I have been teaching science for over 30 years. although Biology is my specialism I have lots of experience of teaching Physics and Chemistry to GCSE. I am particularly interested in practical work and believe that all science teachers should be able to teach good practicals and give practical demos.
I have been teaching science for over 30 years. although Biology is my specialism I have lots of experience of teaching Physics and Chemistry to GCSE. I am particularly interested in practical work and believe that all science teachers should be able to teach good practicals and give practical demos.
Suitable for GCSE required practical on osmosis. Intended for students who struggle to read so they can independently put together this practical. It contains practical instructions is diagram form on the worksheet and on the power point. I have simplified it so there are only 3 different salt solutions for them to try. It is differentiated as the instruction sheet and results table worksheet contains questions to answer, but the report sheet has Cloze passages. I have also included a set of results based partly on real results and partly made up. Teachers can use these for students who do not get sensible results. I was trying to get them to work independently . I remembered the old “Science at Work” books aimed at lower ability students full of diagrams illustrating how to do practicals. (This dates me!) They were great for showing the students what to do. This did work for most students when I tried it, but a demonstration would probably work better or a demo and the instructions!
Why choose this resource? It is not just a power point it has activities that will make this topic more understandable. It has diagrams that you can get the students to annotate. It has an interesting "hands-on ", activity. It has questions that worked well to check student’s understanding with answers supplied. This is for teaching respiration to A level Biology students in particular SNAB students. I found the activities in the SNAB scheme around this topic, ( which are normally good), lacking for this unit. I was an author on the original SNAB scheme. I decided to write my own activities.
A useful way to assess student's understanding of the essential key words needed to answer questions on Evolution. Students match the key words to the meanings. Includes an answer sheet for self-assessment or peer-marking.
This is the basis of a whole lesson on diffusion, osmosis, active transport and co-transport. It includes 4 exam questions.
It has clear diagrams of each type of transport together with questions.
Students can make their own notes from the diagrams and answer the questions.
Alternatively, this could be used as revision on this topic or set for homework/home study.
This resource based on AQA Trilogy, helps students review and consolidate their knowledge in an engaging way. Students usually like “puzzles” and I hope this may make revision more interesting. In this resource there are grids of sixteen words and phrases commonly found in a particular topic such as “digestion”, Topics are: Cells, Digestion, Blood and circulation, Plant tissues and transport, Disease, Disease prevention, Drugs, Photosynthesis and Respiration. Students have to find 4 groups of four words/phrases that are linked in some way. By doing so they show understanding of how the words/phrases are linked and the resource can be further developed by asking students to explain the links either verbally or in written form. The answers are given in the resource so students can check their work. The resource is given in power point and word. Individual word walls can be printed and given as homework. It can be differentiated by condensing some of the phrases to just words. The phrases and sentence starters in some of the walls make linking easier.
This is a full account of the importance and use of 4 inorganic ions found in living things - hydrogen, iron, phosphate and sodium.
It is tailored to AQA A level Biology but would be useful for other exam boards.
The power point has many diagrams and it also has 10 questions with answers for review and revision. Some questions are longer answer questions worth 4 marks that require students to connect areas of study together and are thus more challenging for the more able. The 10 questions are also supplied on a word document.
This is aimed at AQA GCSE Science and Biology Students as a review and revision tool. This resource revises the topics of the nervous system, homeostasis and DNA and genes. It emulates the “Only Connect” wall where students have to find connections between four items and find 4 groups of four in a grid of 16. In doing this they reveal their understanding of key terms and the associations between them. It is a more interesting way to revise and review knowledge and understanding. There are 6 walls presented in a power point and in word, with answers supplied. Can be used in class or for homework.
This resource based on AQA Trilogy, helps students review and consolidate their knowledge in an engaging way. Students usually like “puzzles” and I hope this may make revision more interesting. In this resource there are grids of sixteen words and phrases commonly found in a particular topic such as “digestion”, Topics are: Evolution, Evidence for Evolution, Selective breeding and GM, Adaptation, Interrelationships and Competition, Ecosystems, Biodiversity, and Human Interaction with the Environment and Practical Techniques. Students have to find 4 groups of four words/phrases that are linked in some way. By doing so they show understanding of how the words/phrases are linked and the resource can be further developed by asking students to explain the links either verbally or in written form. The answers are given in the resource so students can check their work. The resource is given in power point and word. Individual word walls can be printed and given as homework. It can be differentiated by condensing some of the phrases to just words. The phrases and sentence starters in some of the walls make linking easier
Here are two lessons of resources for the new science GCSE ( 2016) unit on Health and Disease. Written for the AQA scheme but will apply to other boards. Initially there are pictures to provoke thoughts about health and what health means.There is a differentiated literacy activity on different types of disease. It also contains a practical activity illustrating how diseases are communicated, which can be extended to allow students to analyse the data collected and develop mathematical skills. Finally there is some information and there are differentiated activities about the interactions between diseases.
The resource contains a power point and accompanying lesson plan. There are instructions for the practical simulation and a worksheet about types of disease.
This is a great enzyme practical as it is colourful and works very well! The resource is ideal for new teachers or teachers for whom Biology is not their main subject. It provides a worksheet with instructions for the practical work, a power point with diagrams and background information and worksheets with questions and extension questions about the practical. Answers to the questions on the worksheet are provided in the power point. There are differentiation opportunities in this resource.
A whole lesson resource. These practicals give a different take to the usual practical investigations and links to real experimental work going on in space! A starter grabs the attention with a stunning picture of a plant grown on the ISS. There are worksheets for the students and questions on the power point. Additional easier worksheet for some students. Suitable for KS4 Trilogy or Triple Biology.
This resource enables students to make models and then evaluate them. It is an interesting way to teach/review this topic and the students get very engaged. The students evaluate each other's work and in this way review their knowledge twice over. You can use this resource to either teach this topic with the power point and worksheets provided and then review it which would take about 2 lessons or use this as a revision session which is one lesson. Many schools are using DIRT (dedicated, improvement, reflection time.) and this lesson(s) exemplify this.
This is an new part to the Science and Biology new GCSEs. I have successfully used it to help teach BTEC Applied Science, Unit 1 , B1 structure and function of cells and tissues, where students have to calculate the size of cells or parts of cells. It is also useful revision for AS and A level. These worksheets allow students to practice measuring real microscope images and then working out actual sizes and magnifications. Useful for classwork and/or homework. There are answer sheets which allow students to assess their own work.
This has back-up materials for the required practical (AQA GCSE) on measuring the rate of photosynthesis. Ideal for non-specialists in Biology and for newly qualified teachers. It contains tips on how to get good results and results of a practical in case your class does not get any data. There are differentiated worksheets which ask about rate of reaction - as this is a requirement now at GCSE.
Why choose this resource? It provides material for a whole lesson. It has instructions for a piece of practical work that the students will enjoy and helps them learn skills such as manipulation and dissection. The practical work is directly linked to the task of learning the parts of the flower. It has some clear diagrams that help explain pollination and some great pictures. It has differentiated tasks and a homework!
This resource has loads of useful pictures and links to animations to liven up the AQA Science section on the heart which is about treatments for the heart and circulation problems (Biology, organisation sections 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.4.) There is a double page A4 information sheet and a set of questions with answer sheet available for peer or self marking. The power point is deliberately minimal as it then allows for differentiation as follows. It can be used in two ways. The teacher could use the information sheet as a guide to talk about the pictures on the ppt or the teacher could ask the class to make comments about the pictures using the information sheet as a prompt. There is a worksheet "which treatment would you give" where tests the students comprehension of this lesson by asking them to match treatments to symptoms. All images are from Wiki Commons.
Knowing how to make slides and how to use a microscope is essential information needed for the new GCSE Science/Biology.
This resource has instructions and assessment criteria for a peer-assessed practical. Reduces marking time and allows students to practise this core practical in a directed way. Answers to the short written test are included. Clearly indicates areas for improvement to the students and to you. I have used this very successfully with several classes of varying abilities.
Resource includes,:
Practical instructions for the student.
Assessment criteria.
Lesson plan.
Written test.
Power point slide with pictures for guidance and answers to the written test.
Why choose this resource? It has the most brilliant way for students to see stomata - you will never use a different method again! Apart from which there are ready made plan diagrams of a leaf for students to annotate and 3 different presentations of information for them to interpret depending on their ability. The power point explains meristems which has appeared in the AQA trilogy, ( never seen it at GCSE before!)
Choose this resource to liven up your lesson on plant diseases. It has a practical that works and delighted some teachers recently at a workshop. It has differentiated tasks to extend the more able. It reviews work on fungi and viruses.