An engaging and informative lesson presentation (43 slides) that shows students how to write accurate chemical formulae for ionic compounds. In order to write accurate chemical formulae, students need to know the charges of the ions involved. For this reason, the lesson begins by reminding students how they can use the Periodic Table to work out the charge of the charged atoms. Students are shown how they can use these ion charges to write the formula and then are given the opportunity to apply this to a number of examples. Moving forwards, students are shown how some formulae need to contain brackets. The lesson finishes with a competition called “Ye Olde Chemical Formula Shop” where students get points if they are the first to work out the formula of a given substance. This lesson has been written for GCSE students.

A fully-resourced lesson which looks at the chemical reaction of cracking and the conditions that are needed for this reaction on both an industrial scale and in a laboratory. The lesson includes an engaging lesson presentation (33 slides) and an associated worksheet containing questions for a progress check. The lesson begins by challenging the students to use their knowledge of alkanes and a given example to work out the name of a 6, 7 and 8 carbon alkane. Students need to be able to name the alkanes and alkenes in order to understand the products of a cracking reaction. A number of quiz competitions are used to introduce both the name of the reaction but also the temperature that is needed when it is carried out on an industrial scale. Students will then be shown a diagram of a cracking experiment in a laboratory so they can discover that a catalyst is also needed. Students will learn, either through carrying out the experiment or through the informative slide, that the product of a cracking reaction is a smaller alkane molecule and a smaller alkene molecule. Time is taken to go back over the meaning of saturated and unsaturated and once the students have been introduced to bromine water, they are challenged to work out what the respective reactions will be when it is added to an alkane and an alkene. The remainder of the lesson focuses on writing word and chemical symbol equations for a cracking reaction. Students will be shown how the second product of a reaction can be worked out when the reactant and first product are provided and then they challenge themselves by trying to write three equations. Understanding checks are written into the lesson at regular places to allow the students to check on their understanding. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students.

An informative lesson presentation (44 slides) that looks at the work of the key Scientists involved in the development of the atomic model. Dalton, Thomson, Rutherford and Bohr were four men whose work has led to the changes in the atomic model over the years and this lesson looks at parts of each of their work. There is a focus on Rutherford’s work with the alpha particles and students are challenged to draw conclusions based on the deflections they are shown. There is lots of time written into the lesson for consolidation and regular progress checks ensure that students have the opportunity to assess their understanding. This lesson has been written for GCSE students but could be used with KS3 students who perhaps are carrying out a project on the atom and want to add detail to their work

A resourced lesson which looks at a number of examples of biological polymers. The lesson includes an engaging lesson presentation (40 slides) and a couple of worksheets to be used in the understanding check task. The starter activity challenges the students to use their Chemistry knowledge to come up with the abbreviation DNA. They will learn the key details of this polynucleotide and then time and focus is given to the nitrogenous bases and how they bond between the two strands. Moving forwards, students will be shown the next biological polymer that is a polypeptide. They are briefly shown how to draw a block diagram to represent the chain of amino acids. The final polymer are carbohydrates and students will learn how glycogen, starch and cellulose are formed from glucose monomers. Regular progress checks are written into the lesson at regular intervals to allow the students to check their understanding and ask questions. This lesson has been written for GCSE students

An engaging and practical based lesson presentation (24 slides) which challenges the students to carry out a range of practical tasks to learn the identification tests and positive results for the anions. The lesson begins by challenging the students to use their prior knowledge of chemical formulae to name two sets of ions. Students will be reminded of the definition of a cation so they can use this to write an accurate one for the anions. The rest of the lesson looks at the different tests and time is taken to explain the details behind each of them. Progress checks have been written into the lesson at regular intervals to allow the students to check their understanding. A set homework has also been included. This lesson has been written for GCSE students.

A quick and fun lesson which goes through the accurate addition of state symbols to balanced symbol equations. The aim of this lesson is to give students quick and easy ways to recognise the state of matter of a reactant or product whilst being engaged trough the format of the lesson. A number of quick quiz competitions are used in the lesson, either to introduce a new term of to act as a fun understanding check. First of all, students will use their Chemistry knowledge to come up with the fourth symbol, aq, which is commonly forgotten. Moving forwards, a worked example is used to guide the students through adding the state symbols. A visual of the experiment is shown in a video but could be done as a demonstration to help the students further. Finally, the students are challenged to apply their new-found knowledge and write a fully balanced symbol equation with state symbols. An assistance sheet is available for those who need a little push. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students

An informative lesson presentation (24 slides), accompanied by a set of differentiated question worksheets, which together guide students through calculating energy changes in reactions and then challenges them to apply their new-found knowledge. The lesson begins by asking the students to complete a sentence which details how energy is taken in to break bonds in the reactants and given out when bonds are formed in the products. The bond energy table is then introduced so that students understand how it will be used in questions. Moving forwards, a step by step guide is used to calculate the energy change value for two reactions and students are shown how to interpret the positive or negative result as endothermic or exothermic respectively. The remainder of the lesson asks the students to apply what they have learnt to calculate the energy change for two more reactions. This question worksheet is differentiated two ways so that students who need extra assistance can still access the work. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students

An engaging, practical-based lesson presentation (34 slides), accompanied by an assistance sheet, which together look at how the results of displacement reactions can be used to order the metals into the reactivity series. The lesson begins by introducing a displacement reaction and ensuring that students understand the meaning of this term and how it relates to the topic of the lesson. Students will carry out a series of 12 displacement reactions, involving 4 different metals and will then be challenged to interpret the results to place the metals into their allocated positions in the series. Moving forwards, the students are given the results of more reactions, some which occurred and others which didn’t so they can place the remaining metals into the reactivity series. Time is also taken to understand how the position of hydrogen in the series can be used to predict the results of reactions between metals and acids. This lesson has been written for GCSE students but could be used with higher ability KS3 students

A concise lesson presentation (27 slides) that looks at the key details of the sub-atomic particles and briefly explores how the atomic and mass numbers of the Periodic Table can be used to calculate the numbers of these particles in different atoms. The lesson begins with a Mathematical link as students are challenged to convert the size of an atom from standard form into a real number. Moving forwards, students will meet the three sub-atomic particles and be asked to predict which one is positive, neutral and negative in charge. The relative mass of a proton is shown and then students are asked to work out the mass of a neutron and an electron by observing some experimental results with a scales. Finally, the students are shown how to use the atomic number to work out the number of protons (and electrons) in an atom and how to work out the number of neutrons. This lesson has been designed to act as a knowledge recall and top-up as this should have already been learnt at KS3.

This lesson explores how the temperature affects the position of equilibrium in a reversible reaction. This can be a difficult topic for students to understand and therefore the aim has been on the key details. The lesson begins by challenging the students to recall the rules of a dynamic equilibrium in order to recognise how if the equilibrium position changes then so do the concentrations. Links are made during the lesson to related topics such as endothermic and exothermic reactions and some time is taken to go back over calculating energy changes so that the type of reaction can be determined. The forward reaction in the Haber process is used as the example so students can see how an increase in temperature in this exothermic reaction would lead to a decrease in the yield of ammonia. Students are then challenged to use this example to explain how a decrease in temperature would affect the production of methanol. This worksheet is differentiated so students who need extra assistance can still access the learning. This lesson has been written for GCSE students.

This concise lesson presentation (20 slides) guides students through the effect of changing pressure on the position of the equilibrium. The key skill to this topic involves recalling the rule of increasing pressure and being able to recognise how many moles are on each side of the reaction. For this reason, time is taken to remind the students of the meaning of the mole numbers in a reaction and working through an example together so they can see which side will be favoured. The final part of the lesson involves a game called “The PRESSURE is on” where students are in a race against the clock to balance an equation and then work out which way the equilibrium will shift when either the pressure is increased or decreased. This lesson has been written for GCSE students.

A fast-paced, engaging lesson that looks at the separation method of distillation and focuses on the use of key terminology in the correct context. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students but teachers could use it with KS3 students who are looking at the mixtures topic. The lesson begins by challenging the students to state which mixture from a choice of three could be separated by distillation. A lot of the key terms involved in this lesson and the separation topic as a whole begin with S and are often incorrectly used. Therefore some time is taken to ensure that the students know the difference between a solution, solute and solvent and can pick out the substances which would apply to each of these terms in different examples. Students will learn how distillation involves evaporation followed by condensation and the next task gets students to compare boiling points to understand how the difference in these points allows the separation to occur and will also recognise that distillation results in two substances at the end as opposed to the one in crystallisation. The remainder of the lesson challenges students to apply their knowledge to two understanding checks - a summary passage on distillation and then a description of how ethanol and water are separated.

A fast-paced, quick lesson which focuses on the key terminology that is involved in the separation topic so that students are confident with the definitions and to use them in context. A lot of the key terms begin with the prefix SOL and the opening task challenges students to use their Chemistry knowledge to convert numbers to letters to come up with these three letters. Having completed the crossword with the 5 key terms, solute, solution, solubility, solvent and soluble, students have to match the crossword clues with each term. Moving forwards, students are introduced to the term, saturated, and briefly shown the meaning of this word. The final task of the lesson challenges the students to use each of the 6 terms beginning with S to complete a passage about salt dissolving in a water.