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 fully-resourced lesson describes the process of anaerobic respiration in eukaryotes and explains how pyruvate can be converted to lactate or ethanol using the hydrogen atoms released from reduced NAD and that the reoxidation of this coenzyme allows glycolysis to continue. The engaging and detailed PowerPoint and accompanying differentiated resources have been designed to cover the first part of point 5.2.2 (i) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification which states that students should be able to demonstrate and apply their knowledge and understanding of anaerobic respiration in mammals and yeast.
The lesson begins with a focus on the coenzyme, NAD, and students are challenged to recall details of its role in the oxidation of triose phosphate. Students will recall that oxidative phosphorylation in aerobic respiration allows these coenzymes to be reoxidised and therefore recognise that another metabolic pathway has to operate when there is no oxygen available. Time is taken to go through the details of the lactate and ethanol fermentation pathways and students are encouraged to discuss the conversions before applying their knowledge to complete diagrams and passages about the pathways. Understanding checks in a range of forms are used to enable the students to assess their progress whilst prior knowledge checks allow them to recognise the links to earlier topics.
This lesson has been written to tie in with the other uploaded lessons on glycolysis and the stages of aerobic respiration
An engaging lesson presentation (33 slides) and associated worksheets that introduces students to classification using the taxonomic levels and teaches them how to name species using the binomial naming system. The students are told about the domain system, as developed by Carl Woese, but then the lesson focuses on showing them the seven levels that come after this. Students are challenged to understand how the levels differ from each other in terms of sharing characteristics. Time is taken to focus on the five kingdoms and links are made to other topics such as prokaryotic cells to test their previous knowledge. Moving forwards, students are shown how the genus and species are used in the binomial naming system before being given lots of opportunities to assess their understanding through questions.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students but is suitable for all age ranges
Each of the 13 lessons included in this bundle are fully-resourced and have been designed to cover the content as detailed in module 6.1.2 (Patterns of inheritance) of the OCR A-Level Biology A specification. The specification points that are covered within these lessons include:
The contribution of environmental and genetic factors to phenotypic variation
How sexual reproduction can lead to genetic variation within a species
Genetic diagrams to show patterns of inheritance
The use of phenotypic ratios to identify autosomal and sex linkage and epistasis
Using the chi-squared test
The factors that can affect the evolution of a species
The use of the Hardy-Weinberg principle to calculate allele frequencies
The role of isolating mechanisms in the evolution of a new species
The lessons have been written to include a wide range of activities and numerous understanding and prior knowledge checks so students can assess their progress against the current topic as well as be challenged to make links to other topics within this module and earlier modules.
This clear and concise lesson looks at the phenomenon known as the Bohr effect and describes and explains how an increased carbon dioxide concentration effects the dissociation of oxyhaemoglobin. The PowerPoint has been designed to cover the second part of point 3.4.1 of the AQA A-level Biology specification and continually ties in with the previous lesson on the role of haemoglobin.
The lesson begins with a terminology check to ensure that the students can use the terms affinity, oxyhaemoglobin and dissociation. In line with this, they are challenged to draw the oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve and are reminded that this shows how oxygen associates with haemoglobin but how it dissociates at low partial pressures. Moving forwards, a quick quiz is used to introduce Christian Bohr and the students are given some initial details of his described effect. This leads into a series of discussions where the outcome is the understanding that an increased concentration of carbon dioxide decreases the affinity of haemoglobin for oxygen. The students will learn that this reduction in affinity is a result of a decrease in the pH of the cell cytoplasm which alters the tertiary structure of the haemoglobin. Opportunities are taken at this point to challenge students on their prior knowledge of protein structures as well as the bonds in the tertiary structure. The lesson finishes with a series of questions where the understanding and application skills are tested as students have to explain the benefit of the Bohr effect for an exercising individual.
This bundle of detailed lesson PowerPoints and accompanying resources have been designed to cover the content of topic 5.1 (Photosynthesis) in the AQA A-level Biology specification. This cellular reaction can prove difficult for the students to understand, so extra planning has gone into these 4 lessons to ensure that the key details of the reactions are embedded and understanding is constantly checked through a variety of activities. All of the exam-style questions which are used in these current understanding and prior knowledge checks have mark schemes that are included in the PowerPoint to allow the students to assess their work.
If you would like to sample the quality of these lessons, download the chloroplast structure lesson as this has been uploaded for free.
This lesson bundle contains 6 fully-resourced lessons which have been designed to engage and motivate the students whilst covering the detailed content of topic 3 (Enzymes) in the CIE A-level Biology specification. These globular proteins catalyse biological reactions throughout living organisms so a deep understanding of this topic is important for all of the other 18 topics in this course.
The wide range of activities that are included within the lesson PowerPoints and accompanying resources will cover the following specification points:
Enzymes are globular proteins that catalyse reactions
The mode of action of enzymes
The lock and key hypothesis and the induced-fit model
The effect of temperature on the rate of an enzyme-catalysed reaction
The effect of pH on the rate of an enzyme-catalysed reaction
The effect of enzyme and substrate concentration on the rate of an enzyme-catalysed reaction
The effect of inhibitor concentration on the rate of an enzyme-catalysed reaction
The effect of competitive and non-competitive inhibitors on enzyme activity
Immobilising an enzyme in alginate
This bundle contains 17 fully-resourced and detailed lessons that have been designed to cover the content of topic 7 of the AQA A-level Biology specification which concerns genetics, populations, evolution and ecosystems. The wide range of activities included in each lesson will engage the students whilst the detailed content is covered and the understanding and previous knowledge checks allow them to assess their progress on the current topic as well as challenging them to make links to other related topics. Most of the tasks are differentiated to allow differing abilities to access the work and be challenged.
The following sub-topics are covered in this bundle of lessons:
The use of genetic terminology
The inheritance of one or two genes in monohybrid and dihybrid crosses
Codominant and multiple alleles
The inheritance of sex-linked characteristics
Autosomal linkage
Epistasis as a gene interaction
The use of the chi-squared test
Species exist as one or more populations
The concepts of gene pool and allele frequency
Calculating allele frequencies using the Hardy-Weinberg principle
Causes of phenotypic variation
Stabilising, directional and disruptive selection
Genetic drift
Allopatric and sympatric speciation
Species, populations, communities and ecosystems
Factors affecting the populations in ecosystems
Estimating the size of a population using randomly placed quadrats, transects and the mark-release-recapture method
Primary succession, from colonisation by pioneer species to climax community
Conservation of habitats frequently involves the management of succession
This is one of the 8 topics which have to be covered over the length of the 2 year course and therefore it is expected that the teaching time for this bundle will be in excess of 2 months
If you want to see the quality of the lessons before purchasing then the lessons on codominant and multiple alleles, epistasis and phenotypic variation are free resources to download
This fully-resourced lesson explains the meaning of gross and net primary production and net production and describes how they are calculated. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources are part of the second lesson in a series of 3 lessons which have been designed to cover the detail in point 5.3 of the AQA A-level Biology specification.
Due to the fact that the productivity of plants is dependent on photosynthesis, a series of exam-style questions have been written into the lesson which challenge the students to explain how the structure of the leaf as well as the light-dependent and light-independent reactions are linked to GPP. All of the exam questions have displayed mark schemes which are included in the PowerPoint to allow students to immediately assess their understanding. A number of quick quiz competitions as well as guided discussion points are used to introduce the formulae to calculate NPP and N and to recognise the meaning of the components. Once again, this is immediately followed by the opportunity to apply their understanding to selected questions.
As well as linking to photosynthesis from earlier in topic 5, this lesson has been specifically planned to challenge students on their understanding of ecosystem terminology from the previous lesson as well as preparing them for the next lesson on the efficiency of energy transfer
This is a fully-resourced lesson which is designed for GCSE students and explores the topic of compounds, specifically focusing on naming these chemicals based upon the elements within them and from their chemical formula. The lesson includes an engaging lesson presentation (46 slides) and a worksheet containing three tasks for the lesson.
The lesson begins with some simple multiple choice questions to check that students can spot the chemical symbol and definition of an element, but more importantly pick out the formula for a compound. Time is taken to go through the explanation of why substances are elements or compounds and specific examples given. A quick understanding check, in the form of a competition called “To COM or NOT TO COM”,is used to check that students can identify elements or compounds from a name or given formula. The remainder of the lesson focuses on naming compounds. Students are challenged to spot a pattern when presented with the names of two compounds, which contain 2 elements only. For both compounds that contain 2 elements or 3 or more, the rules to naming are introduced before examples are shown so that students can visualise how to construct their answer. They are then given an opportunity to apply this to a number of questions in the set tasks. The last part of the lesson moves this forward by looking at how these same rules can be applied when the chemical formula of a compound is given and this is related to another topic as they are challenged to write a word equation containing a range of compounds when presented with the symbol equation. Progress checks are written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can constantly assess their understanding.
Although this is written for GCSE students, it is perfectly suitable for use with younger students who are learning about elements, compounds and mixtures and the teacher wants to push them along.
This detailed and engaging lesson has been written to challenge the students on their recall and application of the 23 equations which they have to know for the AQA GCSE Physics exams. The lesson is designed to not only check that they know these equations but also on their ability to rearrange formulae when required and to convert between units. The main task of the lesson consists of 13 exam-style questions which challenge 12 of these recall equations and then an engaging quiz competition and class discussions are used to identify the other 11. Students are guided throughout the lesson in the use of the mathematical skills and are shown examples to aid their progress.
This lesson has been designed to tie in with the other 8 uploaded revision lessons which cover the content of the 8 topics on the AQA GCSE Physics specification
A concise lesson presentation (20 slides) that looks at how the collision theory is related to the rate of reaction. This is a short lesson that would be taught at the beginning of the topic that looks at the rate of reaction and the factors that affect the rate. Students are challenged with a quick competition that gets them to recognise keywords which are involved in the collision theory. Some time is then taken to focus on "activation energy" and how this is shown on a reaction profile. Finally, students will use their keywords to form a clear definition for the collision theory which includes its link to the rate of reaction so this can be used in the upcoming lessons
This lesson has ultimately been designed for GCSE students but can be used with all age groups as an introduction to the topic
This is a fully-resourced lesson about group 7 of the Periodic Table, the halogens, which includes a lesson presentation (34 slides) and a differentiated worksheet. The lesson begins by challenging students to recognise and explain why the electronic structure of group 1 and group 7 means that they react together easily. As the lesson progresses, students will learn more and more properties about the halogens and key terms such as diatomic are used throughout so that students become accustomed to these. Moving forwards, students will carry out a series of displacement reactions so that they can recognise that the reactivity of these elements decreases as they go down the group. Students are challeged to explain this with reference to electron configuration and a differentiated worksheet will help those who need assistance to access this work.
This lesson has been designed for GCSE students (14 - 16 year olds in the UK) but is suitable for younger students who might be carrying out a project on the Periodic Table
An engaging lesson presentation (16 slides) which looks at the surface area to volume ratio and ensures that students can explain why this factor is so important to the organisation of living organisms. This is a topic which is generally poorly misunderstood by students and therefore time has been taken to design an engaging lesson which highlights the key points in order to encourage greater understanding.
The lesson begins by showing students the dimensions of a cube and two answers and challenges them to work out what the questions were that produced these answers. Students are shown how to calculate the surface area and the volume of an object before it is explained how this can then be turned into a ratio. Time is taken at this point to ensure that students can apply this new-found knowledge as they have to work out which of the three organisms in the “SA: V OLYMPICS” would stand aloft the podium. Students are given the opportunity to draw conclusions from this task so that they can recognise that the larger the organism, the lower the surface area to volume ratio. The lesson finishes by explaining how larger organisms, like humans, have adapted in order to increase the surface area at important exchange surfaces in their bodies.
There are regular progress checks throughout the lesson to allow the students to check on their understanding. This lesson has been written for GCSE students but is perfectly suitable for A-level students who want to look at this topic from a basic level
A detailed, engaging and informative lesson presentation (50 slides) and accompanying worksheets that looks at the commonly misunderstood topic of chromatography. This lesson goes through paper, thin-layer and gas chromatography so that students can analyse and interpret the results that would be found on a chromatogram. The lesson begins by challenging the students to recall details of this separation method when they met it at KS3. Students will meet the two chemical phases, mobile and stationary, and begin to understand that this method relies on the distribution of substances between these two phases. Students will meet the calculation for retention factor and be shown how to tackle questions on this topic before trying themselves. Time is taken to go over the details of gas chromatography, in a step by step guide format, as this is a poorly understood topic. There are progress checks throughout the lesson, which include mark schemes and detailed explanations, so that students can assess their understanding and address any misconceptions that could arise.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students but could be used with A-level students
A fully-resourced lesson which prepares students for the range of mathematical-based questions that they could encounter on the two AQA GCSE Chemistry papers. The lesson contains a wide range of activities which include exam-style questions with markschemes embedded within the PowerPoint to enable the students to assess their current understanding. There are also 8 quiz competition rounds interspersed throughout the lesson to maintain engagement and motivation.
The mathematical skills covered in this lesson include:
Calculating the number of sub-atomic particles in atoms and ions
Writing chemical formulae for ionic compounds
Identifying isotopes
Using Avogadro’s constant to calculate the number of particles
Calculating the relative formula mass
Calculating amount in moles using the mass and the relative formula mass
Balancing chemical symbol equations
Calculating reacting masses
Gas calculations using molar volume
Calculating the concentration of an unknown solution
Calculating the atom economy and percentage yield
Calculating energy changes in reactions
Temperature and pressure and the position of equilibrium
Most of the resources have been differentiated two ways to allow students of differing abilities to access the work whilst still being challenged. In addition, step by step guides are used to demonstrate how to carry out some of the more difficult calculations such as the harder mole calculations and calculating masses in reactions
A concise lesson presentation (16 slides) and associated worksheet that looks at the motion topic of Momentum and guides students through how to answer these questions. The lesson begins by giving the students the units for momentum and challenging them to use this to work out the other factors involved in the equation. Moving forwards, a number of progress checks are used to see whether the students can apply their new found knowledge. All progress checks have displayed mark schemes.
This lesson has been designed for GCSE students and ties in nicely with my other resources, "Conservation of momentum" and "Changes in momentum"
This clear and concise lesson explains how the inheritance of two or more genes that have loci on the same autosome demonstrates autosomal linkage. The engaging PowerPoint and associated resource have been designed to cover the part of point 6.1.2 (b[ii]) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification which states that students should be able to demonstrate and apply their knowledge and understanding of the use of phenotypic ratios to identify autosomal linkage.
This is a topic which can cause confusion for students so time was taken in the design to split the concept into small chunks. There is a clear focus on how the number of original phenotypes and recombinants can be used to determine linkage and suggest how the loci of the two genes compare. Important links to other topics such as crossing over in meiosis are made to enable students to understand how the random formation of the chiasma determines whether new phenotypes will be seen in the offspring or not. Linkage is an important cause of variation and the difference between observed and expected results and this is emphasised on a number of occasions. The main task of the lesson acts as an understanding check where students are challenged to analyse a set of results involving the inheritance of the ABO blood group gene and the nail-patella syndrome gene to determine whether they have loci on the same chromosome and if so, how close their loci would appear to be.
This lesson has been written to tie in with the other lessons from module 6.1.2 (Patterns of Inheritance)
A concise lesson presentation (19 slides) and associated worksheet (newspaper articles) that introduces students to the process of homeostasis in the human body and the three main factors (water potential, blood glucose, temperature) that are controlled by this system. The lesson begins by getting the students to work out a code to give them an exemplary definition for homeostasis. A newspaper article is used to get the students to recognise the three factors that are controlled. A quick competition is used to show the students the main parts of any homeostatic control system.
This lesson is designed for GCSE students but could be used with both KS3 and A-level as a quick recap
A detailed lesson presentation (25 slides) that introduces students to the difficult topic of specific heat capacity. Students are guided through the equation for energy transferred and shown how to rearrange the equation, so they are able to tackle the question, no matter the subject of the question. There are regular opportunities for students to apply their new found knowledge to questions and to assess themselves against the answers. Quick games and competitions are also used to maintain engagement.
If you choose to download this lesson, it would be much appreciated if you would take just a few seconds to write a review so I can improve my practice and other teachers can see if this resource is right for them. Thank you in advance.
This revision resource contains an engaging PowerPoint (44 slides) and associated worksheets, all of which have been differentiated two ways to allow students of differing abilities to access the work. The range of activities cover the content of Topic C11 (Air and water) of the CIE IGCSE Combined Science specification, for examination in June and November 2020 and 2021. The aim was to cover as much of the content as possible but the following topics have received particular attention:
The composition of clean air
Changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels
The formation of carbon dioxide
Common air pollutants and their effects on health and structures
The treatment of water to make it safe
The chemical tests for water
A number of quiz competitions are included in the lesson such as “POLLUTE the air…with the answer” where students compete to be the first to identify a common pollutant from the clues. These competitions act to engage them whilst the exam questions and quick tasks will enable them to assess their understanding of the content.
