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.
Mr Porter's amazing "Revise by writing" sheet. Students have to use 47 words to describe various pictures - convection, terminal velocity, latent heat, etc. Once you've seen the idea and used the sheet you can apply this to just about any topic (in Chem and Bio too).
Written for IB but could also be used for A level. Step by step explanation of orbital motion using a dog shot from a cannon (I don't like dogs! It's a running joke in my lessons). Includes calculations of centripetal acceleration etc - using angular velocity too.
Half-life for IGCSE based upon the authors recent artcile in "My Best lesson" in the TES. Full instructions and presentation for a top of the range radioactive half-life lesson. Feel free to adapt the Disease (MrPorteritis) that is running rampant in Warsaw (or your own town) to model radioactive decay using spreadsheets.
Written originally for IB, this can be used for A level too. Students are taken step by step through the Raleigh criteria and example problems. There is a practical activity and worksheet. Written (with humour) by a very experienced (26 years!) Physics teacher.
Print out both sheets - cut into dominoes and off you go! Completed dominoes should form a square/circle. Will take a group of 3 students about 20 - 25 minutes to do this excellent revision exercise. Also included is a sheet of Chemistry definitions to help their revision. Perfect activity for this time of year!
Lesson PowerPoint, worksheet and practical sheet. Written for IGCSE but suitable for GCSE and even A level. In the practical they can compare their results with the actual results and discuss why their results for the SHC is larger than the accepted value.
Presentation plus latent heat question sheet. The practical referred to in the presentation is the cooling of molten wax in hot water. I like to put the wax in a boiling tube in the beaker of hot water and take the temperature of the wax and the water as they cool to emphasise that the wax stops cooling when it reaches its melting point. This then leads into a discussion of latent heat followed by example calculations etc.
You can’t beat an easy lung dissection to get students interested and possibly a little nauseous! Hopefully at the time of writing there are still some actual butchers shops surviving out there and you have no problem getting your hands on some sheep or pigs lungs, especially if you have an obliging laboratory technician to help. Try to get some with oesophagus and trachea attached.
I usually set the lab up beforehand to look as much like an operating room as possible. A table at the centre covered in white sheets, stage lighting if available, and if you can get hold of some scrubs even better (although a lab coat and a stethoscope will do). Teaching is partly a theatrical performance after all! I normally have stools arranged around a central bench – “in the round” so to speak.
Start by bringing attention to the smooth surface of the lungs and discuss how this helps, along with the pleural fluid, the lungs to move in relation to the rib cage. Remind the class of the role of the diaphragm contracting beneath the lungs and the intercostal muscles expanding the rib cage. Show where approximately the diaphragm is in relation to your rib-cage – it’s much higher than most people imagine. Being a good physicist I will explain how the air is PUSHED into the lungs by the surrounding air pressure - “In Physics, there is no such thing as suck!”
Contrast the flexible cilia-lined trachea made of cartilage with the muscular lined oesophagus. You can remind them of peristalsis by squeezing a Smarty down the esophagus with your fingers (it’s when it appears at the other end you might see a few green faces). Discuss the role of cilia in keeping dirt particles out of the lungs and how smoking can affect their action.
Before cutting the lung itself, inflate it using a blower (cue a couple more green faces). Then cut down the trachea with scissors, branching off into the bronchi, remembering also to discuss the role of surface area in the functioning of the alveoli. Cut a piece of lung and put it on water to show how light it is compared with a piece of meat, which sinks. You can ask “What would happen if the sheep/lung had drowned?” I normally finish by cutting a cross-section across a whole lung horizontally to show the lung riddled with cartilage bronchioles, explaining that’s why we don’t normally eat lungs!
I will usually then get the students to do a “Draw the sentence” exercise (my favourite) where they convert 8 simple sentences about the action of the lungs into drawings.
For any year - dropping water (using a pipette) onto graph paper and investigating the relationship between height dropped from and diameter. Presentation and activity sheet. This could then be extended to the students choosing their own variables etc.
Starts with an activity seeing whether meditation affects reaction time. Then everything they need to know about the CNS, reflex arc etc. Even includes instructions on how to get the class to meditate! Written by a Physicist so easy to follow and understand. Warning - use of humour.
This presentation is to accompany and explain the "standard" demos for this topic. i.e. ball and ring, breaking bar, liquid in flask with tube (thermometer), gas trapped in flask and tube etc. This is then followed by a worksheet where they have to describe various uses problems with expansion/contraction in everyday situations.
To get those top grades they need to know these definitions. PODCAST they can stick on their ipods plus sheet from very (!) experienced iGCSE/International teacher.
Written for year 9, traces the development of models for the solar system using observations of astronomical phenomena. Fairly comprehensive so could also be used higher up the school.
At the end of the GCSE waves topic - class either hold up cards they have made (True or false) or can move from one side of the class (the false side!) to the other. A quick assessment and revision exercise.
Students investigate the effect of adding resistances together in parallel using pencil lines on the worksheet. Will need standard multimeters to do this task. Includes PowerPoint, activity sheet and question sheet. Ideal for GCSE or A level/IB. Written by experienced Physics teacher (26 years!!).
