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 bundle of 6 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic B2.1 (Supplying the cell) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Explain how substances are transported into and out of cells through diffusion, osmosis and active transport
Describe the process of mitosis in growth, including the cell cycle
Explain the importance of cell differentiation
Describe the production of specialised cells
Recall that stem cells are present in embryonic and adult animals and in meristems in plants
Describe the functions of stem cells
Describe the difference between embryonic and adult stem cells
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 the sub-topic B2.2(The challenges of size) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Explain the need for exchange surfaces and a transport system in a multicellular organism due to the low SA:V ratio
The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide with the blood at the alveoli
Explain how the structure of the heart and the blood vessels are adapted to their function
Explain how the red blood cells and plasma are adapted to their transport function in the blood
Describe the processes of transpiration and translocation
Explain how the structure of the xylem and phloem are adapted to their functions in the plant
Explain the effects of a variety of factors on the rate of water uptake
Describe how a simple potometer can be used to investigate the rate of water uptake
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 4 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic B5.2 (Natural selection and evolution) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Developments in biological classification systems
Explain how evolution occurs through natural selection
Describe the 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.
This bundle of 4 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic B5.1 (Inheritance) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Know the meaning of the different genetic terms
Describe that the genome and its interaction with the environment influence the phenotype
Explain the terms haploid and diploid
Explain the role of meiotic division in forming haploid gametes
Explain single gene inheritance
Predict the results of single gene crosses
Describe sex determination in humans using a genetic cross
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 3 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic B6.1 (Monitoring and maintaining the environment) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Be able to explain how to carry out a field investigation into the distribution and abundance of organisms
Be able to estimate population numbers in a given area
Describe both positive and negative human interactions within an ecosystem
Explain human impacts on biodiversity
The benefits and challenges of maintaining local and global biodiversity
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 3 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic B3.3 (Maintaining internal environments) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
The importance of maintaining a constant internal environment in response to internal and external change
Explain how insulin controls blood sugar levels
Explain how glucagon controls blood sugar levels
Compare type I and II diabetes
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 all of the content in the sub-topic B3.2 (Coordination and control - the endocrine system) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Describe hormonal coordination by the human endocrine system
Explain the roles of adrenaline and thyroxine in the body
Describe the role of hormones in human reproduction (the menstrual cycle)
The hormonal and non-hormonal methods of contraception
Explain the use of hormones to treat infertility
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 3 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic C2.3 (Properties of materials) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Recall that carbon can form four covalent bonds
Explain the properties of diamond, graphite, fullerenes and graphene in terms of their structures and bonding
Use data to predict states of substances under given substances
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 2 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic C3.2 (Energetics) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Distinguish between endothermic and exothermic reactions
Draw and label a reaction profile for both reactions
Explain activation energy
Calculate energy changes in a chemical reaction by considering bond making and bond breaking energies
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 4 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic C3.3 (Types of chemical reactions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Explain reduction and oxidation in terms of the loss or gain of oxygen and the loss or gain of electrons
Recall that acids form hydrogen ions when they dissolve in water and solutions of alkalis contain hydroxide ions
Recognise and describe neutralisation reactions
Write balanced equations for the reactions of carbonates and metals with acids
Recall that relative acidity and alkalinity are measured by pH and describe techniques and apparatus to take these measures
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 3 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic C3.4 (Electrolysis) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Recall that metals are formed at the cathode and non-metals are formed at the anode
Predict the products of the electrolysis of ionic compounds in molten state
Describe competing reactions in the electrolysis of aqueous 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 6 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic C5.1 (Controlling reactions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Practical methods for determining rate of reaction
Interpreting rate graphs
Describe and explain the effect of temperature, concentration and particle size on the rate of reaction
Describe and explain the effects of a catalyst on a reaction, through use of the understanding of activation energy
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 4 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic C5.2 (Equilibria) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Some reactions can be reversed by altering reaction conditions
Dynamic equilibrium in a closed system
Predict the effect of changing reaction conditions on equilibrium position
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 the majority of the content in the sub-topic C6.1 (Improving processes and products) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Extracting metals by using carbon
Explain why and how electrolysis is used to extract metals from their ores
Alternative biological methods of metal extraction
The separation of crude oil by fractional distillation
The fractions as alkanes
The production of useful products by cracking
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 detailed lesson explains how the process of transcription results in the production of the single-stranded nucleic acid, mRNA. Both the detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resource have been designed to specifically cover the third part of point 2.1.3 of the OCR A-level Biology A specification but also provides important information that students can use when being introduced to splicing and gene expression in module 6.
The lesson begins by challenging the students to recognise that most of the nuclear DNA in eukaryotes does not code for polypeptides. This allows the promoter region and terminator region to be introduced, along with the structural gene. Through the use of an engaging quiz competition, students will learn that the strand of DNA involved in transcription is known as the template strand and the other strand is the coding strand. Links to previous lessons on DNA and RNA structure are made throughout and students are continuously challenged on their prior knowledge as well as they current understanding of the lesson topic. Moving forwards, the actual process of transcription is covered in a 7 step bullet point description where the students are asked to complete each passage using the information previously provided. So that they are prepared for module 6, students will learn that the RNA strand formed at the end of transcription in eukaryotes is a primary transcript called pre-mRNA and then the details of splicing are explained. An exam-style question is used to check on their understanding before the final task of the lesson looks at the journey of mRNA to the ribosome for the next stage of translation.
This lesson has been written to challenge all abilities whilst ensuring that the most important details are fully explained.
This fully-resourced lesson describes how DNA is replicated during interphase of the cell cycle and explains why it is known as semi-conservative replication. Both the detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover the details of point 2.1.3 (e) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification and the occurrence of spontaneous mutations is also discussed in the latter part of the lesson.
As detailed in the specification, the focus of this lesson is the role of the enzymes DNA helicase and polymerase and students are also introduced to DNA ligase to enable them to understand how this enzyme functions to join the nucleic acid fragments. Time is taken to explain key details such as the assembly of strands in the 5’-to-3’ direction so that the continuous manner in which the leading strand is synthesised can be compared against that of the lagging strand. The students are constantly challenged to make links to previous topics such as DNA structure, phosphorylated nucleotides and hydrolysis reactions through a range of exam questions and answers are displayed so any misconceptions are quickly addressed. The final part of the lesson focuses on the occurrence of mistakes by DNA polymerase and also on the quantity of DNA in the cell following replication so that future links can be made to the cell cycle (as covered in module 2.1.6)
This detailed lesson describes the role of the mRNA, tRNA, rRNA and amino acids during the second stage of protein synthesis - translation. Both the PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover the second part of point 2.1.3 (g) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification and continually links back to the previous lessons in this module on the structure of DNA and RNA and the genetic code
Translation is a topic which is often poorly understood and so this lesson has been written to enable the students to understand how to answer the different types of questions by knowing and including the key details of the structures involved. The lesson begins by challenging the students to consider why it is so important that the amino acids are assembled in the correct order during the formation of the chain. Moving forwards, a quick quiz round called “LOST IN TRANSLATION” is used to check on their prior knowledge of the mRNA strand, the tRNA molecules, the genetic code and the ribosomes. The next task involves a very detailed description of translation that has been divided into 14 statements which the students have to put into the correct order. By giving them a passage that consists of this considerable detail, they can pick out the important parts to use in the next task where they have to answer shorter questions worth between 3 and 4 marks. These types of questions are common in the assessments and by building up through the lesson, their confidence to answer this type should increase. The final two tasks of the lesson involve another quiz, where the teams compete to transcribe and translate in the quickest time before using all that they have absorbed to answer some questions which involve the genetic code and the mRNA codon table
This lesson focuses on the structure of RNA and specifically the similarities and differences between this nucleic acid and DNA so that students are prepared for the upcoming lessons on transcription and translation. The engaging and detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resource have been designed to cover part 1 of point 2.1.3 (g) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification which states that students should be able to describe the structure of molecules of messenger RNA, transfer RNA and ribosomal RNA. Students were introduced to nucleotides and the detailed structure of DNA in previous lessons, so this lesson is written to tie in with those and continuously challenge prior knowledge as well as understanding of the current topic.
The lesson begins by reminding students that RNA is a member of the family of nucleic acids and therefore has a number of structural features that are commonly shared with DNA. A quiz round called “A FAMILY AFFAIR” is used to challenge their knowledge of DNA to recognise those features that are also found on RNA such as the chain of linked nucleotides, pentose sugars, nitrogenous bases and phosphodiester bonds. The next task pushes them to consider features that have not been mentioned and therefore are differences as they answer a structured exam-style question on how RNA differs from DNA. Students will learn that RNA is shorter than DNA and this leads into the final part of the lesson where mRNA and tRNA are introduced and again they are challenged to use the new information explain the difference in size. Brief details of transcription and then translation are provided so that students are prepared for the upcoming lessons on protein synthesis.
