I am a highly qualified and experienced secondary school teacher with a passion for providing an inspirational, high-quality education to students aged 11-18. My resources provide useful visual support for teachers during lessons and activities to aid learning of scientific concepts.
I am a highly qualified and experienced secondary school teacher with a passion for providing an inspirational, high-quality education to students aged 11-18. My resources provide useful visual support for teachers during lessons and activities to aid learning of scientific concepts.
This PowerPoint resource helps students label and use the light microscope. I usually print off the second slide in advance of the lesson to use as a worksheet for students to complete. The worksheet instructs students to label a light microscope using the information available. The PowerPoint resource includes a quick quiz to test student knowledge and instructions on how to use a light microscope.
This resource encourages students to research the human genome project. It includes a series of questions to guide their research as well as answers to the questions.
This resources provides a useful and easy to use visual aid for a big questions in evolution lesson. It includes two graphs for students to interpret, links to videos, and questions to initiate discussion and research on the topic.
This resources provides a useful and easy to use visual aid for introducing human taxonomy, the features that we share with our closest living relatives and the features that make us unique. It introduces a couple of the key hominid fossils that have enabled scientists to understand more about our evolution and includes links to a great online resource on the topic.
This lesson introduces the key terms for the genetics topic, including: genotype, phenotype, dominant, recessive, homozygous and heterozygous. It provides a useful visual aid for introducing these key terms and includes a short quiz to test student understanding.
This resource introduces the Darwin and Wallace, their research and the theory of evolution. Included within the resource are a few links to videos that I find useful for introducing the theory and also opens discussion on the relationship between the two scientists. It invites students to consider whether Darwin cheated Wallace out of his rightful place in history, a question that often leads to great class discussions.
This resources is best used after a lesson, or series of lessons, on fossils and how they provide evidence for evolution. This resource provides a visual aid for introducing some of the other forms of evidence for evolution and invites students to create a presentation to deliver to the class on one piece of evidence. The resource concludes with a big question that can be answered in class or as a longer homework assignment.
This resources provides useful images and videos to help stimulate discussion and learning about the evolution of life on earth. Students use the internet to help them construct diagrams of the geological time scale, including the times and names for the geological eras and periods, as well as descriptions of important events of life on Earth.
This resource provides useful images and links to videos to help stimulate discussion on genetic modification and CRISPR. It also includes a list of questions for students to answer on the topic of genetic engineering and biotechnology.
This resource begins by introducing stem cells and their uses, before inviting students to write a clearly balanced account of the arguments surrounding the use of stem cells in research. It then moves on to introduce designer babies and encourages students to write a clearly balanced account of the arguments surrounding designer babies. This lesson provides excellent opportunities for class discussions on ethically challenging topics and an opportunity for students to complete extended pieces of writing. The resource includes links to useful videos on the topic.
This resources goes step-by-step through the stages of the cells cycle. It provides useful visual aids for explanations as well as short descriptions about what happens at each stage.
This provides a useful visual resource, with written summaries, of the main stages in transcription and translation. I use it with my lower ability students who benefit from visual stimuli, as it goes through the processes step by step.
This resource provides a useful visual aid for introducing and comparing the processes of meiosis and mitosis. The resource includes links to videos on the topic, questions for students to answer, and a true false quiz. One of the tasks instructs students to create a video, poster, or model on mitosis or meiosis. This activity could either be completed during lessons or as a homework.
This resource, provides an easy to use, simple visual for an introductory lesson on mitosis and the cell cycle. The resources includes a couple of useful links to videos as well as a true false quiz on the topic.
This resource begins with a starter slight, that encourages students to revise their knowledge of DNA structure. The second slide includes two useful visual aids to help you explain the processes of transcription and translation. The third slide includes three useful links to videos on protein synthesis and invites students to create their own summary resource on the topic. This activity can be set for homework or can fill a full lesson. Depending on the ability of my class, I then present students with the Genetic Code diagram that shows which codons code for which amino acids and ask them to explain what it shows. After comparing DNA and RNA using the venn diagramm on slide 5, students then complete the quick quiz on slide 6 and finally the two past paper questions on protein synthesis.
This PowerPoint resource provides a useful visual aid for a lesson on the discovery and structure of DNA. It includes activities, questions and video links. I usually begin the lesson by inviting students to write down everything they already know about DNA in a black pen. I then introduce Watson and Crick, and the structure of DNA, using all the key terms on the slide. I then give my students minutes to answer the 6 mark question on the structure of DNA. Students then self-mark their answer using the mark scheme included in the PowerPoint, and show me on their fingers how many marks out of 6 they achieved for the question. If students have access to their own laptops I then invite students to watch a few of the video links that go into slightly greater detail about the structure of DNA. At the end of the lesson I ask the students to return to the list they made at the beginning of the lesson about everything they already knew about DNA. I invite the students to spend a couple of minutes adding to their list in a green pen with everything they now know about DNA.
This resource begins with a useful visual to introduce the topic of mutations and initiate discussion on point mutations. Students are then invited to watch two videos (links provided) before researching and answering a series of questions about mutations. I usually allow 20 minutes for the students to answer the questions on the worksheet, before going through the answers as a class (using the PowerPoint slides). If there is time, I then explain how mutations in bacteria enable them to become resistant to antibiotics.
This resource introduces natural selection and three key examples of rapid changes in species brought about by evolution: bacterial resistance to antibiotics, pesticide resistance in insects, and the peppered moth before, during and after the industrial revolution. I use the first slide to introduce the process of natural selection. I then use an incredibly useful resource, available for download from TES on “sticky dogs”, which I get the class to evaluate. I then introduce the peppered moth example, before getting the students to complete the 6 mark past paper question to time. We go through the mark scheme to this question together before I introduce bacterial resistance and pesticide resistance. The students then complete the tasks set on the final slide.
This resource provides a useful and easy to use visual for introducing Mendelian Genetics and Punnet Squares. It includes useful links to videos and a key word list. I begin the lesson by introducing some of the subject specific terms, such as dominant and recessive traits, genotype and phenotype, and homozygosity and heterozgosity. I then briefly introduce Mendel and punnet squares before handing over to the students to complete a few activities on the topic.
This resource provides a useful visual aid set of activities for the ‘energy in food’ or ‘fuel is fuel’ topic. It initiates important discussions about healthy diets, challenges students to use their mathematical skills and enables students to make links between their learning in maths, biology and physics. Students carry out a series of caluclations, including a calculation to see how much of different food types they need to consume to gain their daily recommended amounts of energy.