NEW AQA GCSE (2016) Physics - Half-life & Radioactivity

This lesson is designed for the NEW AQA Physics GCSE, particularly the ‘Radioactivity’ SoW.

For more lessons designed to meet specification points for the NEW AQA Trilogy specifications for Biology, Chemistry and Physics please see my shop: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/SWiftScience

This lesson begins with an introduction to some key terms, including ‘activity’ and ‘count rate’, students can take notes from the board so they have the key definition in their books. Next students will be introduced to the idea of a ‘half-life’, students will be given the definition and shown a graph and a diagram to help illustrate this concept.

Students will then have an opportunity to investigate whether the radioactive is random or predictable, students will be given a coin in pairs and will be asked to flip it 20 times. Can you predict the outcome of the next flip? What was the rough ratio of coins flipped head:tails? This investigation demonstrates that the process of radioactive decay is random but with a large enough sample it is possible to predict the number that will decay in a certain amount of time.

Students will then be shown how to complete half-life calculations using a worked example, before students are given a set of problems to work through. The mark scheme for this work is included in the PowerPoint for students to assess their work.

Pupils are given another worksheet of problems to work through, students must show their working at all time. This task can also be self-assessed or peer-assessed using the mark scheme included in the PowerPoint.

The last task requires students to fill-in-the-blanks on a paragraph which summarises what they have learned this lesson. The answers to this task is also included so students can mark and correct their own work…

The plenary task is for students to write a set of summary sentences about what they have learned this lesson, including as many key words as possible from the list provided.

All resources are included at the end of the presentation. Thanks for looking, if you have any questions please let me know in the comments section and any feedback would be appreciated :)