Who? For those teaching the new Chemistry/ Combined Science GCSE (2016). Also for those of you requiring a clear and simple worksheet for your students to begin to independently derive simple ionic formulae. This activity will build confidence and reinforce understanding that charges must balance when creating ionic compounds. What? This worksheet requires students to theoretically bond positive and negative ions together to generate simple formulae. (There is scope to extend this activity and introduce multi-element ions (there is one example in this activity with the OH ion). A selection of possible answers are provided on the second sheet of the resource.

Who? For those who are teaching GCSE Physics ‘Motion’, specifically ‘Stopping Distances’. This is a card sort for students to decide which factors fall into the ‘thinking distance’ pile and which the ‘braking distance’ pile. What? This is a grid of different factors which students may discuss and decide whether they affect the thinking or braking (or both) distance of a vehicle. There will be plenty of opportunity to debate which are worse. This activity is flexible enough to become a ‘diamond 9’ type activity too. How? Cards can be cut out and arranged or colour coded.

This super resource will challenge your students plus help in preparing them for synoptic style questions. It is an activity which can be run in groups or individually depending on your group. It would make a great competition or equally as an exam style problem. This will test students knowledge of qualitative tests as well as being able to read and interpret all spectra (HNMR, CNMR, Mass Spectrometry and Infrared Spectroscopy). Students will have to combine their skills to identify four unknowns given only qualitative test results and spectra. They will need to deduce the structure and name of the four unknowns with no help from you! A full set of instructions plus all the answers/ solutions are included too, so you really don’t have to do ANY of the work! This activity is tried and tested and well received! IT has been designed with the Edexcel Specification in mind but will apply to others. Enjoy! (Reviews welcome as I’d love to hear what your students thought).

Who? For you lucky people teaching the new Chemistry/ Combined Science GCSE (2016). Also for those of you requiring a straightforward and simple lesson on structure of the atom and how ideas on this have changed over time. Good bit of higher order thinking involved at points too with some nice evaluation of atomic models. This lesson has been made with reference to the new Edexcel Spec. What? This is a whole lesson on one powerpoint. A starter/ diagnostic to see what your group know about the atom already. Learning objectives, worked examples with answers, class tasks with answers (differentiated up to challenge your more able), exam style challenge with with answers (all written in the ‘notes’ section of the powerpoint. This lesson is ready to go but still offers you flexibility to offer group work or peer teaching style tasks if you wish. Everything you need is here as powerpoint slides can be printed as ‘worksheets’ if needed. Enjoy!

Who? Those teaching the new (and old!) GCSE Physics. This worksheet would fit nicely into the P3 Edexcel specification. This is for students who are getting to grips with identifying the useful and wasted energies made by electrical devices. What? The worksheet is a grid to be filled out after considering/discussing the different types of energy output delivered by the different electrical devices. There is also an opportunity to consider aspects of their design which have been developed to reduce wasted energy. This will extend some and deepen the thinking involved. Answers are included on the second sheet of the resource.

This resource consists of various fact sheets summarising methods to help with the prevention of the spread of disease. It is accompanied by a table which students can use to organise and present the key information gathered. This task could be run as a ‘circus’ whereby students visit various stations to gather information. It could also used as a marketplace type activity during which pairs/groups of students are given one of the topics and need to orchestrate a 2 minute ‘teach back’ on their topic to the rest of the group.

This simple activity offers you a small data set for students to plot in as a line graph (you’ll need graph paper!). It also provides descriptions which can be ‘cut and stuck’ or annotated onto the graph to summarise the different stages of foetal growth. Once the graph and descriptions are in place there should be plenty of opportunity to question/extend your students by getting them to think about the different stages of the graph. Eg Where is growth most rapid? Why might that be? How might the woman be feeling during these stages? Why? You get the idea! Great or graph plotting skills development too.

A 141 (!!!) slide powerpoint delivered as a Big Quiz covering TOPIC 1 content of the Edexcel Specification (though this can easily be used against other specifications). Topic 1 is split into sub-topics and so there are 6 rounds in total. Round 1 - Atomic Structure Round 2 - Periodic Table Round 3 - Ionic Bonding Round 4 - Covalent Bonding Round 5 - Types of Substance Round 6 - Calculations involving mass Each question has been written using the specification and answers generated against mark schemes from exams. Following each round of questions come a round of answers so students can peer mark or you can. Though one massive quiz, this resource could easily be used as a whole lesson, starters, to formatively assess after revision sessions - whatever you like! Keep your eyes peeled for TOPIC 2 onwards…

A great and simple revision game/resource which could be used anywhere within the cells, tissues and organs topic. The resource has a class set of questions which can be used to play switch-switch. Each student has a card (these will need to be printed off and cut up), asks another student the question on their card and waits for their response. If they’re correct brilliant, if not then the correct answer is shared. The other student then reciprocates and then the cards are swapped. In theory, if this activity runs for a few minutes, most students will see most of the cards. A blank copy of the questions (no answers) could then be printed off and given out to see how many answers the students remember OR, a girls vs boys class competition could be set up.

A simple but great worksheet to get them thinking and discussing. A variety of ‘odd one out’ type questions, some with some requirement for an extended explanation. Students need to use their classification skills to decide which the ‘Odd one out’ is. This will assess students on their understanding of… vertebrate groups invertebrate groups arthropod groups Question sheet is editable but ready to print. Answer sheet is in the same document to save you doing any thinking!

Though about reindeer and the Christmas ‘feel’, this activity can be done at any time of the year (ie whenever you’re teaching genetics!) or could be unleashed as a stand alone Christmas end of term type activity. It could also be sent home as a project too. All instructions are on the sheet and students have free reign to be as creative as they like. The thing I find when teaching selective breeding is the misconception that it’s as easy as A + B = perfect C and students forget that the process is lengthy as many rounds of breeding need to be done to iron out the unwanted features etc. As a result, I’ve popped in a little extension question at the end to get them thinking! Though aimed at KS3 this could easily be used for lower ability KS4.

This great booklet contains 5 different tasks which would be ready to introduce at the very beginning of your electricity topic teaching. The booklet focuses on electrical safety but also where electricity is used everyday plus one task to start getting them to think about how they might experimentally solve some problems to do with electricity. All five tasks could be completed or the booklet could be broken down into individual activities. Would make a great holiday project or and introduction to the topic homework project.

A simple resource/worksheet to get students thinking about real life fire scenarios and how most appropriately to break the fire triangle to extinguish the fire. Students are given four different fire scenarios. For each they need to draw the type of fire and then decide upon the best way of extinguishing it and then explain why.

A lovely little class activity or homework whereby students will need to complete a data collection by asking as many other students in their class, year, school how they get to school. Students will then need to display their data in a pie chart (although you could issue them with graph paper and ask them to produce a bar chart) and then complete the question task at the bottom of the page. This task would nicely lead up to a lesson on how we can save energy.

A full lesson via a powerpoint presentation on the structure of the Earth. This resource is ready to open up and teach or could easily be edited should you wish. Resources needed may simply require you to print off a couple of slides (of your choice) as work sheets although there is no need. There is also a scale drawing task which could be completed on graph paper of simply printed off directly from the powerpoint. This lesson also includes… starter task/diagnostic, opportunity for class discussion/questioning or paired/group work/ a match them up task so all students will have key information about the structure of the Earth, and extended creative writing task and a plenary quiz. There are also clear lesson objectives (linking to the SOLO taxonomy if you are familiar with it (although this can easily be deleted if not - my current school is using it as a learning framework).

Who? For anyone trying to plan something creative to allow various science skills to be developed. This project/lesson has so much scope. At a push this could be done in a lesson and then perhaps for homework but it would work a lot better if a couple of hours of time was given to make a good job of it! The project would sit nicely anywhere within the year or would make a great end of term activity as it is a completely ‘stand alone’ topic. Perhaps you could use this in a STEM week or during Science week? This bundle of resources contains a powerpoint to guide through the project as well as teacher/technician notes, a detailed lesson plan, plus some suspect profiles to work out ‘whodunnit’. I have included a student sheet to allow them to gather and record data and draw conclusions. Students will need to drop ‘blood’ onto the floor/ a surface and gather a set of control diameters of blood splats which are created upon the blood hitting the floor. Students will have to consider how to control various elements of the project/investigation and how to improve accuracy, repeatability, precision etc. They will then need to plot a graph of their results before drawing a final conclusion. I love using this resource! It is fully editable but gives you a resource you can use straight away (you’ll just need to talk to your technicians about making some fake blood…). Enjoy!

Who? For anyone trying to plan something creative to allow various science skills to be developed. This project/lesson has so much scope. At a push this could be done in a lesson and then perhaps for homework but it would work a lot better if a couple of hours of time was given to make a good job of it! Have a look at my other forensic resources which this could be combined with! The project would sit nicely anywhere within the year or would make a great end of term activity as it is a completely ‘stand alone’ topic. Perhaps you could use this in a STEM week or during Science week? This lesson could also be used within a Biology topic which involves ‘food tests’ (sugar and protein). This bundle of resources contains a powerpoint to guide through the project as well as teacher/technician notes, a lesson plan, plus a student worksheet to allow them to gather and record data and draw conclusions. Students will need to test four different urine samples for the presence of sugar and protein (these will need to be prepared - see tech notes) using the benedicts and sodium hydroxide/copper sulfate solutions. Students will have to consider how to control various elements of the project/investigation and how to improve accuracy, repeatability, precision etc. They will then need to record their observations as they go along (this can be done on the student sheet). Great resource! It is fully editable but gives you a resource you can use straight away (you’ll just need to talk to your technicians about making some fake urine…). Enjoy!

Who? For people teaching the new Chemistry/ Combined Science GCSE (2016). Also for those of you requiring a straight forward and simple lesson on defining moles, calculating masses using number of moles and calculating number of moles using masses. This lesson has been made with reference to the new Edexcel Specification but could easily be applied to AQA, OCR etc. What will you get? This is a whole lesson on one powerpoint. A starter task to get students thinking about relative mass (assuming calculation of relative mass has already been taught - if not, check out my shop and find a full lesson there!), Learning objectives, class tasks with answers (all written in the ‘notes’ section of the powerpoint) and a plenary quiz to really make sure they have met the learning objectives. This lesson is ready to go but still offers you flexibility in terms of delivery. Everything you need is here as powerpoint slides which can be printed as ‘worksheets’ if needed. LOTS of questions included for LOTS of practice.

A great knowledge organiser all boiled down to one sheet. My revision methods are quite simple in my lessons - SPEC IT, REVISE IT, TEST IT. If students know EXACTLY WHAT they need to revise (using the specification checklist) it makes for smarter revision. If they can TEST THEMSELVES to measure their understanding - even better! This resource is a comprehensive but concise knowledge organiser covering the tough put essential Chemistry Calculations plus some great examples of model calculation answers. This knowledge organiser has been made against the Edexcel specification but would easily be applicable to others. Each revision point has been written in accordance with the specification section to help students translate the specification points. The Knowledge Organiser is applicable to students sitting standard or higher tier papers. Calculations included are… calculating concentrations (in g/dm3 and mol/dm3) calculating unknown concentrations using titration data gas volume calculations starting with mass of a reactant gas molar volume ratios