Two activities here; an introduction that models how the pressure in gases is generated followed by instructions for students to carry out the collapsing can experiment - one of the most memorable pieces of practical work if a little wet! A follow up worksheet helps students think through the science behind the practical work

A fun practical activity that introduces the idea about accuracy of measurement and using the appropriate piece of equipment. The teacher sheet is backed up by a worksheet for students. It is aimed at keystage 3 students but is likely to be useful for less able keystage 4 students.

This set of resources leads students through an entire investigation into magnetism. WIth the help of the presentation they choose their own question to investigate. The teacher presentation provides suggestions, notes and an equipment list.

Here are some notes and ideas for teaching forces to help students think through these important concepts. The teacher demonstrations are followed up by a student worksheet to consolidate what they have learnt.

Force pairs are a key concept in physics yet for most of the population, they are not intuitive. This resource starts with thinking about the forces that send balloons flying. It's followed by a circus of acclivities that provide cognitive conflict to help students understand where forces are acting, even if it isn't obvious. The activity is accompanied by a worksheet for students for students to record their thinking

A great context for some investigative work and a fun experiment to carry out. There are background notes for teachers along with a link to a great website. For students there is a worksheet to help them think through all aspects of the investigation. Ideal for keystage 3 students to develop their skills.

A highly structured and scaffolded suite of questions which guide students through the process of answering calculation questions using an equation. The smart use of a grid allows students to pick out the information they need and enables them to succeed. The questions get harder as the students progress through the pack. There’s also a worksheet (explaining electrical relationships) designed to help students think through what the mathematical relationships mean. This resources covers all the equations on the topic of electricity needed for AQA GCSE phyiscs (2016 spec)

A teacher led demonstration activity to help students understand how errors in measurement are inevitable. The accompanying worksheet allows students to record the errors as they occur in the demonstration and then provides an opportunity to think through what they learnt.

There are enough resources here to fill two lessons on the topic of electrical power. The activities include a student practical finding the power of various kettles; the student sheet has instructions and guides students through the calculations required. There is also a demonstration using an electricity meter to compare the power of various electrical items. They are backed up with three different worksheets helping students to understand and use the equation power = potential difference x current.

This lesson includes a starter where students examine a number of electrical items to find out about their power, voltage, current etc. There is then a set of cards that can be laminated and passed around the class . Using the information on the cards, students calculate how much it costs to operate each device as shown, filling in their findings and calculations in the table provided on the student sheet. To consolidate and reinforce understanding, there is a worksheet with more calculations to carry out.

This role play is the best method I've used to help students understand current and potential difference; these abstract concepts really need some concrete models if students are to grasp them. The role play is followed by comparison with two further models and there is a further worksheet to help consolidate understanding

In this lesson, students use their knowledge (supplemented by the fact sheet provided) to decide how the meet the energy requirements of an island. In my experience, students enjoy the activity and there are often heated arguments between the groups!

Two hands-on activities for what can be a rather dry area of work. In the first, students examine diagrams of atoms and use a periodic table to identify them. In the seconds, atom pairs are examined in order to find out whether or not they are isotopes. The activities work well after the key idea have been explained since they help students consolidate and then apply their knowledge.

Here are a selection of resources to help with teaching radioactivity - A set of mystery cards (along with teacher notes) about the nature of radioactivity. Students use the information on the set of cards make deductions about the 3 types of radiation - a worksheet about the properties of the 3 types of radiation and a second worksheet about ionisation. - some suggestions for teaching nuclear equations - a presentation about the death of Alexander Litvinenko which draws heavily on GCSE knowledge on this subject.

Since 2016, specifications have used the Institute of Physics preferred language describing energy stores and energy transfers. Here are notes and a worksheet for students along with a cut and stick activity to provide practise using these new ways of thinking about energy

Use this to help your students build a knowledge base as they revise the required practicals in preparation for sitting the exam. Students find YouTube videos of the practicals (readily available) and then use the instructions and structure provided by this booklet to complete a summary of each experiment.

Thirteen questions over four sides of A4 that require students to interpret graphs on topics from all areas of the GCSE physics specification. Perfect for exam preparation. Worked answers are also provided.

Full and detailed instructions for building a simple loudspeaker that will work and play music.

Here is a suite of resources based around earthquakes: The demonstration makes very clear how s and p waves are produced and the follow up worksheet is designed to consolidate understanding. The Plotting activity requires students to interpret eye witness accounts to determine the strength of an earthquake felt at different locations. These strengths are then plotted on a map to find the epicentre. It's based on an activity from the old Salters' GCSE. There is also a data handling exercise.

Two practical, hands-on activities, one takes place outdoors, to help students develop their understanding of some key waves vocabulary. There is also a sheet for students to record their findings and a worksheet with straight forward calculations based on the wave equation. The activities are useful for foundation GCSE students or form a good introduction to keystage 3 students.