A fully-resourced lesson which looks at the structure of DNA in the detail which is required at GCSE level (14 - 16 year olds in the UK). The lesson includes an engaging lesson presentation (35 slides) and associated worksheets. The main aim of the lesson is to ensure that students recognise key terminology that comes with this topic such as nucleotide and (nitrogenous) bases. Engaging tasks have been written into the lesson, in order to maintain the motivation, such as when students are introduced to complimentary base pairing through a version of the gameshow “Take me Out”. Additional knowledge is provided at appropriate times in the lesson to stretch and challenge the more able. There are regular progress checks throughout the lesson so that students can assess their understanding of the structure. As stated above, this lesson has been written for GCSE students but could be used with younger students and also with A-level students as a means of a recap before they learn about this in greater detail.

A fully-resourced lesson which guides students through the method involved in calculating the empirical formula and includes a concise, clear lesson presentation (21 slides) and practice questions. Students are given a template to use as they are introduced to the questions and then encouraged to work without it as the lesson progresses. The students are shown how empirical formula questions can be made more difficult and hints are given so that students are able to tackle them and access all of the marks available. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students (14 - 16 year olds in the UK)

A fully- resourced lesson which looks at the chemical reaction that is anaerobic respiration and ensures that students can understand why this form of respiration can only be used for short periods of time. The lesson includes an engaging lesson presentation (39 slides), a newspaper article and application questions. The lesson begins by challenging the students to recall information about aerobic respiration to recognise that the sole reactant of anaerobic respiration is glucose. A newspaper article about two atheletes from the 10000m race has been written to challenge the students to recognise why one of the athletes wouldnt be able to compete again in the near future whilst the other could. As a result, students will be introduced to lactic acid and will learn how this poisonous substance prevents muscle contraction and causes cramps. Time is taken to ensure that students are familiar with ATP and specifically that they recognise that a much lower yield is produced in this type of respiration. A perfect opportunity is taken to get the students to carry out a mathematical calculation to compare the yields. Oxygen debt is discussed and related back to the original newspaper article. Finally, anaerobic respiration in plants and yeast is considered in terms of fermentation and the word and symbol equation is written so that it can be compared to those from animals. There are regular progress checks throughout the lesson to allow the students to check on their understanding. The lesson has been written for GCSE students but could be used with higher ability KS3 students or A-level students who want a recap before covering the topic in greater detail on their course.

A fully-resourced lesson which looks at the structure of the human heart and its associated vessels and ensures that students know the journey which blood takes through this organ. The lesson includes an engaging lesson presentation (25 slides), a diagram to label and a worksheet to summarise the journey. The lesson begins with a bit of fun as students see the script to part of an episode from Friends. Students will recognise the alternative definition of the heart and ultimately recall that the function of this organ is to pump blood around the body. Moving forwards, the main task of the lesson involves labelling the four chambers and the blood vessels which bring blood towards and away from the heart. Students are given useful hints along the way to enable them to discover the answers rather than simply being given a finished diagram. Time is taken to look at the valves and discuss their function so that students can understand this role when they encounter them in veins. The lesson concludes with one final task that challenges the students to detail the journey of blood through the heart. There are regular progress checks throughout the lesson to allow the students to check on their understanding. As always, the lesson finishes with a slide containing advanced terminology so that students who have aspirations to take A-level Biology can extend and deepen their knowledge

An engaging lesson presentation (33 slides) which walks students through the main steps in the extraction of iron from its ore. The lesson begins by challenging the students to recall the reactivity series of metals and specifically the position of iron in relation to carbon so they recognise that it can be extracted by reduction with carbon. Key skills from other Chemistry topics are tested during the lesson such as writing chemical formulae and redox reactions. The rest of the lesson involves a step-by-step guide where students are given a passage and a symbol equation with something missing which they have to complete. This task ensures that students recognise the products, formulae and state symbols at each stage. A number of quiz competitions are used during the lesson to maintain engagement and progress checks have been written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can assess their understanding. This lesson has been written for GCSE students and fits in nicely with other resources that are uploaded (extracting metals and extracting aluminium).

An engaging lesson presentation (70 slides) which covers a range of communicable diseases which are caused by each of the four pathogens and discusses how the spread of these diseases can be prevented. The lesson begins by challenging the students to make the link between communicable diseases and pathogens and ensures that they are comfortable with protoctists as this is a pathogen that a lot of them will not have met or at least known the name for. Moving forwards, a focus is given to each pathogen, looking at why they are so effective at causing disease and also looks at examples of diseases that they cause. A range of quiz competitions are used to introduce key terms and maintain engagement. The remainder of the lesson focuses on how the spread of these communicable diseases can be prevented and attempts are made to link to other topics such as contraception. Progress checks have been written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can constantly assess their understanding and any misconceptions can be immediately addressed. This lesson has been written for GCSE students (14 - 16 year olds in the UK) but can be used with both younger and older students.

A fast-paced lesson which includes an informative lesson presentation (20 slides) and a question worksheet. Together these resources guide GCSE students through the calculation questions that they can encounter on the topic of the conservation of momentum. The lesson begins by introducing the law of the conservation of momentum and reminding students of the equation which links momentum, mass and velocity that they are expected to recall for the GCSE exam. Time is taken to inform them of the two types of question which tend to arise on this topic - those where the masses lock together during the event and those where they remain as separate masses. Students are guided through both of these types of questions with worked examples to enable them to visualise how to begin and set out their workings. Key mathematical skills are involved such as rearranging the formula so this is also shown. Students are given the opportunity to apply these skills to a series of questions on the worksheet and the mark schemes are displayed so they can assess once completed.

This lesson looks at the homologous series of alcohols, focusing on the properties that they share and guiding students through naming and drawing displayed formula to represent them. It has been designed for GCSE students and time is taken to embed a few selected key details as dictated by the exam board specification. The lesson begins with students meeting the formula for ethanol. This substance will provide the backbone to their understanding as they are guided through drawing the displayed formula so they can visualise how it is done and use to draw diagrams for the others. Students are shown how the general formula for the alkanes and alkenes can be worked out and then challenged to use this to work out the general formula for the alcohols. There is a brief look at the reactions with oxygen and the products that can be made depending upon whether sufficient oxygen is available or not.

This is an engaging and informative lesson that looks at the group of unsaturated hydrocarbons known as the alkenes and focuses on a few properties, their displayed and chemical formulae and identification. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students and works nicely with the “alkanes” lesson as students can use learning from both lessons. The lesson begins by ensuring that students recognise a key difference between the alkenes and the alkanes in terms of the carbon-carbon bond. This shows them that there is no such substance as methane. They are guided through the rules of drawing alkenes, with examples of ethene and propene used so that they can then apply this technique to draw butene. Working together with the teacher, they will be able to write the general formula that connects this group of substances. The rest of the lesson focuses on the term unsaturated and how this affects them in terms of the identification test with bromine water as well reactions with hydrogen. The lesson finishes by getting students to recognise a use of ethene in making the alcohol, ethanol.

This fully-resourced lesson explores the inheritance of genetic characteristics that involve multiple alleles and codominant alleles. The engaging and detailed PowerPoint and differentiated worksheets have been designed to cover the part of point 6.1.2 (b[i]) which states that students should be able to demonstrate and apply their knowledge and understanding of genetic diagrams to show patterns of inheritance including multiple and codominant alleles. The main part of the lesson uses the inheritance of the ABO blood groups to demonstrate how the three alleles that are found at the locus on chromosome 9 and the codominance of the A and B alleles affects the phenotypes. Students are guided through the construction of the different genotypes and how to interpret the resulting phenotype. They are challenged to use a partially completed pedigree tree to determine the blood group for some of the family members and to explain how they came to their answer. To further challenge their ability to apply their knowledge, a series of questions about multiple alleles and codominance in animals that are not humans are used. The final part of the lesson makes a link back to module 4 and the correlation between a high proportion of polymorphic gene loci and an increase in genetic diversity. Students will be expected to make links between module 4 and 6 as part of papers 2 and 3, so this demonstrates how exam questions can do just that

This lesson describes the active loading of assimilates like sucrose at the source and the translocation along the phloem to the sink. Both the detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover point 3.1.3 (f) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification. The lesson begins by challenging the students to recognise the key term translocation when it is partially revealed and then the rest of the lesson focuses on getting them to understand how this process involves the mass flow of assimilates down the hydrostatic pressure gradient from the source to the sink. It has been written to tie in with 3.1.3 (b) where the structure of the phloem tissue was initially introduced and the students are continually challenged on this prior knowledge. A step-by-step guide is used to describe how sucrose is loaded into the phloem at the source by the companion cells. Time is taken to discuss key details such as the proton pumping to create the proton gradient and the subsequent movement back into the cells by facilitated diffusion using co-transporter proteins. Students will learn that the hydrostatic pressure at the source is high, due to the presence of the water and sucrose as cell sap, and that this difference when compared to the lower pressure at the sink leads to the movement along the phloem. A number of quick quiz rounds are included in the lesson to maintain engagement and to introduce key terms and the lesson concludes with a game of SOURCE or SINK as students have to identify whether a particular plant structure is one or the other (or both)

This is a detailed and engaging lesson that looks at how molecules move between areas of differing concentrations by diffusion and then explores how this occurs across cell membranes and focuses on the alveoli. The lesson begins by using a step by step format to write the definition for diffusion so that key terms such as concentration gradient are understood. Students will be introduced to this as a passive process so that they can understand how active transport differs when this is met in another lesson. Progress checks are written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can assess their understanding against a displayed answer. Moving forwards, the lesson focuses on diffusion across cell membranes and uses the example of the exchange surface of the alveoli and blood capillaries to explore the different features which act to increase the rate of diffusion. The final part of the lesson briefly looks at how the villi in the small intestine increase the rate of diffusion. This lesson has been written for GCSE aged students. If you’re looking for a lesson on this topic but for older students, then my alternative upload “Simple diffusion” will be more suitable

This is a fully-resourced revision lesson that could be used over a series of lessons to help students to revise and assess their knowledge of the content in topics P1 (Matter), P2 (Forces) and P3 (Electricity and magnetism) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specifiction which can be assessed in paper 5. This revision lesson uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to cover the following sub-topics and specification points: Describe how and why the atomic model has changed over time Describe the structure of the atom and the charges of the particles Define the term specific latent heat Conversions from non S.I. units to S.I. units Explain the vector-scalar distinction Recall examples in which objects interact Represent forces as vectors by drawing free-body diagrams Know the definition of Newton’s three laws of motion Define momentum and describe examples of momentum in collisions Recall and apply Newton’s third law Describe the relationship between force and the extension of a spring Calculate the spring constant in linear cases Define mass and weight Recall that current depends upon both potential difference and resistance Recall and apply the relationship between I, R and V Show that Fleming’s left hand rule represents the relative orientations of current, magnetic field and force This lesson contains a big emphasis on the mathematical calculations that will be involved in these exams, and as a result students are challenged to recall the equations and to apply them. 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. A lot of the tasks have been differentiated so that students of all abilities can access the work and be challenged appropriately.

This is a fully-resourced revision lesson that uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to enable students to assess their understanding of the content found within Topics P4 and P5 (Waves, Light and the Electromagnetic spectrum) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification. The sub-topics and specification points that are tested within the lesson include: Define and use the terms frequency, wavelength, amplitude, period and wave velocity as applied to waves Describe the difference between longitudinal and transverse waves by referring to sound and EM waves Recall and use the two equations to calculate wave speed Describe how to measure the velocity of sound in air and ripples on water surfaces Explain how waves will be refracted at a boundary in terms of the change in direction and speed Recall that the EM waves are transverse and travel at the same speed in a vacuum Recall the main groupings of the EM spectrum Recall the potential danger associated with EM waves with increasing frequency Describe some uses of the EM waves 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 is a fully-resourced revision lesson that uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to enable students to assess their understanding of the content found within Topic P3 (Conservation of energy) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification. The sub-topics and specification points that are tested within the lesson include: Recall and use the equation to calculate the change in gravitational potential energy Recall and use the equation to calculate the change in kinetic energy of a moving object Explain what is meant by the conservation of energy Analyse the way energy is stored when a system changes Explain how mechanical processes become wasteful Explain ways of reducing unwanted energy transfer Recall and use the equation to calculate efficiency Describe the main energy sources available for use on Earth Explain patterns and trends in the use of energy resources 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 is an engaging revision lesson which uses a range of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to enable students to assess their understanding of the content within topic 3 (Chemical changes) of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification. The specification points that are covered in this revision lesson include: Recall that acids in solution are sources of hydrogen ions and alkalis in solution are sources of hydroxide ions Recall that the higher the concentration of hydrogen ions in an acidic solution, the lower the pH; and the higher the concentration of hydroxide ions in an alkaline solution, the higher the pH Recall that as hydrogen ion concentration in a solution increases by a factor of 10, the pH of the solution decreases by 1 Recall that a base is any substance that reacts with an acid to form a salt and water only Recall that alkalis are soluble bases Explain the general reactions of aqueous solutions of acids with metals, metal oxides, metal hydroxides and metal carbonates to produce salts Describe the chemical test for hydrogen and carbon dioxide Describe a neutralisation reaction as a reaction between an acid and a base Explain an acid-alkali neutralisation as a reaction in which hydrogen ions (H+) from the acid react with hydroxide ions (OH–) from the alkali to form water Explain how a soluble salts is prepared from an acid and an insoluble reactant Explain how soluble salts are prepared from an acid and a soluble reactant Recall that electrolytes are ionic compounds in the molten state or dissolved in water Explain the movement of ions during electrolysis Explain the formation of the products in electrolysis Write half equations for reactions occurring at the anode and cathode in electrolysis Explain oxidation and reduction in terms of loss or gain of electrons The students will thoroughly enjoy the range of activities, which includes quiz competitions like “From NUMBERS 2 LETTERS” where they compete to be the 1st to get the abbreviation Oil Rig whilst crucially being able to recognise the areas of this topic which need their further attention. This lesson can be used as revision resource at the end of the topic or in the lead up to mocks or the actual GCSE exams