'If you keep trying the same old things, you'll keep getting the same old results'. Imaginative teaching ideas help stimulate students and improve student retention. I don't claim to be an expert but I hope that some of my ideas will help other teachers.
'If you keep trying the same old things, you'll keep getting the same old results'. Imaginative teaching ideas help stimulate students and improve student retention. I don't claim to be an expert but I hope that some of my ideas will help other teachers.
This resource is a lesson and activities covering the conservation of mass content in the 2015 AQA Chemistry specification. This resource includes:
1: A power point to lead students through the lesson
2: A sheet for students to work through during the lesson]
3: A starter game to re-enforce that mass can not be lost in a reaction
4: A calculating mass of products and reactants activity
5: A balancing equations activity
6: A conservation of mass using RFM activity
7: 50 extra conservation of mass questions
8: A set of notes for students to use
9: A version of the lesson that can be used just from the front of the room
10: A link to a bespoke video that goes through the lesson that can be used for remote learning
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This resource is a lesson with activities covering the extraction of metals content in the 2015 AQA Chemistry specification. This resource includes:
1: A power point to lead students through the lesson
2: A question analysis starter activity
3: A reactivity series activity
4: A copper smelting activity
5: A iron extraction activity
6: A group presentation activity
7: A 6 mark assessment question
8: A copper extraction student sheet
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This resource is a lesson with activities covering the global warming content of the 2015 AQA Chemistry specification. This resource includes:
1: A power point to lead students through the lesson
2: A 6 mark question starter activity
3: A global warming graph activity
4: A how global warming is caused activity
5: A suggested model activity
6: A 6 mark plenary question
7: A student sheet for them to work through during the lesson
8: A set of notes for students to use
9: A version of the lesson that can be used just from the front of the room
10: A link to a bespoke video that goes through the lesson that can be used for remote learning
Thanks for looking
This resource is designed to help students understand how elements in the periodic table are arranged. Students need to understand that the periodic table is a way of organizing all known elements based on their properties. Elements are arranged in order of increasing atomic number, and elements in the same column, or group, have similar chemical behaviors. The periodic table also helps students predict how elements might interact, showing trends in properties like reactivity and atomic size across periods and groups. This resource contains 3 separate activities with an instruction sheet outlining how to use this resource:
Understanding electron structures
Students need to understand that electrons are arranged in specific energy levels, or shells, around the nucleus of an atom. Each shell can hold a certain number of electrons: the first shell can hold up to 2 electrons, the second can hold up to 8, and so on. These arrangements determine an element’s chemical properties, as electrons in the outermost shell, or valence electrons, are the ones involved in chemical reactions. With low ability students in a small class, you can use the blank electron structure sheets showing the element symbol and empty electron shells, and as a class you can use counters to show the electron structures of the atoms. With higher ability classes, you can either give pairs of student’s electron structures to fill in or put the blank electron structures around the sides of the room that they fill in then bring to the middle of the room to be used centrally.
Constructing the periodic table activities
Once you’ve got a full set of 20 electron structures you can get down to helping students construct a periodic table. There are a number of easy steps that you can follow to help them put a periodic table together. Also, if you don’t want students to do this as a full class, I have used small packs of element with electron structure cards that students can use in pairs.
If you are doing this as a large modelling activity, you can add on labels showing students the names of groups and periods. You’ll then have the opportunity to ask students loads of questions about the electron structure of atoms and what we can tell about elements based on where they have been placed in the periodic table.