed and then explain how aluminium is extracted from this compound by electrolysis. This final task has been differentiated so that students who need extra assistance can still access the learning.
This lesson has been written for GCSE aged students but could be used with higher ability younger students who are pushing on with the elements, compounds and mixtures topic
This is a fully-resourced lesson about group 7 of the Periodic Table, the halogens, which includes a lesson presentation (34 slides) and a differentiated worksheet. The lesson begins by challenging students to recognise and explain why the electronic structure of group 1 and group 7 means that they react together easily. As the lesson progresses, students will learn more and more properties about the halogens and key terms such as diatomic are used throughout so that students become accustomed to these. Moving forwards, students will carry out a series of displacement reactions so that they can recognise that the reactivity of these elements decreases as they go down the group. Students are challeged to explain this with reference to electron configuration and a differentiated worksheet will help those who need assistance to access this work.
This lesson has been designed for GCSE students (14 - 16 year olds in the UK) but is suitable for younger students who might be carrying out a project on the Periodic Table
A fully-resourced lesson which prepares students for the range of mathematical-based questions that they could encounter on the two AQA GCSE Chemistry papers. The lesson contains a wide range of activities which include exam-style questions with markschemes embedded within the PowerPoint to enable the students to assess their current understanding. There are also 8 quiz competition rounds interspersed throughout the lesson to maintain engagement and motivation.
The mathematical skills covered in this lesson include:
Calculating the number of sub-atomic particles in atoms and ions
Writing chemical formulae for ionic compounds
Identifying isotopes
Using Avogadro’s constant to calculate the number of particles
Calculating the relative formula mass
Calculating amount in moles using the mass and the relative formula mass
Balancing chemical symbol equations
Calculating reacting masses
Gas calculations using molar volume
Calculating the concentration of an unknown solution
Calculating the atom economy and percentage yield
Calculating energy changes in reactions
Temperature and pressure and the position of equilibrium
Most of the resources have been differentiated two ways to allow students of differing abilities to access the work whilst still being challenged. In addition, step by step guides are used to demonstrate how to carry out some of the more difficult calculations such as the harder mole calculations and calculating masses in reactions
This lesson explains the law of conservation of mass and applies this law to a closed system and a non-enclosed system. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover point 1.48 of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification and also covers that point in the Chemistry section of the Combined Science course.
The lesson begins by introducing the law of the conservation of mass. Students will learn that they can expect questions which challenge them to prove that mass is conserved through the use of the relative formula mass. Therefore, the next section of the lesson focuses on the skills associated with this calculation and looks at more different formulae such as those with brackets. Students are given an opportunity to check their skills before trying to prove mass is conserved in three chemical reactions. All questions have displayed mark schemes so that students can assess their understanding. The rest of the lesson looks at instances of when the mass of the reactants does not equal the mass of the products. A practical method for the decomposition of copper carbonate is provided if the teacher wants to use it, so that students can collect results which show this difference in mass. Discussions are encouraged in order to get students to offer explanations as to why the mass of the products is lower. Once the gas has been identified, students are further challenged to consider apparatus that could be used to collect and record the results to again prove conservation
An engaging lesson presentation (73 slides) and associated worksheets that uses a combination of exam questions, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the topics found within unit C5 of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Chemistry specification.
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Percentage yield
Concentration of solution
Titrations
Titration calculations
Gas calculations
Rate of reaction
Factors affecting the rate of reaction
Reversible reactions
Equilibrium position
Students will be engaged through the numerous activities including quiz rounds like “Under PRESSURE” and “Number CRAZY” whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which need further attention
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 topics found within Topic C3 (Physical chemistry) of the Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry specification which has its’ first assessment in 2019.
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Energetics
Rates of reaction
Reversible reactions and equilibria
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 an engaging revision lesson which uses a range of exam questions, understanding checks, quiz tasks and quiz competitions to enable students to assess their understanding of the content within topic 9 (The Periodic Table) of the Cambridge IGCSE Chemistry (0620) specification. The lesson covers the content in both the core and supplement sections of the specification and therefore can be used with students who will be taking the extended papers as well as the core papers.
The specification points that are covered in this revision lesson include:
CORE
Describe the Periodic Table as a method of classifying elements and its use to predict properties of elements
Describe the change from metallic to nonmetallic character across a period
Describe lithium, sodium and potassium in Group I as a collection of relatively soft metals showing a trend in melting point, density and reaction with water
Describe the halogens, chlorine, bromine and iodine in Group VII, as a collection of diatomic non-metals showing a trend in colour and density and state their reaction with other halide ions
Predict the properties of other elements in Group VII, given data where appropriate
Describe the transition elements as a collection of metals having high densities, high melting points and forming coloured compounds, and which, as elements and compounds, often act as catalysts
Describe the noble gases, in Group VIII or 0, as being unreactive, monoatomic gases and explain this in terms of electronic structure
State the uses of the noble gases in providing an inert atmosphere, i.e. argon in lamps, helium for filling balloons
SUPPLEMENT
Describe and explain the relationship between Group number, number of outer shell electrons and metallic/non-metallic character
Identify trends in Groups, given information about the elements concerned
Know that transition elements have variable oxidation states
The students will thoroughly enjoy the range of activities, which include quiz competitions such as “Make sure you check every passage PERIODICALLY” where they have to scan summary passages about the table and decide if it is 100% correct whilst crucially being able to recognise the areas of this topic which need their further attention. This lesson can be used as revision resource at the end of the topic or in the lead up to mocks or the actual GCSE exams
This is an engaging revision lesson which uses a range of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to enable students to assess their understanding of the content within topic 6 (Groups in the Periodic Table) of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification.
The specification points that are covered in this revision lesson include:
Explain why some elements can be classified as alkali metals (group 1), halogens (group 7) or noble gases (group 0), based on their position in the periodic table
Describe the pattern in reactivity of the alkali metals, lithium, sodium and potassium, with water; and use this pattern to predict the reactivity of other alkali metals
Explain this pattern in reactivity in terms of electronic configurations
Recall the colours and physical states of chlorine, bromine and iodine at room temperature
Describe the pattern in the physical properties of the halogens, chlorine, bromine and iodine, and use this pattern to predict the physical properties of other halogens
Describe the reactions of the halogens, chlorine, bromine and iodine, with metals to form metal halides, and use this pattern to predict the reactions of other halogens
Describe the relative reactivity of the halogens chlorine, bromine and iodine, as shown by their displacement reactions with halide ions in aqueous solution, and use this pattern to predict the reactions of astatine
Explain the relative reactivity of the halogens in terms of electronic configurations
Explain why the noble gases are chemically inert, compared with the other elements, in terms of their electronic configurations
The students will thoroughly enjoy the range of activities, which include quiz competitions such as “Make sure you check every passage PERIODICALLY” where they have to scan summary passages about the table and decide if it is 100% correct whilst crucially being able to recognise the areas of this topic which need their further attention. This lesson can be used as revision resource at the end of the topic or in the lead up to mocks or the actual GCSE exams
An engaging lesson presentation (72 slides) and associated worksheets that uses a combination of exam questions, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the topics found within unit C6 (Global Challenges) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification.
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Extracting metals
Extracting iron
Extracting aluminium
Cracking oil fractions
Water for drinking
Students will be engaged through the numerous activities including quiz rounds like “EXTRACT the non-FACT” and “Say what you SEE” whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which need further attention
This is a fully-resourced lesson that looks at the different skills needed to calculate the percentage yield. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students and includes an engaging lesson presentation and a skills check worksheet. As well as the obvious Science involved in the lesson, the students’ mathematical skills are challenged as they have to rearrange formulae and also there is a literacy element as recognition of the different types of yield is important. The percentage yield formula is broken down into the two elements of theoretical yield and actual yield and a step by step guide through worked examples is used to visualise how these calculations should be tackled. Students are given regular opportunities to test the skills which they have just learnt (or recalled) before bringing them together to calculate the percentage yield. The lesson finishes with a difficult question which challenges the students to rearrange the formula to make theoretical yield the subject.
This lesson explains how ionic bonds are formed to form ions and describes the structure of an ionic compound. The engaging lesson PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover points 1.21 and 1.27 of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification and this also covers those points on the Combined Science specification.
The lesson begins by introducing the name of the type of bond, but does not go into any more detail at this stage. This is because the lesson is designed to allow the students to discover that in order for both of the atoms involved to get a full outer shell, electrons have to be transferred from one to the other. Over the course of the lesson, students will recognise that it is the metal that loses the electrons and becomes a positive ion whilst the non-metal gains the electrons and becomes a negative ion. There are lots of discussion and discovery points like this written into the lesson so that students can take ownership for their learning. Students are guided through drawing dot and cross diagrams to represent these compounds and as a result links are made to the topics of naming compounds, writing chemical formulae, forming ions and electron configurations. There are a number of quick competitions in the lesson which introduce new terms to the students. One such competition introduces the term lattice and the lesson builds from here to understand why ionic compounds have high melting and boiling points. Moving forwards, students will also learn that solid ionic compounds cannot conduct electricity whilst those in molten form or in an aqueous solution are able to. The final task of the lesson challenges the students to bring all of the information together they have seen to draw a dot and cross diagram for aluminium oxide, explain how it was formed and then explain how aluminium is extracted from this compound by electrolysis. This final task has been differentiated so that students who need extra assistance can still access the learning.
This lesson has been written for GCSE aged students but could be used with higher ability younger students who are pushing on with the elements, compounds and mixtures topic
This is a fully-resourced lesson which uses exam-style questions, engaging quiz competitions, quick tasks and discussion points to challenge students on their understanding of topics C1 & C6 - C8, that will assessed on PAPER 4. It has been specifically designed for students on the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science course who will be taking the FOUNDATION TIER examinations but is also suitable for students taking the higher tier who need to ensure that the key ideas are known and understood.
The lesson has been written to cover as many specification points as possible but the following sub-topics have been given particular attention:
Hydrocarbons
The homologous series of alkanes
Empirical formula
Covalent dot and cross diagrams
Fractional distillation of crude oil
The properties of the different fractions
The complete combustion of a hydrocarbon
Changes in the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere
Deforestation
Changes in the Earth’s atmosphere
Polluting gases
The formation of acid rain
Detecting oxygen and chlorine
The properties of the halogens
Metals vs non-metals
The reaction of alkali metals with water
Explaining the pattern of reactivity of the alkali metals
The collision theory
Endothermic and exothermic reactions
In order to maintain challenge whilst ensuring that all abilities can access the questions, the majority of the tasks have been differentiated and students can ask for extra support when they are unable to begin a question. Step-by-step guides have also been written into the lesson to walk students through some of the more difficult concepts such as the changes in the Earth’s atmosphere and explaining the reactivity of the alkali metals in terms of electronic configurations.
Due to the extensiveness of this revision lesson, it is estimated that it will take in excess of 3 teaching hours to complete the tasks and therefore this can be used at different points throughout the duration of the course as well as acting as a final revision before the PAPER 4 exam.
This REVISION resource has been designed to motivate and engage students whilst they are challenged on their knowledge of the content in topics C1-C5 of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification which can be assessed on PAPER 3. This is fully-resourced and contains a detailed PowerPoint (170 slides) and accompanying worksheets, some of which have been differentiated.
The resource was written with the aim of covering as many C1-C5 sub-topics as possible, but the following ones have received particular focus:
The chemical properties of the Group 1, 7 and 0 elements
The structure of atoms and ions
The properties of ionic compounds
Drawing dot and cross diagrams to represent ionic compounds
Extracting metals using carbon
REDOX reactions
Electrolysis of molten salts and solutions
Neutralisation reactions
Writing balanced chemical symbol equations
Simple and giant covalent structures
Diamond and graphite
Moles and Avogadro’s constant
The organisation of the Periodic Table
Due to the extensiveness of this resource, it is likely to be used over the course of a number of lessons with a particular class and this allows the teacher to focus in on any sub-topics which are identified as needing more time.
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 C4 (Extracting metals and equilibria) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification.
The sub-topics and specification points that are tested within the lesson include:
Redox reactions
The extraction of metals
Extracting metals by heating with carbon and by electrolysis
Life cycle assessment
Reversible reactions
The formation of ammonia as a reversible reaction
The conditions for the Haber process
Predicting how the position of a dynamic equilibrium is affected by changes in pressure and temperature
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
A fully resourced lesson presentation (93 slides) and associated worksheets that uses a combination of exam questions, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the topics found within unit C3 (Chemical reactions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification.
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Formulae of elements and molecules
Formulae of ionic compounds
Conservation of mass
Chemical equations
Half equations
The mole
Exothermic and endothermic reactions
The pH scale
Hydrogen ions and pH
Electrolysis of molten salts
Electrolysis of solutions
Students will be engaged through the numerous activities including quiz rounds like “E Numbers” whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which need further attention
This REVISION resource has been designed to motivate and engage students whilst they are challenged on their knowledge of the content in topics C1-C3 of the OCR GCSE Chemistry specification which can be assessed on PAPER 1. This is fully-resourced and contains a detailed PowerPoint (184 slides) and accompanying worksheets, some of which have been differentiated.
The resource was written with the aim of covering as many of the sub-topics in C1-C5 as possible, but the following ones have been given a particular focus:
The organisation of the Periodic Table
The structure of atoms and ions
Isotopes
The properties of ionic compounds
Drawing dot and cross diagrams to represent ionic compounds
Electrolysis of molten salts and solutions
Writing half equations for the cathode and anode
Neutralisation reactions
Writing balanced chemical symbol equations
Ionic equations
Simple and giant covalent structures
Diamond and graphite
Calculating the relative formula mass
Moles and Avogadro’s constant
Calculating the mass in reactions
Due to the extensiveness of this resource, it is likely to be used over the course of a number of lessons with a particular class and this allows the teacher to focus in on any sub-topics which are identified as needing more time.
This is a fully-resourced lesson which is designed for GCSE students and explores the topic of compounds, specifically focusing on naming these chemicals based upon the elements within them and from their chemical formula. The lesson includes an engaging lesson presentation (46 slides) and a worksheet containing three tasks for the lesson.
The lesson begins with some simple multiple choice questions to check that students can spot the chemical symbol and definition of an element, but more importantly pick out the formula for a compound. Time is taken to go through the explanation of why substances are elements or compounds and specific examples given. A quick understanding check, in the form of a competition called “To COM or NOT TO COM”,is used to check that students can identify elements or compounds from a name or given formula. The remainder of the lesson focuses on naming compounds. Students are challenged to spot a pattern when presented with the names of two compounds, which contain 2 elements only. For both compounds that contain 2 elements or 3 or more, the rules to naming are introduced before examples are shown so that students can visualise how to construct their answer. They are then given an opportunity to apply this to a number of questions in the set tasks. The last part of the lesson moves this forward by looking at how these same rules can be applied when the chemical formula of a compound is given and this is related to another topic as they are challenged to write a word equation containing a range of compounds when presented with the symbol equation. Progress checks are written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can constantly assess their understanding.
Although this is written for GCSE students, it is perfectly suitable for use with younger students who are learning about elements, compounds and mixtures and the teacher wants to push them along.
This fully-resourced lesson will prepare students for the range of mathematical-based questions that they may face on Paper 2 & 4. It is specificallly designed for students who have studied the Extended subject content (Core & Supplement) as detailed on the CIE IGCSE Chemistry specification. The lesson contains a wide range of activities which includes 8 quiz competition rounds spread across the duration of the lesson to maintain engagement whilst the students assess their understanding.
The mathematical skills covered in this lesson include:
Calculating the number of sub-atomic particles in atoms and ions
Writing chemical formulae for ionic compounds
Identifying isotopes
Using Avogadro’s constant to calculate the number of particles
Calculating the relative formula mass
Calculating amount in moles using the mass and the relative formula mass
Balancing chemical symbol equations
Calculating reacting masses
Gas calculations using molar volume
Calculating concentration of solutions
Titration calculations
Deducing the empirical formula
Calculating energy changes in reactions
Most of the resources have been differentiated two ways to allow students of differing abilities to access the work whilst still being challenged. In addition, step by step guides are used to demonstrate how to carry out some of the more difficult calculations such as the harder mole calculations and calculating masses in reactions.
Due to the extensiveness of this lesson, it is estimated that it will take in excess of 3 teaching hours to complete all of the tasks and questions
A fully-resourced lesson (82 slides) that uses a combination of exam questions, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the topics found within the Chemistry unit C4 (Chemical changes) of the AQA GCSE Combined Science specification (specification point C5.4)
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Reactivity series
Extraction of metals and reduction
Oxidation and reduction in terms of electrons
Reactions of metals with acids
Neutralisations
Electrolysis
Half equations
Students will be engaged through the numerous activities including quiz rounds like “It’s time for ACTION” and “Number CRAZY” whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which need further attention