An activity designed to help pupils reflect on why a particular reaction pathway is chosen taking into account atom economy, yield, rates and usefulness of by-products. Introduce the LO and activity instructions using the first few pages of the Power Point. Arrange pupils into groups of two or three and provide them with the Aspirin synthesis worksheet. They have to use the information on the sheet to work out the atom economy for the two possible reaction pathways and use this, along with the useful information below to determine which of the two routes they will use. They also need to decide what sort of conditions they might use, catalyst and if they will sell any by products. It is a good idea to get them to record their choices, (maybe on a min white board) and share these with the class. They all begin with their shares at £10.00 each. Open the trading floor by moving onto the slide that says SALE SALE SALE! Share this with the class and get them to adjust their share prices accordingly. Try and build the drama as you read through each slide. THe winning groups are those whose shares are worth the most at ‘the end of trading’/when you have exhausted all the slides!

You will need to set up five stations, (or two or three sets of five if you have a large class). We place all the equipment for each 'activity' in a tray with a laminated section of worksheet so pupils are clear which station they are at. The pupils will need about five minutes at each station plus 30s or so tidy up and move round time. Get them to fill in their worksheets as they go round. Station one Have a Bunsen and heat proof mat set up, with tongs, a beaker of cold water, old glass rods and goggles at the ready. You will want to go through the safety aspects of this activity before you start the whole circus and will probably want to hover near this area for much of the lesson! Station Two Fill several glass bottles to the top with water, screw on a lid and leave in the freezer until just before the lesson. We do extras as sometimes the results are more spectacular than others! We also place a very clear 'DO NOT TOUCH' sign in the tray. Station Three Put a selection or rocks into a tray, make sure to include some which do react with acid, such as marble and limestone. Have dil. HCl and goggles ready. Station Four Have copies of the information and pictures about Caribou ready for pulls to examine. We make up laminated copies in advance. Station Five Similar deal to station four, just with the plant pictures instead.

Worksheets that are useful for pupils to stick into their books when they start the AQA GCSE Chemistry course. They list and give examples of all the different command words, plus contain a break down of what the papers will be like and the types of questions they will contain. Helpful to refer to when carrying out past paper walk and talks etc. In Word for ease of editing and PDF for printing.

Simple worksheet for pupils just starting to use a Bunsen burner. It should be folded in half and pupils work in pairs to either complete the practical on the one side or assess their peer using the prompts on the other side. You will need to demo how to use a Bunsen before pupils begin the activity.

A lesson aimed at Year 7 -8 pupils with a split focus on learning the colour of Universal Indicator at different pHs and the role of an environmental chemist. Pupils imagine they are environmental chemists working for Scottish Water, responding to reports of dead fish being discovered in a loch. Scottish water has some nice little animations that help demonstrate the role of environmental chemists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWLYN1MmnQE . In the first part of the lesson you will need to provide pupils with clearly labeled solutions of strong and weak acids and alkalis, plus a neutral solution (I usually use bench or 1M hydrochloric, ethanoic, water, ammonia and sodium hydroxide). Pupils combine these in spotting tiles with universal indicator solution to determine the different colours at different pH. You can then share and self mark their findings. In the second part of the lesson provide pupils with water samples taken from sites A to D. A and B should contain no lead and be only slightly acidic, C should be more acidic and contain lead nitrate solution (lead and acid are common contaminants from copper extraction). I usually make D contain slightly less lead and slightly less acidic (it is nice to discuss with pupils why this might be the case/dilution). Pupils test with potassium iodide (for lead) and Universal Indicator. In a 1hr/50min lesson there should just be time to summarise the lesson’s learning and share conclusions. Extension challenge for early finishers also included.

Print onto thin card. Pupils to cut them out and write the answers on the back. They then use them to test themselves as per the instructions on the top.

To help ease Year 11 pupils into revision, a chart of short activities they can engage in. Best printed on A3.