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Active Science

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A specialist science shop featuring hands-on and minds-on activities all designed to promote both thinking and learning. I'm a very experienced teacher with advanced skills teacher (AST) and specialist leader of education (SLE) accreditation under my belt.

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A specialist science shop featuring hands-on and minds-on activities all designed to promote both thinking and learning. I'm a very experienced teacher with advanced skills teacher (AST) and specialist leader of education (SLE) accreditation under my belt.
Introduction to GCSE genetics
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Introduction to GCSE genetics

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This suite of resources includes an interactive activity and a worksheet on the topic of genes and the environment. There is also an activity that makes visible each students individual genetic profile along with a colouring in worksheet to help students think through what they already know about this topic with some built in stretch for more able students.
Immunity and vaccination
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Immunity and vaccination

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This is a suite of activities aimed mainly at foundation students. Spilt your class into teams and print a copy of the challenge for each team. The team that can put the statements into the correct order first win! Follow up by telling the story of Edward Jenner with this fun, interactive activity to do whilst showing the painting. Finally, there's a presentation that prompts students to think analytically about the data that's presented to them using the MMR and autism case study
antibiotics and antibiotic resistance
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antibiotics and antibiotic resistance

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Here are some activities most suitable for foundation students. The role play where the student playing the doctor has to decide on the most suitable treatment for a variety of patients. There are also two worksheets that examine antibiotic resistance, the second of which is built around data handling.
Selective breeding
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Selective breeding

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This activity models selective breeding in cows. Following simple genetic rules, a herd of cows (in picture form!) are change from being a mixture of colours to all being brown. Students then use the selective breeding rules to produce their own selective breeding example. This is followed up by identifying the differences between selective breeding in dogs and natural selection in giraffes. The activity was written with foundation students in mind but it works just as well with more able students.
photosynthesis and respiration: summaries and comparison
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photosynthesis and respiration: summaries and comparison

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Here you'll find a colour- in worksheet which summaries photosynthesis along with a cut and stick poster that summaries respiration. Both activities are designed to promote thinking and understanding whilst still being enjoyable to complete. The suite is completed by a teacher led activity comparing the two processes that students have to add labels to.
Solids, Liquids and Gases
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Solids, Liquids and Gases

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This is a fundamental area of science that students really need to understand well. There are two lots of sorting to complete in the Venn diagram activity along with a student worksheet to consolidate the key ideas. It's accompanied by a teacher sheet providing details of demonstrations designed to bring home the properties of gases.
Earth Sun and Moon
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Earth Sun and Moon

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A suite of resources that give ideas and instructions on active ways of teaching; day and night, seasons and phases of the moon. The set of teacher notes are accompanied by a template and instructions to make a working paper model of the Earth, Sun and Moon and a worksheet to help reinforce key ideas about the phases of the Moon.
Energy needed to Make a Mug of Tea
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Energy needed to Make a Mug of Tea

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This piece of practical work turns making a mug of tea into a quantitative activity. There are teacher notes along with an equipment list. The student worksheet provides a structure for students to record their measurements and support as they work through their calculations along with some more stretching questions for more able students.
Thinking Through Floating and Sinking
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Thinking Through Floating and Sinking

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Based around the sinking of the Titanic, here are three linked activities designed to support students as they think through the key concepts required to understand floating and sinking. Students will examine various hypotheses about the sinking of Titanic and asses their plausibility before putting together a scientific explanation of floating. The teacher notes provide guidance on how to differentiate the activities for less able students.
Introduction to speed
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Introduction to speed

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This set of activities provides teacher notes on ideas about helping students to understand exactly what speed means and goes on to suggest how to introduce the use of the equation for speed. There is a student worksheet to reinforce the key ideas about speed. A follow on activity with a set of animal pictures allows students to calculate the speeds of a wide variety of animals.
Graphing Sunspots
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Graphing Sunspots

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This activity is designed to allow the whole class to work together to produce one enormous graph. It provides an interesting space context for students to hone their graphical skills. Also included is a set of domino cards about the universe which complement to activity and can be completed by early finishers.
Stopping Distance Calculator
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Stopping Distance Calculator

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A great simulation to find thinking distance, breaking distance and stopping distance when you change the road conditions or the state of the driver. Use the sliders on the spreadsheet to change , for example the amount of alcohol that has been drunk or the degree of wear on the tyres. The activity can be run by students working individually or led by the teacher with the whole class. There is a worksheet for students to complete to help them develop their thinking. The simulation is also provided on an older version of excel (19917)
UV reactive beads rates of reaction  investigation for ages 7-18
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UV reactive beads rates of reaction investigation for ages 7-18

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UV reactive beads change from white to coloured when exposed to ultra violet light and are wonderful for teaching reaction rates (so much easier than trying to work out when the cross has disappeared!) They are genuinely suitable for use with any age group and the notes here give ideas about how to carry out investigations at different levels. Post 16 students can use these beads to find activation enthalpy with a convincing degree of accuracy.
BMI
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BMI

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These resources are all based around BMI with an emphasis on data and handling. This is a sensitive subject and there are some teacher note to suggest how best to manage students as they measure their own BMI . There is a worksheet for students to record their findings along with some follow up work where they measure the BMI of some famous people - all fictitious data!
Diabetes role play
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Diabetes role play

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This role play is designed to help students more fully understand the body's normal response to sugar and the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes
Sugar and Sweetners practical work
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Sugar and Sweetners practical work

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A teacher demo is used to introduce some student practical work comparing, by measuring mass, the amount of sugar in different soft drinks. Students will need to draw up a calibration curve and the practical work will help to develop their ability to use a burette accurately.
modern genetic methods
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modern genetic methods

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Here's a teacher led demonstration to help clarify cloning to students. It's accompanied by a fun, non-threatening starter and a students worksheet about gene therapy.
Genes and Ethics - could it be done, should it be done?
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Genes and Ethics - could it be done, should it be done?

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This thought provoking and interactive whole class activity will help students to think through their understanding and views on a number of different scenarios. Two interesting ways of recording views are given and are short to lead to discussion and debate.
genotype and phenotype
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genotype and phenotype

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A simple worksheet designed for foundation students to help them distinguish between genotype and phenotype. No writing required!
Modelling a CCD
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Modelling a CCD

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This model was developed to teach the AQA astrophyics option at A level. The teacher sheet gives instructions for how to build a "working" model of a CCD in a couple of minutes from simple equipment you will already have. There is a follow up cut and stick worksheet for students to complete which consolidates the key ideas