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 8 lessons covers a lot of the content in Topic P6 (Radioactivity) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Physics specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Atoms and Isotopes
The properties of alpha, beta and gamma radiation
Nuclear equations
Half-life
Background radiation
Irradiation and contamination
Nuclear fission
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 is ideal for students who are learning about the Periodic Table as part of KS3 or for their GCSE studies. The lessons include details of how the early Periodic Table was formed by Dmitri Mendeleev and how electron configurations relate to the position of elements in the Table and there are detailed lessons about the properties of group 1, 7 and 0 and the transition metals.
This bundle of 4 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C2e (Extraction and uses of metals) of the Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Know the most metals are extracted from ores found in the Earth’s crust and the unreactive metals are often found as the uncombined metal
Explain how the method of extraction is related to the position of the metal in the reactivity series
Know that an alloy is a mixture of a metal and one or more elements
Explain why alloys are harder than pure metals
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 is a fully-resourced revision lesson that uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the sub-topics found within Topic C1 (Key concepts in chemistry) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification.
The sub-topics and specification points that are tested within the lesson include:
Describe how the model of the atom has changed over time with the discovery of the subatomic particles
Describe the structure of an atom and know that atoms contain the same number of protons as electrons
Calculate the number of protons, electrons and neutrons when given the atomic and mass number
Identify elements as metals or non-metals
Predict the electron configuration of the first 20 elements
Explain how ionic bonds are formed by the transfer of electrons
Explain the structure of an ionic compound as an ionic lattice
Explain how a covalent bond is formed
Be able to draw dot and cross diagrams for simple covalent structures
Describe the structure and properties of graphite and diamond
Calculate the relative formula mass
Explain the law of the conservation of mass
Calculate the concentration of a solution
Recall Avogadro’s constant and use in mole calculations
Students will be engaged through the numerous quiz rounds whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which require their further attention during general revision or during the lead up to the actual GCSE terminal exams
This revision lesson has been designed to challenge the students on their use of a range of mathematical skills that could be assessed on the six OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science papers. The mathematical element of the GCSE Combined Science course has increased significantly since the specification change and therefore success in those questions which involve the use of maths can prove to be the difference between one grade and another or possibly even more.
The engaging PowerPoint and accompanying resources contain a wide range of activities that include exam-style questions with displayed mark schemes and explanations so that students can assess their progress. Other activities include differentiated tasks, class discussion points and quick quiz competitions such as “It doesn’t HURT to CONVERT”, “YOU DO THE MATH” and “FILL THE VOID”.
The following mathematical skills (in a scientific context) are covered in this lesson:
The use of Avogadro’s constant
Rearranging the formula of an equation
Calculating the amount in moles using mass and relative formula mass
Calculating the relative formula mass for formulae with brackets
Using the Periodic Table to calculate the number of sub-atomic particles in atoms
Changes to electrons in ions
Balancing chemical symbol equations
Empirical formula
Converting between units
Calculating concentration in grams per dm cubed and volumes of solutions
Calculating size using the magnification equation
Using the mean to estimate the population of a sessile species
Calculating percentages to prove the importance of biodiversity
Calculating percentage change
The BMI equation
Calculating the acceleration from a velocity-time graph
Recalling and applying the Physics equations
Understanding prefixes that determine size
Leaving answers to significant figures and using standard form
Helpful hints and step-by-step guides are used throughout the lesson to support the students and some of the worksheets are differentiated two ways to provide extra assistance.
Due to the detail of this lesson, it is estimated that it will take in excess of 3 hours of GCSE teaching time to cover the tasks and for this reason it can be used over a number of lessons as well as during different times of the year for revision
An informative lesson presentation (30 slides) that ensures that students know the meaning of the independent, dependent and control variables in an investigation and are able to identify them. Students are challenged to use their definitions to spot the independent and dependent variable from an investigation title. Moving forwards, they are shown how they can use tables and graphs to identify them. The rest of the lesson focuses on the control variables and how these have to be controlled to produce valid results
This lesson is suitable for students of all ages studying Science as it is such a key skill
A thought-provoking lesson which explores why certain conditions are chosen for reversible reactions. Throughout this lesson, students are challenged to think about the topic in three ways. Of course, they have to consider the chosen conditions from a Scientific angle by knowing how temperature and pressure affect the position of the equilibrium. They must also think about the business (and health) side of the argument by recognising that increased pressures are both dangerous and expensive. Finally, they are taught recognise how the chosen conditions are in fact a compromise which has taken both the Science and business into account. Students are guided through the choice of conditions for the production of methanol so that they can apply their knowledge to the production of ammonia by the Haber process.
This lesson has been designed for GCSE students.
This bundle of 6 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C1 (Particles) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
States of matter
Chemical and physical changes
Development of the atom
Atomic structure
Isotopes
Ions
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 C4.2 (Identifying the products of chemical reactions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Chemistry specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Detecting gases
Detecting cations
Detecting anions
Instrumental methods of analysis
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 is an informative and engaging lesson, which has been designed for GCSE but is perfectly suitable for younger students who are studying the states of matter. Students will have encountered this topic at KS3 and potentially before, and therefore the aim of this lesson is to consolidate that knowledge and to deepen in critical areas. A number of quick competitions have been written into the lesson to maintain engagement and to test prior knowledge in a different way. In addition, progress checks are found at regular intervals so that students can constantly assess their understanding. The start of the lesson looks at the different properties of the three states and ensures that particle diagrams are not only recognised but can be explained. A lot of students consider elements to be in one state only at all times and therefore time is taken to show them how the specific temperature is the determining factor on the state. Students are guided through using the melting and boiling points to determine which state a substance is in at a given temperature. The rest of the lesson focuses on changing state and the change in the particles at each of these stages.
This bundle of 18 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C2 (Elements, compounds and mixtures) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Elements
Electron configurations
Compounds
Chemical formula of ionic compounds
Ionic compounds
Covalent substances
Simple molecules
Polymers
Metallic bonding
Diamond and graphite
Graphene and the fullerenes
Changing states
Pure and impure substances
Distillation
Filtration and crystallisation
Chromatography
Interpreting chromatograms
Relative formula masses
Empirical formula
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 Topic C4 (Predicting and identifying reactions and products) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Chemistry specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
The alkali metals
The halogens
Displacement reactions of the halogens
The noble gases
The transition metals
Reactivity of elements
Detecting gases
Detecting cations
Detecting anions
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 a lot of the content in Topic C7(Rates of reaction and enrgy changes) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science & GCSE Chemistry specifications. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Determining the rate of reaction
The collision theory
The effect of temperature and concentration on the rate of reaction
Catalysts and the rate of reaction
Endothermic and exothermic reactions
Calculating energy changes in reactions
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 is a concise, fast-paced lesson which guides students through the critical skills needed to calculate the atom economy of a chemical reaction. It has been designed for GCSE students and focuses on the calculation as well as interpreting the final value. In order to calculate the mass of the desired product and other products, students have to be able to calculate the relative formula mass - therefore time is taken to revisit these skills and worked examples are used with this and the actual calculations to enable the students to visualise how they should set their work out. The lesson finishes with some progress check questions where students are challenged to state which of four chemical reactions has the highest atom economy. This lesson could be taught in combination with the percentage yield topic and an accompanying lesson on that calculation is available on this site.
This bundle of 6 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic C5.1 (Monitoring chemical reactions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Chemistry specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Theoretical yield
Percentage yield
Atom economy
Concentration of solution
Titrations
Titration calculations
Gas calculations
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
An engaging lesson presentation (49 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 C5 (Monitoring and controlling chemical reactions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification.
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Concentration of solution
Rate of reaction
Factors affecting the rate of reaction
Reversible reactions
Equilibrium position
Students will be engaged through the numerous activities including quiz rounds like “Under PRESSURE” and “Number CRAZY” whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which need further attention
A fully-resourced lesson which looks at the saturated hydrocarbons known as the alkanes and focuses on their structure and reactions. The lesson includes an engaging lesson presentation (38 slides) and an associated worksheet which is differentiated.
The lesson begins with the introduction of the name of this group and then a step-by-step guide is used to show students how to draw the displayed formula. Once the first four have been drawn, students are shown how to calculate the general formula for the alkenes and then challenged to do the same for the alkanes. Moving forwards, students will meet the key term, saturated, and time is taken to ensure that the meaning of this word is understood in the context of this lesson. Once they have been introduced to bromine water, students are challenged to work out what will happen when this substance is added to an alkane and they have to explain their answer. The remainder of the lesson looks at the complete and incomplete combustion of the alkanes, focusing on the different products of these reactions and specifically the problems associated with carbon monoxide.
There are regular progress checks throughout the lesson to allow the students to check on their understanding.
A fully-resourced lesson that looks at the reaction of an acid with a metal or a metal carbonate and guides students through writing word and symbol equations to represent these reactions. This lesson includes a lesson presentation (39 slides) and differentiated worksheets.
The lesson begins by challenging the students to spot a pattern when naming the salts that are produced from these reactions. Students are shown how the second word of the salt’s name depends upon the particular acid involved in the reaction and are given opportunities to watch this in worked examples before applying their knowledge to a question. Students will also meet the general formula for the reaction of an acid with a metal carbonate. Moving forwards, a step by step guide is used to show the students how to write fully balanced symbol equations. Time is taken to specifically show them how to write accurate chemical formulae, including those which involve a bracket as is common in this topic. The final task challenges the students to bring all of this information together to write word and symbol equations for three reactions. This worksheet is differentiated two ways so students who require some assistance can still access the work.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students (14 - 16 year olds in the UK)
A quick, concise lesson presentation (15 slides) which together with a question worksheet focuses on ensuring that students can define an isotope and pick these substances out from a selection of substances. The lesson begins by looking at the number of sub-atomic particles in an aluminium atom so that students can recall what is shown by the atomic and mass numbers. This will enable students to calculate the number of protons, neutrons and electrons in three given isotopes and as a result, complete a definition of these substances. The remainder of this short lesson involves 4 application questions where students either have to recognise isotopes from a table or from a diagram and also are asked to write out the formula of an isotope. Ideally this lesson will be taught in conjunction with a lesson on atomic structure.
This bundle of 2 lessons covers all of the content in Topic C6 (Energy changes in chemical reactions) of the core and supplement sections of the Cambridge iGCSE Science Double Award specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Describe the meaning of endothermic and exothermic reactions
Describe bond breaking and bond forming
Labelling and interpreting energy level diagrams
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