This information sheet and worksheet details how light in two of the world's major religions - Christianity and Hinduism. Students use the first page to complete two tasks (grid filling and venn diagram) to help them understand this. Worked very successfully with my students.

This contains a set of materials in order to carry out an assessment on a 'Ultimate Questions' unit. Students have to devise their own creation story, religious or scientific, and explain how different groups of people (e.g. atheists, Christians) may interpret it and their reasoning for it. This resource is easily adaptable to incorporate into a lesson or another scheme of learning.

A fully resourced lesson used for an observation lesson on river processes. In the starter they have to decide which type of material would be the easiest to move downstream, create diagrams to show how material can be eroded, and includes a practical designed to show the settling rates of different size materials (sand, gravel, and clay). The instructions for that are contained on the powerpoint, and could be easily adapted to make a task sheet for students to carry out group work! Finally, they then make observations to analyse what they observed from the practical.

This contains a fully resourced lesson which explores the characteristics of urban areas, and how they change from the urban fringe to the central business district. This uses Ipswich as an example, although it could be easily adapted to study other cities.

This contains a set of resources in order to enable students to design their festival which incorporates the symbolism of light and darkness.

This resource enables students to produce a written account of Brian Keenan’s experience of being imprisoned in a cell of total darkness for an extended period of time. In particular, it focuses on the feelings and emotions of the experience, and the impact that light and darkness placed.

This contains a fully resourced lesson on the sources of deforestation, focusing on research, group work and consolidation. Worked very well with my Year 9 groups. Learning Objectives are: To identify different sources of deforestation. To investigate the reasons for deforestation. To draw tentative conclusions about the effects of deforestation.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the Beatitudes. In the main part of the lesson students have to write a modern day translation for each one, explain why they are important in pairs and write an extended analysis of how they could be applied in someone's life. Learning Objectives: To describe the meaning of the Beatitudes. To explain why they are important for Christians. To analyse how these could be followed by people in their own lives.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on how the impacts of earthquakes can be mitigated. Focused on the 3Ps, the main part of the lesson involves a discussion task on the difference between the three approaches and the techniques it might involve, leading up to an extended note taking task on how the different techniques can help to mitigate the impacts of an earthquake. Learning Objectives: To describe the different approaches to mitigating the impacts of earthquakes. To explain how these approaches work in practice. To evaluate the effectiveness of these approaches.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the causes and effects of poverty in the UK. In the main part of the lesson students have to use a set of images to describe the impacts of poverty and then use annotate an A3 sheet with the different reasons why poverty exists in the UK today. Finally students have to come up with their own suggestions as to how poverty in the UK could be tackled. Learning Objectives: To describe the impacts of poverty in the UK. To explain the reasons why we see poverty in the UK. To begin to suggest your own solutions to poverty in the UK.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the Irenaean theodicy. The main part of the lesson involves using an information sheet to answer a set of questions on its key features, including a comparison to the Augustinian theodicy as an extension task, followed by class note-taking and brief discussion tasks on John Hick’s extension of the theodicy, followed by a ranking task on the strengths of the theodicy and brainstorming activity on its weaknesses before finally reflecting on their viewpoint towards the overall success of the theodicy. Learning Objectives: To explain the key features of the Irenaean theodicy. To assess its relative strengths and weaknesses. To evaluate its success in responding to the problem of evil.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on contours. This lesson, well situated after a lesson on the basics of contours, involves students creating their own 3D cardboard models to show how contours can show the height and shape of the land. It contains a full set of step-by-step instructions and supporting visuals to assist students with this. Learning Objectives: To identify how contours can be represented through 3D modelling. To describe the relief of your models using appropriate geographical terminology.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on Aristotle’s philosophical distinction between the body and soul. The main part of the lesson involves students having to make an educated guess on his viewpoint through an introductory quote, followed by students creating their own diagram to show Aristotle’s philosophical viewpoint, then they complete a Venn diagram comparing this view with that of Plato, before finally creating a mind map on the reasons why Richard Dawkins rejects any notion of an immortal soul. Learning Objectives: To outline Aristotle’s distinction between the body and soul. To compare the similarities and differences with Plato’s view of the soul. To assess the philosophical opinions for the rejection of the existence of a soul.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson towards one ultimate question: What is the meaning of life? In the main part of the lesson students have to use information cards to describe a range of philosophical views (e.g. Nihilism, Materialism, Religious...) towards the meaning of life and explain how it might affect the way they live their lives, and then conclude the lesson by completing a written task evaluating which viewpoint they agree and disagree with the most and why. Learning Objectives: To describe different philosophical views about the meaning of life. To explain how these philosophies can shape a persons’ life. To evaluate your personal viewpoint towards them.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on Hindu funerals. In the starter students have to use two images to draw out initial observations about Hindu funerals. In the main this leads to an information gathering task and a symbolism task, with a GCSE style question included to assess understanding of the material. Plenary is also included. Learning Objectives are: To describe the key features of a Hindu funeral service. To explain how these features reflect their beliefs about life after death.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson which acts as an introduction to the idea of 'Ultimate Questions'. The main part of the lesson involves students working in pairs to generate their own examples of ultimate questions (using stimuli to help), a class viewpoint sharing task (which could be done as a silent conversation), and a written reflection task at the end where they evaluate various viewpoints towards one ultimate question. Learning Objectives are as follows: To describe examples of ‘ultimate questions’. To explain different viewpoints towards some of these questions. To express a reasoned and balanced viewpoint to one of these questions.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the theory of evolution. In the main part of the lessons students complete a gap-filling exercise in order to understand how the basic theory works, work in pairs to rank different arguments (religious and scientific) on the 'Layers of Inference' grid, and finally complete an extended writing task on how convincing they find the theory based on the evidence and argument provided. Learning Objectives: To describe the theory of evolution. To explain the arguments for and against the theory of evolution. To evaluate how convincing you find the theory.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the Christian Creation Story from Genesis. The main part of the lesson involves drawing a storyboard to show the key parts of the story, a pair discussion task on how Fundamentalist and Liberal Christians might view the story (leading to a card sorting task of the reasons behind the views), and finally a written reflection evaluating how they believe the story is best understood. Learning Objectives: To describe the Christian Creation Story. To explain how this story is viewed by different Christians. To evaluate how you personally believe it is best understood.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on how babies are welcomed into the Islamic faith, otherwise known as the Aqiqah Ceremony. The main part of the lesson contains an information hunt on the different practices followed by pair-work where students have to compare the similarities and differences with Christian Baptism. Learning Objectives: To describe how Muslims welcome newborns into the Islam. To explain why these practices are important to Muslims. To compare this ceremony with the Christian tradition.

This contains a fully resourced lesson on Plato's analogy of the cave. It contains a set of activities to meet the following objectives: To describe the story of Plato’s cave. To explain how the story questions our idea of reality. To understand the symbolism of Plato’s ideas in The Matrix. Has worked very well with my classes. It is ideally aimed at KS4, but can easily be adapted for KS3.