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.
A fast-paced lesson that looks at the key details of the different substances which are found along the pH scale. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students and to build on the foundation knowledge that they picked up at KS3. Along with the obvious Scientific knowledge associated with the lesson, both numeracy and literacy skills are challenged during the lesson. Time is taken to ensure that the meaning of pH is understood and new terms such as base are introduced, so that these are recognised when written in assessment questions. Students will recall the scale numbers associated with acidic, neutral and alkaline solutions and their knowledge will be extended through the introduction of hydrogen and hydroxide ions. A method for taking a pH reading using a pH probe is included which can be used should the teacher chose that it is required. Progress checks are written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can constantly assess their understanding.
This is an engaging and practical-based lesson which uses the background idea of a man needing to make crystals for a date to engage students into understanding how the separation methods of filtration and crystallisation work. Like all of the lessons in the separation topic, a lot of the key terms sound similar and are often wrongly used by students. For this reason, time is given in the lesson to ensure that students can use them correctly, especially when describing filtration. In line with the background of the lesson, students are challenged to come up with the apparatus and substances needed to make the crystals. A method is provided so should the teacher choose, students will be able to carry out the practical and produce the copper sulphate crystals. Progress checks are written into the lesson at regular intervals, which question the students on this lesson topic and that of related ones and the final task of the lesson involves an exam question where students have to describe the method and equipment needed to make crystals.
This lesson has primarily been written for GCSE students (14 - 16 years in the UK) but is appropriate for younger students who are studying the separation topic
This is an engaging lesson which uses a range of tasks and quiz competitions to ensure that the important details about elements are embedded so that students can use them in related Chemistry topics. The lesson begins by looking at the chemical symbols that are used with the elements. Students do not have to know the symbols off by heart because of the widely available Periodic Table but a sound knowledge will always help going forward. Time is taken to ensure that students understand how the symbols have to be written so that those with two letters consist of a capital and a lower case letter. In a race against each other, students are challenged to complete a crossword by converting symbols to the name of elements. This will result in a winner, a second placed and a third placed student who can be given a gold, silver and bronze medal. The atoms within each of these medals is explored so that students can learn that the gold and silver medals will only be made up of one type of atom and are therefore elements whilst the bronze is an alloy. The remainder of the lesson looks at some of the uses of the different elements and a homework task gets students to put this into written form.
This lesson is suitable for both KS3 and GCSE students.
This bundle of 16 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C1 (Atomic structure and the Periodic Table) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Atoms
Elements
Compounds
Chemical equations
Chromatography
Separation methods
Development of the atomic model
Electronic structure
Development of the Periodic Table
Metals and non-metals
The alkali metals
The halogens
The Noble gases
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 8 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C6 (The rate and extent of chemical change) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Rates of reaction
Factors affecting rates of reaction
Measuring rates of reaction
Reversible reactions
Changing the position of equilibrium
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 6 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic P4 (Atomic structure) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Developing the atomic model
Isotopes
Nuclear radiation
Decay equations
Half-life
Irradiation and contamination
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This is an engaging and informative lesson that looks at the group of unsaturated hydrocarbons known as the alkenes and focuses on a few properties, their displayed and chemical formulae and identification. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students and works nicely with the “alkanes” lesson as students can use learning from both lessons.
The lesson begins by ensuring that students recognise a key difference between the alkenes and the alkanes in terms of the carbon-carbon bond. This shows them that there is no such substance as methane. They are guided through the rules of drawing alkenes, with examples of ethene and propene used so that they can then apply this technique to draw butene. Working together with the teacher, they will be able to write the general formula that connects this group of substances. The rest of the lesson focuses on the term unsaturated and how this affects them in terms of the identification test with bromine water as well reactions with hydrogen. The lesson finishes by getting students to recognise a use of ethene in making the alcohol, ethanol.
This bundle of 13 lessons covers all of the content in Topic C3 (Atoms, elements and compounds) of the core and supplement sections of the Cambridge iGCSE Science Double Award specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Identifying physical and chemical changes
Differences between elements, compounds and mixtures
Differences between metals and non-metals
The terms solvent, solute, solution and concentration
The structure of the atom
Electronic configurations
Isotopes
The formation of ions by gain or loss of electrons
Simple covalent structures
Dot and cross diagrams for covalent structures
Allotropes of carbon
Giant covalent structures
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding
This bundle of 6 lessons covers all of the content in Topic C9 (The Periodic Table) of the core and supplement sections of the Cambridge iGCSE Science Double Award specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
The Periodic Table as a method of classifying elements and its use to predict properties
Describe the relationship between group number and outer shell electrons
Describe and predict the properties of the Group 1 elements
Describe the properties and reactions of the Group 7 elements
The transition elements
The noble gases
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding
This bundle of 6 lessons covers a lot of the content in Topic C8 (Acids, bases and salts) of the core and supplement sections of the Cambridge iGCSE Science Double Award specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Describe neutrality and relative acidity or alkalinity in terms of pH
Describe the characteristic properties of acids including the reactions with metals, bases and carbonates
Describe and use the tests for cations, anions and gases
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding
This bundle of 6 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic P6.1 (Radioactive emissions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Physics specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Atoms and isotopes
The properties of alpha, beta and gamma radiation
Nuclear decay equations
Half-life
Background radiation
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 4 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic C5.2 (Equilibria) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Some reactions can be reversed by altering reaction conditions
Dynamic equilibrium in a closed system
Predict the effect of changing reaction conditions on equilibrium position
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 8 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic C6.1 (Improving processes and products) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Extracting metals by using carbon
Explain why and how electrolysis is used to extract metals from their ores
Alternative biological methods of metal extraction
The separation of crude oil by fractional distillation
The fractions as alkanes
The production of useful products by cracking
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 3 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic C3.4 (Electrolysis) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Recall that metals are formed at the cathode and non-metals are formed at the anode
Predict the products of the electrolysis of ionic compounds in molten state
Describe competing reactions in the electrolysis of aqueous solutions
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 3 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic C2.3 (Properties of materials) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Recall that carbon can form four covalent bonds
Explain the properties of diamond, graphite, fullerenes and graphene in terms of their structures and bonding
Use data to predict states of substances under given substances
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 10 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic C2.1 (Purity and separating mixtures) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Explain what is meant by the purity of a substance and use melting point to distinguish pure from impure
Calculate the relative formula mass separately and in a balanced symbol equation
Deduce the empirical formula of a compound
Explain that many useful materials are formulations of mixtures
Describe and explain the processes of filtration, crystallisation, simple distillation and fractional distillation
Describe the processes of paper and thin-layer chromatography
Recall that chromatography involves a mobile and stationary phase
Interpret chromatograms
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This is a concise, fast-paced lesson that introduces students to addition polymers and guides them through drawing displayed formulae to represent both the monomers and polymers involved in these reactions. Students will learn the conditions needed for these reactions and that the polymers produced by addition reactions are the only products. The main part of the lesson involves a step by step guide to show students how to draw displayed formulae. Hints are given throughout the process so that students can remember the key ideas and are able to represent these substances accurately. A number of progress checks have been written into the lesson so that students can assess their understanding any misconceptions can be addressed.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students
This bundle of 4 lesson presentations and associated resources cover a lot of the mathematical skills that can be tested in Science. Since the move to the new GCSE specifications, the mathematical element has increased significantly and these lessons act to guide students through these skills. Students are shown how to convert between units, rearrange to change the subject of the formula and to use significant figures and standard form.
This is a concise lesson that looks at Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table, the changes and tweaks that he made and compares it against the modern day version of the table. The aim of the lesson is to show students how accurate Mendeleev was with his table, even with those elements that had not yet been discovered. They will work through some examples with eka-silicon and eka-manganese and also compare eka-aluminium’s predictions against those of gallium. Links are made to the development of the atom so students can understand how the atomic number was used by Mendeleev and how it is used now.
Students are set homework to look at the developments that were made by other scientists as homework and this is not covered in this lesson.
This bundle of 4 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic C2.1 (Chemical bonds) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Chemical bonds
Ionic bonding
Ionic compounds
Covalent bonding
Metallic bonding
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.