Handwritten revision notes made for my A-level students as an example of how to revise. Covers all of the Waves and Particle Nature of Light topic from the Edexcel specification in slightly more depth than some existing free online versions. More information would be needed for the highest grades but this is a good start for students, done mostly in black & white so that they can print off and highlight with their own key. To print, shrink to printable area using the PDF printing options as the writing goes to the edges of the page.

This was for a double lesson with a low ability year 10 class. The two main activities were; Demo where test tubes filled with different gases (air, methane and carbon dioxide) were put under a desk lamp at the beginning of the lesson. The tubes had thermometers in them, and students kept a record of the temperature rise for each and used their data to explain which was the worst greenhouse gas. Newspaper report activity using the information sheets (explained in the PowerPoint). This was differentiated so more complex ideas were given to the higher ability students.

Lesson goes through the idea of the greenhouse effect, and students put letters in order for a quick mini-plenary. They then completed their own cartoon strip to explain the greenhouse effect using the template. As an extension, the more able students were then given an information sheet about the ozone layer and had to complete a table summarising the similarities and differences. This helped as I found that students had been mixing up the two ideas or using the terms 'ozone layer&' and &';greenhouse effect' quite interchangeably.

Lesson focused on microwaves. Demo involves heating up a plastic object (I use a chess piece) and a slice of fruit in a microwave. Heat for around 20 seconds, the fruit is quite hot to the touch. I often pretend the chess piece is hot too and 'dare&' students to hold it for 5 seconds, letting them find out that actually it hasn&';t heated up at all. They can usually then work out that water is needed to heat something in a microwave. Students then used comments on the final slide to come up with a 2 minute speech for or against phone masts.

Students in my class had struggled to grasp continental drift, so I themed the lesson around writing to persuade. Each table was given evidence for continental drift, and together they ranked the pieces of evidence from most to least persuasive. . Students then had to write a letter to their favourite celebrity using the writing frame, explaining why the celebrity should become an ambassador for Wegener's theory. They loved this part! The letters were assessed by me, both for scientific content and for how many of the persuasive techniques they had used.

Lesson introduces the concept of a light year and gets students doing some basic calculations. They then watched a video (link on PowerPoint) about how a star dies and used notes to write their own paragraph. Paragraphs were peer assessed and then improved using targets. This lesson was planned for a fairly low ability Year 10 group.

Covers P1 topic only (Earth/Space).

Lesson plan, PowerPoint (adapted from something I found on the TES already, I do not take credit for producing this from scratch). I adapted this PowerPoint for an observation lesson graded outstanding on all aspects of T&L (but unfortunately not for student enthusiasm despite my best efforts with the Mars Bar!).

Lesson on Wegener and Hutton's theories about the changing Earth. The plan is quite basic as it was predominantly student-led, with the class using a variety of textbooks to answer the questions on the worksheet. For the plenary they then had to choose a question to answer to extend their thinking.

Pre-exam presentation covering the basics of topics from Edexcel Unit 2. I couldn't find anything specific to this unit on here, so I made this. It is heavily adapted from the AQA exam blasts already on here, I have not made this from scratch, so thank you to the original author! It doesn&'t cover the whole specification as I only had a half hour slot for this session, so there are things missing.

Starts with analysing an advert to identify persuasive techniques. Students were then sent to info stations where they used textbooks to remind themselves about reflecting, refracting and space telescopes. Back in home groups the experts on each type of telescope worked together to decide which they would advertise and created a poster advert. Groups making good progress were challenged with a spin doctor card and had to incorporate the disadvantage of their chosen telescope into their work. Homework then an exam question on telescopes.

I used this to teach exam literacy in Physics but could be applied to any subject/exam board. Starter activity is matching command words to instructions. Then each group was assigned a different question from a past paper they had done. They created a guide to answering the question, which helped them to understand that their factual recall was only part of exam success as they also had to explain how the command words should be interpreted and the overall approach to the question. They then used another group's poster to answer a question.

PowerPoint, worksheet and poster template for a lesson on how ideas about handling radioactivity have changed. Worksheet is needed for the starter and main activity, there is also a poster template to support the group work identifying safe radiation handling procedures. Students then wrote, peer assessed and redrafted a 6 mark answer on changing ideas about radiation.

I used this PowerPoint in a lesson teaching exam technique, specifically for 6 mark questions. After writing their own answers, Then students were given the model answer scoring all 6 marks, and reflected individually on what was good about it. They brought their ideas together into table groups, identified a top 3 good features, and we wrote these on the board. Duplicate ideas were marked and we used this to agree a top 5 success criteria for 6 mark questions. Students then rewrote their original answer and explained to their partners how it had been improved.

Cards to play taboo with electricity and nature of light key words.

PowerPoint (from a flipchart I made, so images are now stuck together) for revising key concepts from Edexcel P1, P2 and P3. All key ideas are on here. I have grouped the spec. points into similar themes to make the amount of information seem less daunting for students. In lessons I then used Exam Wizard to create sets of past paper questions related to each theme but this would work just as well delivered from the front.

A quiz with 4 rounds; definitions, pictures, equations and general knowledge. Covers concepts my students found difficult in Edexcel units P1, P2 and P3.