GCSE Chemistry - Errors and Uncertainty (Chemical measurements)

This is a full 1 hour lesson resource designed for a mid-ability year 9 class studying the AQA GCSE Combined Science specification.
This class were at the end of the “Quantitative Chemistry” topic, on the spec point “chemical measurements”.
However, this should be suitable for any GCSE class studying errors and uncertainty.

By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

• Recall the terms systematic error, random error, zero error and parallax error and explain what they mean
• Identify which type of error is shown from an example
• Know what ‘uncertainty’ means
• Calculate uncertainty from a range of results about a mean

This lesson is designed to be teachable by a non subject specialist, with all answers and content on the slides. The intention of each slide is made very clear.
This lesson contains a range of concrete examples, including a model where students will need to use stopwatches.
The mathematical section of this lesson is presented in an “I do, we do, you do” manner with scaffolded examples.
Exam questions are included with mark schemes, and plenty of AFL is planned and included.
This lesson includes a printable worksheet, with answers.

All of my lesson resources contain:

• A 5-in-5 retrieval-style starter
• An interesting lesson hook, careers link, or retrieval practice to start the lesson
• Teacher input slides with dual coding and reduced cognitive load
• Teacher models
• Regular ‘check for understanding’ slides, such as hand signals quizzes
• Regular student independent practice slides, with optional scaffolds, challenges and answer slides
• A plenary task