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.
This lesson explains the difference between non-infectious and infectious diseases and names the pathogens that cause examples of the latter. The PowerPoint and accompanying worksheets have been primarily designed to cover points 10.1 (a & b) of the CIE A-level Biology specification but as this is the first lesson in topic 10, links to upcoming topics such as the immune response and vaccinations are introduced.
The lesson begins with a challenge where the students have to use descriptions to recognise CHD, HIV and TB as diseases that are commonly referred to by their abbreviations. This leads into a description of the meaning of disease before the students are challenged to use any prior knowledge of this topic to recognise that CHD is an examples of a non-infectious disease whereas HIV and TB are examples of infectious diseases. Specification point 10.1 (a) states that students should know about sickle cell anaemia and lung cancer so the next section of the lesson focuses on the key details of these diseases and when considering the former, their knowledge of gene mutations, protein synthesis and haemoglobin is tested.
viruses - HIV/AIDS, influenza, measles, smallpox
bacteria - TB, cholera,
protoctista - malaria
The infectious diseases shown above are covered by the remainder of this lesson and the differing mechanisms of action of these three types of pathogens are discussed and considered throughout. For example, time is taken to describe how HIV uses a glycoprotein to attach to T helper cells whilst toxins released by bacteria damage the host tissue and the Plasmodium parasite is transmitted from one host to another by a vector to cause malaria.
The accompanying worksheets contain a range of exam-style questions, including a mathematical calculation, and mark schemes are embedded into the PowerPoint to allow students to immediately assess their understanding.
A fully resourced revision lesson which uses a range of exam questions (with explained answers), quick tasks and quiz competitions to enable the students to assess their understanding of the topics found within module 6.1.2 (Patterns of inheritance) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification.
The topics tested within this lesson include:
Genetic variation
Monogenic inheritance
Dihybrid inheritance
Multiple alleles
Sex linkage
Codominance
Epistasis
Using the chi-squared test
Discontinuous and continuous variation
The Hardy Weinberg principle
Student will enjoy the range of tasks and quiz rounds whilst crucially being able to recognise any areas which require further attention
A fully resourced lesson which uses a combination of exam questions, quick tasks and quiz competitions to enable students to assess their understanding of the topics found within module 5.2 (Excretion as an example of homeostatic control) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification.
The following topics are tested within the lesson:
Excretion
The structure of the liver
Liver function
Kidney structure
Kidney function
Osmoregulation
Kidney failure
Students will be engaged through the various activities whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which need further attention.
An engaging lesson presentation (67 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 7 (Organic chemistry) of the AQA GCSE Chemistry specification (specification point C4.7)
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Crude oil, hydrocarbons and alkanes
Fractional distillation and petrochemicals
Properties of hydrocarbons
Cracking and alkenes
Alkenes
Alcohols
Carboxcylic acids
Addition polymerisation
Condensation polymerisation
Students will be engaged through the numerous activities including quiz rounds like “What FRACTION of this is correct” and “Are you on FORM” whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which need further attention
This bundle of 16 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C1 (Atomic structure and the Periodic Table) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Atoms
Elements
Compounds
Chemical equations
Chromatography
Separation methods
Development of the atomic model
Electronic structure
Development of the Periodic Table
Metals and non-metals
The alkali metals
The halogens
The Noble gases
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 10 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C4 (Chemical changes) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Acids and bases
Reactions of acids
The reactivity series of metals
Extracting metals
Redox reactions
Electrolysis of molten salts and solutions
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 10 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic B5 (Genes, inheritance and selection) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Variation
Types of reproduction
Meiosis
Genetic diagrams
Sex determination
Classification
Evolution by natural selection
Evidence for evolution
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding. It is estimated that this bundle would cover about 6 week’s worth of lessons.
This bundle of 3 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C7 (Organic Chemistry) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Hydrocarbons (alkanes)
Fractional distillation of crude oil
Cracking hydrocarbons
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 6 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic P4 (Atomic structure) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Developing the atomic model
Isotopes
Nuclear radiation
Decay equations
Half-life
Irradiation and contamination
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 7 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic B1 (Key concepts in Biology) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Animal cells
Plant cells
Bacterial cells
Specialised cells
Changes in microscopic technology
Number, size and scale
The relationship between quantitative units
Enzyme properties and action
Enzyme activity
Osmosis
Active transport
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 9 lessons covers all of the content in Topic C3 (Quantitative Chemistry) of the AQA GCSE Chemistry specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Conservation of mass and balanced symbol equations
Relative formula mass
Mass changes when a reactant or product is a gas
Moles
Using moles to balance equations
Limiting reactants
Concentration of solutions
Percentage yield
Atom economy
Volumes of gases
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 10 lessons covers a lot of the content in Topic C4 (Extracting metals and equilibria) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science & GCSE Chemistry specifications. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Reactivity of metals
Redox reactions
Extracting metals
Biological metal extraction
Reversible reactions
The conditions of the Haber Process
Temperature and the position of equilibrium
Pressure and the position of equilibrium
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 8 lessons covers a lot of the content in Topic C3 (Chemical changes) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science & GCSE Chemistry specifications. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Acid, alkaline and neutral solutions
Reactions of acids
Detecting gases
Neutralisation reactions
Acid-alkali titrations
Electrolysis of molten salts and solutions
Writing half equations
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This fully-resourced lesson explains how gel electrophoresis is used to separate DNA fragments or proteins and explores its applications in genetic fingerprinting. The engaging and detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been written to cover point 6.1.3 (e) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification
The steps of the genetic fingerprinting process is covered the whole lesson but the main focus is the use of gel electrophoresis within this process. Students will be introduced to STRs and will come to recognise their usefulness in human identification as a result of the variability between individuals. Moving forwards, the involvement of the PCR is discussed and students are challenged on their knowledge of this process as it was encountered in a previous lesson. A brief outline of the role of restriction enzymes is provided to support students when these key gene technology enzymes are met in more detail later in the module. The main section of the lesson focuses on the use of gel electrophoresis to separate DNA fragments (as well as proteins) and the key ideas of separation due to differences in base pair length or molecular mass are discussed and explained. As well as current understanding checks, an application question involving Huntington’s disease is used to challenge their ability to apply their knowledge of the process to an unfamiliar situation. The remainder of the lesson describes how the DNA is transferred to a membrane and hybridisation probes are used to create a pattern on the X-ray film.
Time has been taken to make continuous links to the previous lessons in module 6.1.3 as well as those from module 2.1.3 where DNA, RNA and protein synthesis were introduced.
This is a fun and engaging lesson that uses a range of quick competitions and tasks to ensure that the students recognisethe electrical symbols for the essential components and can describe the functions for each of these. Competitions such as SNAP and SAY WHAT YOU SEE will introduce the students to the components and their symbols. This lesson has been written for GCSE students and looks to build on what they should know from KS3 - however, it could be used with higher ability students at that level.
This bundle of 3 lessons covers a lot of the content in Topic C5 (Electricity and chemistry) of the core and supplement sections of the Cambridge iGCSE Science Double Award specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Be able to describe electrolysis as the breakdown of an ionic compound when in molten form or in solution
Know the products at the electrodes for the electrolysis of molten salts and solutions
Be able to construct half-equations for the formation of elements at the electrodes
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding
This revision lesson contains a motivating and engaging powerpoint (67 slides) and associated worksheets which have been designed to challenge student knowledge of the Periodic Table. The lesson involves a wide range of activities which include exam questions with clear answers to allow students to self-assess, quiz competitions and differentiated tasks. The students will enjoy the transitions between the different activities whilst crucially being able to evaluate their understanding of this key topic in Chemistry. Deliberately, the lesson hasn’t been written for any particular exam board or exclusively for Combined Science or Chemistry, but instead it covers the topics which are shown below and this will allow teachers to pick and choose which parts they want to do in a particular lesson.
Properties of the alkali metals (group I)
Properties of the halogens (group VII)
Properties of the noble gases (group 0)
Formation of ionic compounds between group I and VII elements
Reactivity of the alkali metals and the halogens
Displacement reactions of the halogens
The transition elements
Organisation of the Periodic Table
Predicting properties of the unknown or rare elements
As the title suggests, the content of this lesson has been written to be GCSE standard and therefore is most suitable for use with 14 - 16 year olds. However, it could be used with younger students who are doing work on the topic and want to challenge themselves
An engaging lesson which looks at the properties of the Transition metals of the Periodic Table and ultimately compares these properties against other metals, such as the Alkali metals. Through the use of a range of motivating tasks and quiz competitions, students will learn that the transition metals form coloured compounds, have a number of ion charges, act as catalysts and are harder, stronger but less reactive than group 1.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students (14 - 16 year olds) but is suitable for younger students who are looking at the patterns and trends in the Periodic Table
A resourced lesson which uses a concise lesson presentation (18 slides) and a differentiated diagram to guide students through the method of blood clotting. This lesson has been designed for students studying GCSE (14 - 16 year olds in the UK) and this is reflected in the appropriate detail where only the involvement of fibrin needs to be known. Students are shown how blood clotting is a cascade effect where one event leads on to the next.
This is a fully-resourced lesson which looks at the properties of group 0 of the Periodic Table, the Noble Gases, and includes a lesson presentation (29 slides) and an associated worksheet. The lesson uses a range of engaging quiz competitions to enable the students to understand why these elements do not react. Other properties such as their boiling points are explored and there is continual reference to the other groups of elements so that students can make clear comparisons.
This lesson has been designed for GCSE students (14 - 16 year olds in the UK), but it is also suitable for younger students who might be carrying out a project on the Periodic Table