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.
A fully-resourced lesson which looks at the meaning of the rate of reaction and guides students through calculating both the mean and instantaneous rate of reaction. The lesson includes a concise lesson presentation (19 slides) and a question worksheet which is differentiated two ways.
The lesson begins by challenging the students to suggest the missing factor in the rate of reaction equation so they can learn that either the mass of a reactant or a mass of a product could be used. Links are made to practical skills as students will understand that if a product is in the gaseous form, the volume produced within a set time will enable the rate to be calculated. Worked examples are used to show the students how to calculate the mean rate of reaction and then the instantaneous using a tangent. The rest of the lesson involves collecting data from an experiment to calculate the rate of reaction. The questions associated with the practical have been differentiated so students who need assistance can still access the learning.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students
This fully-resourced lesson focuses on the events of meiosis which specifically contribute to genetic variation. The detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover the 4th and final part of point 4.3 of the AQA A-level Biology specification which states that students should be able to describe how meiosis produces daughter cells that are genetically different from each other.
In order to understand how the events of meiosis like crossing over and random assortment and independent segregation can lead to variation, students need to be clear in their understanding that DNA replication in interphase results in homologous chromosomes as pairs of sister chromatids. Therefore the beginning of the lesson focuses on the chromosomes in the parent cell and this first part of the cycle and students will be introduced to non-sister chromatids and the fact that they may contain different alleles which is important for the exchange that occurs during crossing over. Time is taken to go through this event in prophase I in a step by step guide so that the students can recognise that the result can be new combinations of alleles that were not present in the parent cell. Moving forwards, the lesson explores how the independent segregation of chromosomes and chromatids during anaphase I and II results in genetically different gametes. The final part of the lesson looks at the use of a mathematical expression to calculate the possible combinations of alleles in gametes as well as in a zygote following the random fertilisation of haploid gametes. Understanding and prior knowledge checks are interspersed throughout the lesson as well as a series of exam questions which challenge the students to apply their knowledge to potentially unfamiliar situations.
Due to the detail of this lesson, it is estimated that this will take about 2 hours of A-level teaching time to deliver
This lesson explains how to calculate the mitotic index and then explores what a high value may indicate about the tissue that was sampled. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources are part of the 2nd lesson in a series of 3 which have been planned to cover the content of point 2.2 of the AQA A-level biology specification.
As shown in the cover image, the lesson begins with a bit of fun, as the students are challenged to use three clues to identify three uses of the term index in biology. They’ll learn that the index of diversity is covered in a topic 4 lesson and that this lesson focuses on the mitotic index. The students are challenged on their knowledge of the mitotic cell cycle throughout the lesson and one of these questions is used to introduce the meaning of the index and the formula. A series of exam-style questions challenge them to apply their understanding, and the answers are embedded into the PowerPoint to enable the students to assess their progress. Moving forwards, the different meanings of high values are considered, including growing and repairing tissues, and then to explain how an elevated mitotic index can indicate that cell division has become uncontrolled. This prepares students for the next lesson where tumour formation and cancer will be covered.
As the 1st topic on the Pearson Edexcel A-level Biology A (Salters Nuffield) course, the Lifestyle, health and risk topic is extremely important to introduce the students to the detail needed for success in this subject. Extensive planning has gone into all 10 lessons included in this bundle to motivate and engage the students whilst covering the following specification points:
The importance of water
The structure and function of blood vessels
The cardiac cycle and the relationship between the structure and operation of the heart to its function
The course of events that lead to atherosclerosis
The blood clotting process
The differences between monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides
The structure and role of the monosaccharides
Understand how monosaccharides join to form disaccharides and polysaccharides through condensation reactions and are split through hydrolysis reactions
The relationship between the structure and roles of the polysaccharides
The synthesis of a triglyceride by the formation of ester bonds between glycerol and fatty acids
The difference between saturated and unsaturated lipids
The PowerPoints and accompanying resources contain a wide variety of tasks which include exam-style questions with mark schemes, guided discussion points and quick quiz competitions.
This lesson bundle contains 9 lesson PowerPoints and their accompanying resources which have been intricately planned to deliver the detailed content of topic 6 of the Pearson Edexcel A-level Biology A (Salters Nuffield) specification and to make links to the 5 previously covered topics. In addition to the detailed content, each lesson contains exam-style questions with mark schemes embedded into the PowerPoint, differentiated tasks, guided discussion points and quick quiz competitions to introduce key terms and values in a fun and memorable way.
The following specification points are covered by the lessons in this bundle:
DNA can be amplified using the PCR
Comparing the structure of bacteria and viruses
Understand how Mycobacterium tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus infact human cells
The non-specific responses of the body to infection
The roles of antigens and antibodies in the body’s immune response
The differences in the roles of the B and T cells in the body’s immune response
Understand how one gene can give rise to more than one protein
The development of immunity
The major routes that pathogens may take when entering the body
The role of barriers in protecting the body from infection
The difference between bacteriostatic and bactericidal antibiotics
If you would like to sample the quality of the lessons in this bundle, then download the immune response and post-transcriptional changes lessons as these have been uploaded for free
This lesson describes the development and spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and discusses the difficulties in controlling this spread. The PowerPoint and accompanying worksheet have been designed to cover specification points 6.4 (i & ii) of the Edexcel A-level Biology B specification
President Trump’s error ridden speech about antibiotics is used at the beginning of the lesson to remind students that this is a treatment for bacterial infections and not viruses as he stated. Moving forwards, 2 quick quiz competitions are used to introduce MRSA and then to get the students to recognise that they can use this abbreviation to remind them to use mutation, reproduce, selection (and survive) and allele in their descriptions of the development of resistance by evolution through natural selection. The main task of the lesson challenges the students to form a description to explain how this strain of bacteria developed resistance to methicillin, making use of the five key terms emphasised above. Moving forwards, there is a focus on the hospital as the common location for MRSA infections and students will recognise that this opportunistic pathogen can infect through open wounds to cause sepsis and potentially death. Figures from infections and deaths in hospitals in the US are used to increase the relevance and students will learn how a MRSA prevention program in VHA facilities includes screening of surgery patients to try to reduce its impact. The lesson concludes with a discussion about other methods that can be used by hospitals and general practitioners to reduce the spread of MRSA and to try to prevent the development of resistance in other strains.
This fully-resourced lesson explores the inheritance of sex-linked diseases in humans and then challenges the students to apply their knowledge to examples in other animals. The detailed PowerPoint and associated differentiated resources have been designed to cover the part of point 7.1 of the AQA A-level specification which states that students should be able to use fully-labelled genetic diagrams to predict the results of crosses involving sex-linkage.
Key genetic terminology is used throughout and the lesson begins with a check on their ability to identify the definition of homologous chromosomes. Students will recall that the sex chromosomes are not fully homologous and that the smaller Y chromosome lacks some of the genes that are found on the X. This leads into one of the numerous discussion points, where students are encouraged to consider whether females or males are more likely to suffer from sex-linked diseases. In terms of humans, the lesson focuses on haemophilia and red-green colour blindness and a step-by-step guide is used to demonstrate how these specific genetic diagrams should be constructed and how the phenotypes should then be interpreted. The final tasks of the lesson challenge the students to carry out a dihybrid cross that involves a sex-linked disease and an autosomal disease before applying their knowledge to a question about chickens and how the rate of feather production in chicks can be used to determine gender.
All of the tasks are differentiated so that students of differing abilities can access the work and all exam questions have fully-explained, visual markschemes to allow them to assess their progress and address any misconceptions
A detailed and engaging lesson presentation (52 slides) and accompanying worksheet that looks at competition between organisms and the different types of relationships that exist as a result of this interaction. The lesson begins by looking at the meaning of the biological term, "competition", and then introduces this when it occurs between the same species and different species. Students are challenged to consider the different resources that animals compete for before an activity based competition is used to get them to recognise how this competition can cause changes to the population size.
Moving forwards, students will meet the three main types of ecological relationship and look at them in greater detail, with predation being a main focus.
There are regular progress checks throughout the lesson (with displayed answers) so that students can assess their understanding.
This lesson has been designed for GCSE students but can be used with more-able KS3 students who are looking at ecosystems and the relationships that exist within them
An informative and engaging lesson (46 slides) that looks at the topic of immobilised enzymes and focusses on ensuring that students understand this topic around three main ideas. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to explain why immobilised enzymes are used, describe the different methods by which they are produced and describe some of their uses in biotechnology. Time is taken throughout the lesson to make sure that students understand the disadvantages associated with this process and that they are able to explain the specific limitations of each method.
This lesson has been designed for students studying A-level Biology
An engaging lesson presentation (39 slides) with associated differentiated worksheets that looks at they key differences between pure and impure substances and briefly explores how a mixture like an alloy can still be very useful.
The lesson begins by challenging the students to recognise 4 diagrams of pure substances from a selection of 5. This will lead students to the definition of pure (in Science) which is likely to be different to what they have encountered in everyday language. The next task gets the students to draw a graph showing the melting and boiling points of pure water. This will enable them to compare the melting point against that of an impure substance and therefore recognise that this difference can be used as point to decide on purity. An example of gritting is used to explain how this change in melting point can be utilised and then the students are challenged to apply this new-found knowledge to the situation of adding salt to boiling water when making pasta. The remainder of the lesson focuses on some famous mixtures. Beginning with air, students will be able to visualise how this mixture is made of a number of gases, each with different boiling points which allows them to be separated by fractional distillation. Alloys are briefly explored so that students know why these mixtures are used for certain functions over pure metals and the summary passage for this task has been differentiated two ways so that all can access the work. Progress checks have been written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can check their understanding and a range of quick quiz competitions are used to maintain engagement whilst introducing new terms in a fun manner.
If you want to look into alloys in greater detail, then this lesson could be combined with the one named “alloys” which is also uploaded.
This detailed lesson describes the structure and properties of the cell membrane, focusing on the phospholipid bilayer and membrane proteins. Fully resourced, the PowerPoint and accompanying worksheets have been designed to cover the first part of point 2.3 of the AQA A-level Biology specification and clear links are made to Singer and Nicholson’s fluid mosaic model
The fluid mosaic model is introduced at the start of the lesson so that it can be referenced at appropriate points throughout the lesson. Students were introduced to phospholipids in topic 1 and so an initial task challenges them to spot the errors in a passage describing the structure and properties of this molecule. This reminds them of the bilayer arrangement, with the hydrophilic phosphate heads protruding outwards into the aqueous solutions on the inside and the outside of the cell. In a link to some upcoming lessons on the transport mechanisms, the students will learn that only small, non-polar molecules can move by simple diffusion and that this is through the tails of the bilayer. This introduces the need for transmembrane proteins to allow large or polar molecules to move into the cell by facilitated diffusion and active transport. Proteins that act as receptors as also introduced and an opportunity is taken to make a link to an upcoming topic so that students can understand how hormones or drugs will bind to target cells in this way. Moving forwards, the structure of cholesterol is covered and students will learn that this hydrophobic molecule sits in the middle of the tails and therefore acts to regulate membrane fluidity. The final part of the lesson challenges the students to apply their newly-acquired knowledge to a series of questions where they have to explain why proteins may have moved when two cells are used and to suggest why there is a larger proportion of these proteins in the inner mitochondrial membrane than the outer membrane.
This is a detailed and engaging lesson presentation (59 slides) that combines exam questions and progress checks along with quiz competition rounds to enable students to assess their understanding of the specification content within topics C1 - 3 of the OCR GCSE Combined Science Gateway A 9 - 1 as can be assessed in Paper 3.
All of the exam questions and progress checks have displayed answers as well as sections where content is recapped so that students can understand how an answer was obtained.
The revision rounds in the competition include “The need to BALANCE”, “Number crazy” and “React to the REACTION”.
This lesson has been designed for GCSE students.
This bundle of 8 revision lessons have been designed to include a range of exam questions (with explained answers), differentiated tasks and quiz competitions to enable students to assess their understanding of the Pearson Edexcel A-level Biology A (Salters Nuffield) specification content.
The 8 topics that are covered in the specification are included in this bundle and are:
Topic 1: Lifestyle, Health and Risk
Topic 2: Genes and Health
Topic 3: Voice of the Genome
Topic 4: Biodiversity and natural resources
Topic 5: On the wild side
Topic 6: Infection, immunity and forensics
Topic 7: Run for your life
Topic 8: Grey matter
Students will enjoy the range of activities, which provide a much needed alternative to their other revision methods, and these lessons can be used throughout the duration of the course, as an end of topic revision lesson or in the lead up to mocks or the actual A-level terminal exams
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 GCSE Chemistry specification which can be assessed on PAPER 1. This is fully-resourced and contains a detailed PowerPoint (208 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 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
Calculating the relative formula mass
Moles and Avogadro’s constant
Calculating the mass in reactions
Molar volume (Gas calculations)
Concentration of solutions
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.
An engaging lesson presentation (75 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 B7(Ecology) of the AQA GCSE Biology specification (specification unit B4.7).
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Communities
Abiotic factors
Biotic factors
Levels of organisation
Recycling materials
Decomposition
Deforestation
Global warming
Trophic levels
Pyramids of biomass
Transfer of biomass
Students will be engaged through the numerous activities including quiz rounds like “Number CRAZY" whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which need further attention
Each of the 9 revision lessons included in this bundle are fully-resourced and have been designed to engage and motivate the students whilst they assess their knowledge of the CIE IGCSE Chemistry specification. The PowerPoints and accompanying resources use a range of activities which include exam-style questions with fully explained answers, differentiated tasks and quiz competitions to challenge the students on the following topics:
Topic 2: Experimental techniques
Topic 3: Atoms, elements and compounds
Topic 4: Stoichiometry
Topic 5: Electricity and Chemistry
Topic 6: Chemical energetics
Topic 7: Chemical reactions
Topic 9: The Periodic Table
Topic 11: Air and water
Topic 14: Organic Chemistry
The lessons will keep students thoroughly engaged during revision periods whilst enabling them to identify the areas of the specification which require further attention.
If you would like to see the quality of the lessons, download the topic 4 and 9 lessons as these have been shared for free
All of the lessons in this bundle are fully-resourced and have been designed to challenge the students on their knowledge of the topics which can be assessed in PAPER 1 of the Pearson Edexcel GCSE Physics specification.
All 7 topics that can be assessed in paper 1 are covered by these lessons:
Topic 1: Key concepts in Physics
Topic 2: Motion and forces
Topic 3: Conservation of energy
Topic 4: Waves
Topic 5: Light and the EM spectrum
Topic 6: Radioactivity
Topic 7: Astronomy
The PowerPoints and accompanying resources contain a wide range of activities which include exam-style questions with clear explanations of the answer, differentiated tasks and quiz competitions. There is also a big emphasis on the mathematical element of the specification and students are guided through the use of a range of skills which include the conversion of units and the rearrange of formulae to change the subject.
If you would like to see the quality of the lessons, download the topics 4 & 5 and 7 lessons which have been shared for free
This fully-resourced lesson with differentiated resources has been written to prepare students for the range of mathematical-based questions they may face on the two Edexcel GCSE Chemistry papers. The lesson has been designed to contain 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
Calculating the relative atomic mass using isotope mass and abundance
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
This lesson could be used with higher ability students on the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science course by taking out the sections which are not applicable.
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 2 (Electricity) of the AQA GCSE Physics (8463) specification.
The specification points that are covered in this revision lesson include:
Standard circuit diagram symbols
Current, resistance and potential difference
Resistors
Series and parallel circuits
Direct and alternating potential difference
Mains electricity
Power
Static charge
The students will thoroughly enjoy the range of activities, which include quiz competitions such as “GRAFT over these GRAPHS” where they have to compete to be the 1st to recognise one of the graphs associated with the resistors whilst all the time evaluating and assessing which areas of this topic will 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