Simon has been teaching Physics for over 27 years in British state schools and international school around the world. He specializes in International Baccalaureate, A level and IGCSE. He is now head of the secondary school at the British School of Tashkent, a Nord Anglia school and in August he will become International Principal of NAS Guangzhou Panyu. He is a regular contributor to the Times Educational Supplement and is one of their "Subject geniuses" for Science.
Simon has been teaching Physics for over 27 years in British state schools and international school around the world. He specializes in International Baccalaureate, A level and IGCSE. He is now head of the secondary school at the British School of Tashkent, a Nord Anglia school and in August he will become International Principal of NAS Guangzhou Panyu. He is a regular contributor to the Times Educational Supplement and is one of their "Subject geniuses" for Science.
I introduce mind-mapping in my first lesson with a class. I build up a mind-map about myself on the smartboard as a way of introduction – all my students now know I hate dogs and banks, support Nottingham Forest, love Physics and listen to Bruckner and RUSH. I then get students to do their own mind-map in the front of their books about themselves – making sure they use colour and illustrations to make them think and make the mind-map more memorable.
For this Rocks lesson you can use their mind-mapping skills by putting notes on a PowerPoint set to “loop” and students have to organize the notes into a mind-map. Go to “Set-up slide show” and check the “loop continuously until ‘esc’” box. Then go to “Animations” and click on “Advance slide automatically” and put 10 seconds between each slide. It normally takes about 4 or 5 repetitions of the loop for students to complete their maps. This is especially useful for topics which are content heavy and where students need to remember facts such as Rocks or Radioactivity.
Everything they need to know for A level or IB presented in a humorous fashion by a very experienced teacher. Worksheets and practical activities too. Propagating uncertainties too.
Presentation outlining what a force is, contact and non-contact forces. They then do a measuring forces activity (the spreadsheet contains a copy of the results table) before leading into a friction of different surfaces investigation. The Powerpoint contains humour and was written by a (very!) experienced Physics teacher. Could also be used in year 7.
Ready made Science display for any lab. 20 Science jokes and their explanations. Print out and stick randomly on board (all jokes have humorous cartoons etc too). Students have to match the joke with the correct explanation. Will cover a large board! (just miss a few jokes out to cover smaller board). Very popular! Probably best for seondary, but why not push those primary kids?
Presentation, examples, worksheet and practical activities for the Equations of Motion (SUVAT). Written for IB but fine for A level and GCSE. Written with humour by a very experienced Physics teacher.
Written for IB/A level. Fully explained PowerPoint with examples, worksheet and practical activity. Step-by-step explanation in a humorous style from a very experienced Physics teacher.
All they need to know for IGCSE/GCSE Physics. The transformers lesson (also available from the same author) follows on nicely from this. This assumes you have a generator/dynamo to demonstrate and you have wire/magnets/multimeters for them to induce their own current.
A lesson for IGCSE (14-6 year old) Coordinated Science although this will also work at KS3 (11-14 year olds). The slide that says 'Follow Mr Porter' I normally take them outside and show them how to play 'Wall Ball' and hence demonstrate the law of reflection. Please message me if you don't know 'wall ball'. The sheets are exercises in using the law, either drawing rays of light to show light being bounced off mirrors to find treasure on a treasure map or trying to 'zap' a dog (I have a running joke about my hate of dogs in my lessons). Please feel free to substitute something other than a dog!
Step by step, easy to understand and humorous presentation explaining Newton's laws for year 9 and GCSE lower groups. Non-Physics specialist and don't quite understand them yourself? - You will now!
Fully explained for horizontal and non-horizontal initial motion. Practical investigation and worksheets. Written for IB or A level by experienced Physics teacher. Humour too! (I don't like dogs!).
IB Internal assessment presentation and sheets for students explaining what they are assessed on. I do one practice assessment and the Powerpoint refers to that. Slides go over the different criteria as does the student sheet. Student sheet also contains many suggested experiments (this is written for Physics, but most of it applies to Biology and Chemistry too).
Two comprehensive lessons with practical sheets and presentations. Hooke's law for GCSE/IGCSE with calculation of spring constant and as an extension finding the spring constant for two springs in series and parallel.
EVERYTHING you need to teach this topic. Presentations, worksheets, practicals and revision material. Great value for money for the amount of work you will save. Written by a very experienced IB Physics teacher. Presentations feature humour too!
Originally written for year 9 this could also be used as an introduction higher up the school, including IB and A level. I have a running joke in my class about my hatred of dogs hence the example!!
Comprehensive Powerpoint covering the gas laws and equation of state. Practical activities and worksheets. Even a slow motion video of the author using a "Fire piston". Written for IB, this could also be used for A level and GCSE. Written with humour by an experienced (26 years!) Physics teacher.
Please give me feedback if you have time. These are Power Points and sheets I use in lessons and will need some adaption to your classes. Most lessons start with a "Do now" that students do as they enter.
A good homework is ask them to do a simple practical at home for their parents. Obviously you have to be careful here – I use the Amazing Mug trick to demonstrate refraction for year 8s. Put a coin in the bottom far side of a mug and move your head so the coin is just out of view. Pouring water in causes the coin to appear as if by magic. Students have to demonstrate this to parents/siblings who sign a slip in their books to prove that it was done! This type of homework can also use internet simulations as the second worksheet shows.
