A Science teacher by trade, I've also been known to be found teaching Maths and PE! However, strange as it may seem, my real love is designing resources that can be used by other teachers to maximise the experience of the students. I am constantly thinking of new ways to engage a student with a topic and try to implement that in the design of the lessons.
A Science teacher by trade, I've also been known to be found teaching Maths and PE! However, strange as it may seem, my real love is designing resources that can be used by other teachers to maximise the experience of the students. I am constantly thinking of new ways to engage a student with a topic and try to implement that in the design of the lessons.
This bundle of 3 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C7 (Organic Chemistry) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Hydrocarbons (alkanes)
Fractional distillation of crude oil
Cracking hydrocarbons
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
An engaging lesson presentation (42 slides) and associated worksheet that uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and a quiz competition to help the students to assess their understanding of the topics found within the Chemistry unit C5 (Energy changes) of the AQA GCSE Combined Science specification (specification point C5.5). The lesson includes useful hints and tips to encourage success in assessments. For example, students are shown how to use the energy change in a chemical reaction to work out if it is an endothermic or exothermic reaction.
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Endothermic and exothermic reactions
Reaction profiles
Calculating energy changes in reactions
Students will be engaged through the numerous activities including a summary round called “E NUMBERS” which requires them to use all of their knowledge to work out the type of reactions that are shown.
This bundle of 20 fully-resourced lessons have been designed to allow students who are studying the AQA GCSE Combined Science course to assess their understanding of the topics found within the following units of the specification:
B1: Cell Biology
B2: Organisation
B4: Bioenergetics
B5: Homeostasis and response
B6: Inheritance, variation and evolution
B7: Ecology
C1: Atomic structure and the periodic table
C2: Bonding, structure and properties of matter
C3: Quantitative chemistry
C4: Chemical changes
C5: Energy changes
C6: The rate and extent of chemical change
C7: Organic chemistry
C8: Chemical analysis
C9: Chemistry of the atmosphere
P1: Energy
P2: Electricity
P4: Atomic structure
P5: Forces
P6: Waves
These lessons use a range of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to engage and motivate the students
A fully-resourced lesson which guides students through the method involved in calculating the empirical formula and includes a concise, clear lesson presentation (21 slides) and practice questions. Students are given a template to use as they are introduced to the questions and then encouraged to work without it as the lesson progresses. The students are shown how empirical formula questions can be made more difficult and hints are given so that students are able to tackle them and access all of the marks available.
This lesson has been designed for GCSE students (14 - 16 year olds in the UK)
This bundle of 7 lessons covers the majority of the content in the sub-topic C6.2 (Organic Chemistry) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Chemistry specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Alkanes
Alkenes
Alcohols
Carboxylic acids
Alkanes from crude oil
Cracking oil fractions
Biological polymers
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
A fun, engaging and detailed lesson presentation (29 slides) on the properties of metals and non-metals. This lesson focuses on the key properties and their key terms such as malleable and ductile. A number of quick competitions are used to introduce these terms to the students and once provided with the definitions, the students are expected to put these properties correctly with the metals (or non-metals). Progress checks occur throughout the lesson so that the understanding of the students can be checked.
This lesson is designed for both KS3 and GCSE students.
This is an engaging revision lesson which uses a range of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to enable students to assess their understanding of the content within topic 7 (Rates of reaction and energy changes) of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification.
The specification points that are covered in this revision lesson include:
Suggest practical methods for determining the rate of a given reaction
Explain how reactions occur when particles collide and that rates of reaction are increased when the frequency and/or energy of collisions is increased
Explain the effects on rates of reaction of changes in temperature, concentration, surface area to volume ratio of a solid and pressure (on reactions involving gases) in terms of frequency and/or energy of collisions between particles
Describe a catalyst as a substance that speeds up the rate of a reaction without altering the products of the reaction, being itself unchanged chemically and in mass at the end of the reaction
Explain how the addition of a catalyst increases the rate of a reaction in terms of activation energy
Describe an exothermic change or reaction as one in which heat energy is given out
Describe an endothermic change or reaction as one in which heat energy is taken in
Recall that the breaking of bonds is endothermic and the making of bonds is exothermic
Recall that the overall heat energy change for a reaction is: a exothermic if more heat energy is released in forming bonds in the products than is required in breaking bonds in the reactants b endothermic if less heat energy is released in forming bonds in the products than is required in breaking bonds in the reactants
Calculate the energy change in a reaction given the energies of bonds (in kJ mol–1)
Explain the term activation energy
Draw and label reaction profiles for endothermic and exothermic reactions, identifying activation energy
The students will thoroughly enjoy the range of activities, which includes a quiz competition called “E NUMBERS” where they have to recognise the differences between endothermic and exothermic reactions whilst crucially being able to recognise the areas of this topic which need their further attention. This lesson can be used as revision resource at the end of the topic or in the lead up to mocks or the actual GCSE exams
This bundle of 6 revision lessons challenges the students on their knowledge of the content of all of the topics that are detailed in the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification and can be assessed on the 6 terminal GCSE papers. Specifically, the range of tasks which include exam-style questions (with displayed answers), quiz competitions and discussion points, have been designed for students taking the FOUNDATION TIER papers but could also be used with students taking the higher tier who need to ensure that the key points are embedded on some topics.
The majority of the tasks are differentiated 2 or 3 ways so that a range of abilities can access the work whilst remaining challenged by the content.
If you would like to see the quality of these lessons, download the paper 2, 4 and 6 revision lessons as these have been shared for free
This is a detailed and engaging lesson presentation (59 slides) that combines exam questions and progress checks along with quiz competition rounds to enable students to assess their understanding of the specification content within topics C1 - 3 of the OCR GCSE Combined Science Gateway A 9 - 1 as can be assessed in Paper 3.
All of the exam questions and progress checks have displayed answers as well as sections where content is recapped so that students can understand how an answer was obtained.
The revision rounds in the competition include “The need to BALANCE”, “Number crazy” and “React to the REACTION”.
This lesson has been designed for GCSE students.
This bundle of 8 lessons covers the majority of the content in Topic C6 (The rate and extent of chemical change) of the AQA Trilogy GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics covered within these lessons include:
Rates of reaction
Factors affecting rates of reaction
Measuring rates of reaction
Reversible reactions
Changing the position of equilibrium
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This is an engaging and informative lesson that looks at the group of unsaturated hydrocarbons known as the alkenes and focuses on a few properties, their displayed and chemical formulae and identification. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students and works nicely with the “alkanes” lesson as students can use learning from both lessons.
The lesson begins by ensuring that students recognise a key difference between the alkenes and the alkanes in terms of the carbon-carbon bond. This shows them that there is no such substance as methane. They are guided through the rules of drawing alkenes, with examples of ethene and propene used so that they can then apply this technique to draw butene. Working together with the teacher, they will be able to write the general formula that connects this group of substances. The rest of the lesson focuses on the term unsaturated and how this affects them in terms of the identification test with bromine water as well reactions with hydrogen. The lesson finishes by getting students to recognise a use of ethene in making the alcohol, ethanol.
This bundle of 4 lessons covers all of the content in the sub-topic C5.2 (Equilibria) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Combined Science specification. The topics and specification points covered within these lessons include:
Some reactions can be reversed by altering reaction conditions
Dynamic equilibrium in a closed system
Predict the effect of changing reaction conditions on equilibrium position
All of these lesson presentations and accompanying resources are detailed and engaging and contain regular progress checks to allow the students to constantly assess their understanding.
This is a fast-paced lesson that looks at how particle size affects the rate of reaction and challenges the students to carry out a practical to obtain valid results to back up the theory. It is a fully-resourced lesson that consists of an engaging lesson presentation (19 slides) and a calculation worksheet which is differentiated two ways to enable those students who find the maths hard to have a way to access the learning. Students are guided through a method of calculating the surface area and volume of the object and calculating the surface area to volume ratio. Using the answers to their calculations, they will complete a summary passage which explains why having more exposed reacting particles leads to an increased rate of reaction. Students will then carry out a practical where they have to determine which cube of jelly to use to make jelly the fastest in order to test their summary passage is valid.
This lesson has been designed for GCSE students but could be used with younger students looking at chemical reactions and investigating the factors that affect the rate.
This bundle of 5 revision lessons covers the content which is found in Topics 1, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification and therefore can be assessed on Paper 2 in the terminal exams.
Topic 1: Key concepts in Chemistry
Topic 6: Groups in the Periodic Table
Topic 7: Rates of reaction and energy changes
Topic 8: Fuels and Earth Science
Topic 9: Separate Chemistry
The lessons uses a range of activities which include exam questions with fully explained answers, differentiated tasks and engaging quiz competitions to enable the students to assess their understanding of the different topics and crucially to recognise those areas which need further attention.
This bundle of 7 revision lessons covers the content in the following topics of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification
Topic 1: Key concepts in Chemistry
Topic 3: Chemical changes
Topic 5: Separate chemistry 1
Topic 6: Groups in the Periodic Table
Topic 7: Rates of reaction and energy changes
Topic 8: Fuels and Earth Science
Topic 9: Separate Chemistry 2
These lessons use a range of activities which include exam questions with fully explained answers, differentiated tasks and engaging quiz competitions to enable the students to assess their understanding of the different topics and crucially to recognise those areas which need further attention.
This bundle of 6 revision lessons challenges the students on their knowledge of the content of topics B1 - B7, C1 - C10 and P1 - P7 of the AQA GCSE Combined Science specification which will be assessed on the 6 terminal GCSE papers. Specifically, the range of tasks which include exam-style questions (with displayed answers), quiz competitions and discussion points, have been designed for students taking the FOUNDATION TIER papers but could also be used with students taking the higher tier who need to ensure that the key points are embedded on some topics.
The majority of the tasks are differentiated 2 or 3 ways so that a range of abilities can access the work whilst remaining challenged by the content.
If you would like to see the quality of these lessons, download the paper 2 and 5 revision lessons as these have been shared for free.
This is a fully-resourced lesson which includes an engaging and detailed lesson presentation and differentiated worksheets that together guide students through the key details of endothermic and exothermic reactions. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students but could be used with students entering this topic at A-level who are looking for a recap on the key details.
This lesson focuses on a few critical areas of these reactions and those which are often poorly understood. For example, considerable time is taken to ensure that students understand how energy is taken in to break bonds in a reaction and given out when bonds are formed. From this basis, they learn to compare the amount of energy taken in with the amount given out and ultimately determine whether it is an endothermic or exothermic reaction. The format of the lesson is that students are guided through the combustion of methane as an exothermic reaction and shown how to draw reaction profiles and calculate energy changes using the bond energies to prove it is that type of reaction. Having worked with the teacher and each other on this reaction, students are then challenged to bring their skills together to describe, explain and represent an endothermic reaction. If students feel that they will need some assistance on this task, the worksheet has been differentiated so they can still access the learning. There are a number of quick competitions written into the lesson to maintain engagement and also progress checks are found at regular intervals so students can constantly assess their understanding. The lesson finishes with a final game called The E factor which tests the students knowledge from across the whole lesson.
This lesson describes how the chemical formula of an ionic compound can be deduced using the formulae of the constituent ions. The PowerPoint and accompanying worksheet have been designed to cover point 1.26 of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification and also cover the same point in the Chemistry section of the Combined Science course.
This lesson builds on the knowledge acquired in previous lessons when students learnt how to identify the charge of an ion based on the group of the atom. A step by step guide is used to show them how the transfer method can be used to write the formulae for compounds including halides and oxides. Time is taken to introduce the formulae for sulphate, carbonate, hydroxide and nitrate ions and the students are shown how brackets may be needed when writing formulae for compounds containing these ions. Understanding checks in the form of questions and quiz competitions are used to allow the students to assess their progress
This lesson is fully-resourced, engaging and detailed and explains how the Contact process is one of the 3 steps involved in making sulfuric acid. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources, which are differentiated, have been written to cover point C6.1(d) of the OCR Gateway A GCSE Chemistry specification.
The lesson begins with a challenge where students have to use the 1st letters of the answers to questions on previously covered topics to come up with the word CONTACT. At this point, the students are introduced to the contact process as the 2nd step in a 3 stage process to make sulfuric acid. The lesson goes through the details of each of the 3 steps but particular time is spent exploring the conditions needed for the contact process in step 2. Students are continuously tested on their knowledge of reversible reactions and the key concepts to do with equilibrium position and equilibrium yield are explained so they can understand how the conditions of 2 atmospheres and 450 degrees celsius are chosen. Again through a prior knowledge check of empirical formula, the students will be introduced to vanadium oxide as the catalyst. As well as exam-style questions with displayed answers to check on current understanding, there are discussion points as well as quick quiz competitions to introduce key terms and values in a memorable way.
An engaging lesson presentation (47 slides) and associated worksheets that uses a combination of exam questions, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the topics found within the Chemistry unit C6 (The rate and extent of chemical change) of the AQA GCSE Combined Science specification (specification point C5.6)
The topics that are tested within the lesson include:
Calculating rates of reactions
Factors that affect the rate of a reaction
Collision theory
Reversible reactions
Equilibrium
Changing the equilibrium position
Students will be engaged through the numerous activities including quiz rounds like “Don’t get iRATE” and “Under PRESSURE” whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which need further attention