This activity is part of the ‘Thinking About’ Series. The sequence aims to think through the investigative process using a very engaging activity. It involves learners thinking through the control and measurement of variables. It can be used to produce and analyse graphs and think through challenging explanations. There are also some surprising events for further challenge if different soft drinks are used. In this activity there is a PowerPoint, an activity guide and making and launching guides (which it is recommended that you laminate!)

This is an editable worksheet based activity that includes some higher order thinking to explore the ideas around energy transfer in simple food chains. Two versions are included, one with revised GCSE (1-9) grades, the other without. (please note that grade indications are only approximate). Why not try getting learners to choose a selection of questions to answer (e.g. do Q1-4 or Q3-8) An answer sheet is included. This resource was originally designed for OCR 21st Century Science unit B3, but still applies across a range of exam specifications. Keywords: energy, transfer, food chain, efficiency

This activity is a context led approach to look at changes over time, in particular how temperature changes as time goes by. Children find it much more interesting that watching the change in temperature as water cools. The activity centres around finding that learners will find surprising helping them make progress as a results. There is an engaging start to the activity through a very familiar story.

This activity follows on well from the Greenhouse effect starter. Based on interpreting data about planets in the solar system, it leads learners to the conclusion that Venus is hotter than it should be due to CO2. There are two levels of activity, the more demanding one explores the role of photons/light/radiation in heating planets. This activity was originally designed for 21st Century Science unit P2. Please note that this is an editable resource. Key words: greenhouse effect, atmosphere, CO2, carbon dioxide, global warming

This is a lesson template and guidance document and is designed as a workload reduction tool for whole school use. Many different subject areas and different phases have different requirements of lesson and lesson sequence planning. Across all subjects there are some common areas that are features of effective teaching, regardless of the subject. These are the features included in GREAT lesson planning. This could be used as a short-term (lesson plan) or medium-term plan (scheme of learning that covers a sequence of lessons) depending upon the subject or context.

These are flash cards for GCSE Physics/ Science. They cover key facts that pupils need to learn. They are designed to be suitable for pupils to print at home and make up the cards. They include advice as to how to use the flash cards to help them to make the best use of their time when learning. Flash cards sets included are: Physics equations that need to be learnt Circuit symbols, including some common questions linked to the symbols Force and motion sketch graphs Designed for AQA Science.

This guide explains how you can select students at ‘random’ to answer questions or complete tasks and also match abilities of learners to the tasks or questions. It is a really effective way of differentiating tasks and questions. It offers more flexible ways of selecting names than purely random name generators.

This activity is aimed at supporting Primary Science (particularly those in year 6 in the English National Curriculum). The purpose of the activity is to help children understand the idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ using everyday objects that a primary teacher will be able to get hold of, including sweets. This can be played as a game by children or can also be used by a small group to demonstrate to a whole class.

This activity is aimed at supporting primary science (currently year 4 and year 6 in the primary science national curriculum). In this activity, children are encouraged to look at strategies for classification using physical objects that are accessible to most primary science teachers.

This activity is part of the ‘Thinking About’ series. It is designed to provide deep challenge to pupils in terms of their understanding of percentages. It sets a problem in a work-based context and asks them to explain how they solve the problem. There is also the opportunity to manipulate familiar objects as part of solving the problem. It is accessible in that pupils can attempt a solution to the problem, yet also challenging as the solution to the problem is not as straightforward as it seems for most pupils. Many pupils will find percentages challenging and this activity is designed for those who you feel have mastered the idea that percentages involve a fraction out of 100.

This activity is designed to probe preconceptions about the idea that forces cause movement. Children will often think, based on their prior experience of stationary objects that introducing an unbalanced force will make something move in the direct of the force. This activity gives first hand experience of a situation that involves unbalanced forces on a moving object and helps challenge this preconception.