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.
This engaging lesson guides students through the homeostatic control mechanism which is involved in controlling blood glucose concentrations and focuses on the critical interconversion between glucose and glycogen which is often poorly understood. The lesson begins by introducing glucose and ensuring that students recognise that this is a simple sugar which is critical for respiration. Links are made here and throughout the lesson to relateable topics such as the endocrine system so that students can recognise how exam questions will often encompass more than one topic. Students are challenged to recall knowledge about the pancreas and its release of insulin into the blood to travel to the liver. A quick competition is then used to maintain engagement and to introduce glycogen. Due to the large number of words beginning with g that are involved in this topic, time is taken to describe the role of glycogen so that it is not mistaken for glucose or glucagon. Students will learn how the conversion from glucose to glycogen and also the other way round is critical to how the concentration is controlled. The main student tasks involve them completing a partially finished passage about responding to an increase in blood glucose concentration and then using this as a guide to write their own full versions for when concentrations are low. These are just two of a number of progress checks that are written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can constantly assess their understanding.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students (14 - 16 year olds in the UK) but could be used for A-level lessons that are recapping on this topic before extra knowledge is added at this higher level
This lesson explores how the temperature affects the position of equilibrium in a reversible reaction. This can be a difficult topic for students to understand and therefore the aim has been on the key details.
The lesson begins by challenging the students to recall the rules of a dynamic equilibrium in order to recognise how if the equilibrium position changes then so do the concentrations. Links are made during the lesson to related topics such as endothermic and exothermic reactions and some time is taken to go back over calculating energy changes so that the type of reaction can be determined. The forward reaction in the Haber process is used as the example so students can see how an increase in temperature in this exothermic reaction would lead to a decrease in the yield of ammonia. Students are then challenged to use this example to explain how a decrease in temperature would affect the production of methanol. This worksheet is differentiated so students who need extra assistance can still access the learning.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students.
This concise lesson presentation (20 slides) guides students through the effect of changing pressure on the position of the equilibrium. The key skill to this topic involves recalling the rule of increasing pressure and being able to recognise how many moles are on each side of the reaction. For this reason, time is taken to remind the students of the meaning of the mole numbers in a reaction and working through an example together so they can see which side will be favoured. The final part of the lesson involves a game called “The PRESSURE is on” where students are in a race against the clock to balance an equation and then work out which way the equilibrium will shift when either the pressure is increased or decreased.
This lesson has been written for GCSE students.
A fully-resourced lesson which has been designed for GCSE students and includes an engaging lesson presentation and associated worksheets. This lesson looks at the three limiting factors of photosynthesis, focusing on the graphs that they produce and ensures that students can explain why temperature is a factor.
This lesson begins by introducing the students to the definition of a limiting factor. They are challenged to recognise that it would be photosynthesis which is limited by carbon dioxide concentration and light intensity. The third factor, temperature, is not introduced until later in the lesson so that students are given thinking time to consider what it might be. Having been presented with two sets of data, students are asked to draw sketch graphs to represent the trend. The limiting factors on the light intensity graph are taught to the students so they can use this when working out the limiting factors on the carbon dioxide graph. The remainder of the lesson focuses on temperature and more specifically why a change in this factor would cause a change in the rate of photosynthesis because of enzymes. The student’s knowledge of that topic is tested alongside. Progress checks have been written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can constantly assess their understanding.
This bundle of 18 lessons covers all of the content in Topic C3 (Chemical reactions) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Conservation of mass
Writing word and symbol equations
Writing ionic equations
The mole
Mole calculations
Calculating masses
Concentrations
Endothermic and exothermic reactions
Bond energy calculations
Making salts
Reactions of acids
Oxidation and reduction reactions
Electrolysis
Writing half equations for electrolysis
Detecting 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 7 lessons covers some of the content in Topic C6 (Global challenges) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Extracting metals from their ores
Extracting metals by electrolysis
Biological metal extraction
Fractional distillation of crude oil
The alkanes
Cracking hydrocarbons
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 the majority of the content in Topic C4 (Predicting and identifying reactions and products) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
The alkali metals
The halogens
Displacement reactions of the halogens
The Noble gases
Reactivity of metals and the reactivity series
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. It is estimated that this bundle would cover about 2 week’s worth of lessons.
This bundle of 14 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic P2 (Forces) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Speed and velocity
Acceleration
Distance and velocity-time graphs
Contact and non-contact forces
Free body diagrams
Resultant forces
Terminal velocity
Momentum
Conservation of momentum
Mass, weight and gravitational field strength
Gravitational potential and kinetic energy
Work done and power
Hooke’s Law
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. It is estimated that this bundle would cover over 6 week’s worth of lessons.
This bundle of 7 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic B7 (Ecology) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Competition
Abiotic and biotic factors
Food chains
Using quadrats and transects
The Carbon cycle
Biodiversity
Deforestation and land use
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.
A fast-paced, engaging lesson that looks at the separation method of distillation and focuses on the use of key terminology in the correct context. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students but teachers could use it with KS3 students who are looking at the mixtures topic.
The lesson begins by challenging the students to state which mixture from a choice of three could be separated by distillation. A lot of the key terms involved in this lesson and the separation topic as a whole begin with S and are often incorrectly used. Therefore some time is taken to ensure that the students know the difference between a solution, solute and solvent and can pick out the substances which would apply to each of these terms in different examples. Students will learn how distillation involves evaporation followed by condensation and the next task gets students to compare boiling points to understand how the difference in these points allows the separation to occur and will also recognise that distillation results in two substances at the end as opposed to the one in crystallisation. The remainder of the lesson challenges students to apply their knowledge to two understanding checks - a summary passage on distillation and then a description of how ethanol and water are separated.
A fast-paced, quick lesson which focuses on the key terminology that is involved in the separation topic so that students are confident with the definitions and to use them in context. A lot of the key terms begin with the prefix SOL and the opening task challenges students to use their Chemistry knowledge to convert numbers to letters to come up with these three letters. Having completed the crossword with the 5 key terms, solute, solution, solubility, solvent and soluble, students have to match the crossword clues with each term. Moving forwards, students are introduced to the term, saturated, and briefly shown the meaning of this word. The final task of the lesson challenges the students to use each of the 6 terms beginning with S to complete a passage about salt dissolving in a water.
This bundle of 10 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C4 (Chemical changes) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Acids and bases
Reactions of acids
The reactivity series of metals
Extracting metals
Redox reactions
Electrolysis of molten salts and 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 Topic C7 (Organic Chemistry) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Hydrocarbons (alkanes)
Fractional distillation of crude oil
Cracking hydrocarbons
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 all of the content in the sub-topic B1.1 (Cell structures) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Animal and plant cells
Bacterial cells
Light microscopy
Electron microscopy
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 7 lessons covers the majority of content in Topic B4(Community-level systems) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Biology specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Ecosystems
Abiotic and biotic factors
Competition and interdependence
Efficiency of biomass transfer
The Carbon cycle
The Nitrogen cycle
Decomposers
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 19 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic B6 (Global challenges) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Biology specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Investigating distribution by sampling
Increasing biodiversity
Loss of biodiversity
Selective breeding
Genetic engineering
Producing a GMO
Health and disease
Communicable diseases
Stopping the spread of diseases
Plant diseases
Plant defences
The Human Body’s Defences
Blood clotting
The uses of vaccines
Monoclonal antibodies
Antibiotics
Developing drugs
Non-communicable diseases
Treating cardiovascular diseases
Organ transplants
Stem cells in medicine
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 7 lessons covers a lot of the content in Topic P6 (Radioactivity) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
The atom
Isotopes
Background radiation
Alpha, beta and gamma radiation
Nuclear decay equations
The unit of radioactivity
Half-life
The dangers of ionising radiation
The differences between 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 lesson uses the example of the genetic engineering of bacteria to produce insulin to walk students through the steps involved in this process. It has been written for GCSE students and therefore includes the detail required at this level, such as the involvement of restriction enzymes and the sticky ends that their cut produces. The lesson begins by challenging students to recognise that insulin is being described by a series of clues. Some further details of this hormone are recalled to test their previous knowledge of the endocrine system and also to lead into the genetic engineering of bacteria to make this protein. Moving forwards, time is taken to go through the details of plasmids and how they act as vectors as well as the enzymes, restriction and ligase. The main task of the lesson uses a series of descriptions to go through the steps involved in the process. Words or phrases are missing from each description so students have to use the terms they’ve encountered in this lesson as well as their prior knowledge to complete the step. Discussion-provoking questions are added to encourage the students to consider why certain parts of the process occur. The lesson concludes by the consideration of other organisms which have been genetically engineered as well as some of the risks of the process, which students are asked to complete for homework.
As detailed above, this lesson has been designed for GCSE students but could be used with students taking A-level Biology, who are struggling to understand the detail found at this level and need to revisit the foundations.
This lesson explains the principles of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the PowerPoint has been designed to cover point 6.1.3 (d) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification
A quick quiz competition is used to introduce the PCR abbreviation before students are encouraged to discuss the possible identity of the enzyme involved and to recall the action of this enzyme. Students will learn that this reaction involves cyclical heating and cooling to a range of temperatures so the next part of this lesson focuses on each temperature and specifically the reasons behind the choice. Time is taken to examine the key points in detail, such as why Taq polymerase has to be used as it is not denatured at the high temperature as well as the involvement of the primers. This process is closely linked to other techniques like electrophoresis which is covered in a later lesson and ties are continuously made throughout the lesson
This process is mentioned in other uploaded lessons in this module such as electrophoresis and genetic engineering to allow students to understand how it is critical for DNA analysis
This is an engaging and informative lesson that looks at the properties of water and challenges students to be able to explain how these properties are related to the numerous functions of this biological molecule. This lesson focuses on the link between properties and functions which is the area where students commonly struggle.
A range of tasks and activities, including a quick competition are used to introduce the different properties and the key terms and then time is taken to look at how this property enables water to be used for a range of functions. Students will learn that water has both a high specific heat capacity and a high latent heat of vaporisation and be able to explain why this is important. Water is a crucial solvent which enables it to perform many roles in living organisms and these are explored. Progress checks are written into the lesson at regular intervals so that students can constantly assess their understanding and build on any knowledge that was there from GCSE.