Students use there own shoe, yes can get smelly, and use a newtonmeter to pull along a table, as the shoe is steadily moving the force being used is recorded. The experiment is repeated but with 100g mass (1N weight) is put into the shoe and so on with more weights Studnts should spot the pattern of larger forces needed with heavier weights. This goes some way in explaining why big kids seem to have more grip

A nice sound quiz which gets more difficult as you go along. A good way to introduce a sound topic, generate discussion and assess how much the students know

Suitable for students and non "physics specialist staff" Plenty of anecdotal info, historical info but particularly the basics of what electricity is, current, voltage, series, parallell circuits. plenty of activities and worksheets as well as calculations to do and done for you. Some of the info is dated as I wrote it in the late 80s but still applicable. basic stuff can be used with primary but higher level work is appropriate for KS4 and can reinforce work in KS5 especially clearing up some misconceptions I have met in students over the years.

Short simple quiz that allows you to judge the understanding and level of your students

A nice powerpoint bunch of slides..sound followed by the answer, you can edit the answers to suit yourself and names of staff for a bit of fun. Add extra slides with your own sounds/student's or staff voices. Use your imagination...the idea is to recognize sounds...they can be anything..dropping things, flushing, rubbing, scratching, pets, etc etc etc

3 activities which I use in turn. As soon as the student has completed the first activity and had it checked, they get the next one. Students love the challenge. It is not a race! Students learn through trial and error as well as each other

Short simple quiz that allows you to judge the understanding and level of your students

Simple visual introduction to FORCES should generate discussion and relevance to student's lives. All slides have lovely movements and funny stuff

Moving on from parachuting eggs this activity gets students to accept it will hit hard so must be protected another way

simple worksheet which gets students thinking about everyday appliances in a more scientific way

Students are give some material resources to keep a single marble "moving" before it finally drops into a beaker (plastic) The challenge is to keep it moving the LONGEST. With such simple resources and some stop watches the students spend as long as needed to design, test and finally submit an entry for the challenge.Over the years I have seen most students go for the SIMPLE DILUTED GRAVITY technique..lots of long ramps end to end..they do work well if lined up well and prove good physics ideas. The best solution was wonderful....a set of cones (upsidedown Chines rice pickers hats) with a hole at the point..a marble is released in the top hat and spirals slowly into the middle, drops onto the edge of the next hat below and so on...yes still diluted gravity but elegantly more compact and easier to construct...of course the students will come up with ideas you have never dreamed of........

A beautiful demo with students timing with stopwatches. I typically do this around bonfire night, but if you buy some rockets (the banging type) you can do this anytime. You really need a school playing field with no sports or the like going on. Wedge the wooden stick of the rocket (any size will do) into the ground in one corner of the field, get students with stopwatches as far away from the rocket as poss (yes for safety..but more importantly the further the better results you get) YOU light the rocket and let students 200/300m away know that by usual jumpimg up and down or arm waving...students prepare to start stopwatches as soon as they see the FLASH (on the ground because the rocket is wedged into the ground)...the sound of course eerily does not get heard until a second or so later. Do this as many times as you have rockets, all results can be pooled and averaged later on. There is scope for this demo to be done a mile or 2 apart..using mobile phones and taking students to a nearby park..the rocket is released and explodes high up above school field...students do the timing thing from as far away as is practicable...Google maps will give you an accurate distance to calculate speed of sound should you wish

Short simple quiz that allows you to judge the understanding and level of your students

Short simple quiz that allows you to judge the understanding and level of your students

A simple challenge where students in small groups or on their own must decide which materials and much of them they should "buy" to build a bridge that must span a 15cm gap(between 2 chairs or boxes) They are allowed a budget and must not spend more than allowed so must choose wisely. The bride is tested to destruction by hanging masses (100g at a time) until the bridge fails

simple activity to first predict and then to test if predictions were correct different materials tested to see if they are Conductors or insulators

A nice assessment "old" levels 1 to 5 Assesses student's understanding of the Earth, sun, shadows, Earth's axis, day & night etc etc Students draw in shapes of Earth, orbits to show understanding. Also draw in the position of the sun at different times as well as shadow changes. All in all a friendly way to judge progress. Enjoy.

A simple A4 template that allows students to make a small but useable periscope, you will need the mirror card to glue onto the periscope. Challenges to make them longer...ie make an extension tube...does not need to be square! could be tin foil tube etc...periscope is cut in half and the ends slipped over the extension tube. I have had students make a "sea" out of tables, they crawl around underneath and pop up a periscope in gaps between tables to look around.