Structure for an investigation taking 2~3 lessons. Suitable for KS3, 4 or 5 depending on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go, colour-coded slides steer you to KS3/4 or KS5. Method: drop a cupcake case. Measure the speed of fall. Now put another cupcake case inside the first. has the speed of fall changed? How much? What about 3, 4, 5, …10 cupcake cases? Is there a relationship between number of cases and speed of fall? Is it proportional? Simple on the surface, but gets students into independent/dependent/control variables, measurement, uncertainties, anomalies…the lot. Shamelessly based on an idea from the Physics teaching Podcast at https://twitter.com/physicstp

A card sorting exercise. Cut up page 2, then put quarks into the boxes on page 1 to make baryons and mesons

A level physics students will probably have a confused notion of where electrons are - something about orbiting…but only in shells…some of the shells can take 2 electrons, others 8… This is a quick explanation of what the terminology means. A level chemistry students often have this as part of their course, so it’s handy for them to refer to as well.

The wave equation “velocity = frequency x wavelength” tends to terrify students. This activity takes most of a lesson, and walks them through it so they can interpret exam questions and know what they’re looking at.

To do this properly, students would need a whole lesson. The worksheet walks them through the procedure and how to write it up.

This powerpoint and worksheet walks students through the procedure for drawing ray diagrams for gcse. It refers to the AQA OUP textbook, but the activity itself is self-contained.

A whole lesson to teach problem-solving, practical technique & data processing to new A-level students. You have a metre ruler. You have a 100g mass. Nothing else. Your mission is to determine the mass of the metre ruler. (Hint - principle of moments) The powerpoint walks the class through how to do it, how to get reliable results rather than just make one measurement and then claim that you’ve done it, how to use graphical techniques to get those reliable results, and how to calculate the uncertainties. Adapted from an idea I heard on https://twitter.com/physicstp You should subscribe and listen too!

A whole lesson practical. Use an electromagnet to repel a permanent magnet that’s placed on a balance. The powerpoint and worksheet walk the students through the procedure and how to process the results.

A powerpoint to introduce the idea of pressure = force/area, and then scaffold that old favourite “shoe pressure on the floor” practical.

What happens in a nucleus when an alpha particle is emitted? What about beta or gamma? This presentation and worksheet walks students through the processes and equips them to answer gcse questions. I’d been teaching this for ages, and eventually wrote this sheet so I could make a proper job of it and not lose students along the way.

To do this properly, students would need a whole lesson. The worksheet walks them through the procedure, gives instructions about plotting the graph and scaffolds the conclusion.

This would take most of a lesson, or a whole lesson if you have a follow-up discussion and compare results. An A3 sheet with a picture of a house and activity instructions, page 2 is a selection of appliances for students to choose from and put in their house.

in pairs, one student drops a metre ruler and the other catches it. They use the look-up table to work out their reaction time. Then they calculate an average and a range.

A-level physics. The powerpoint scaffolds the lesson. You’ll need to do the demo with the various light sources, electroscope and 5kV power supply. It’ll be fine… The other powerpoint file is a printable worksheet that saves a lot of writing.

This is pretty much an whole lesson, but you’ll need to insert your own half life calculations worksheet (I have one that I like, but i didn’t write it so can’t include it here). The lesson centres around eating chocolate M&Ms. Or Skittles if you prefer. The idea is to have something that gives you ‘heads’ or ‘tails’ when tipped out onto the desk. See www.darvill.clara.net/nucrad for more gcse radioactivity stuff.

Introduction to SHC, with sample calculations & a quick practical with a kettle.

Each group gets a metre ruler and a 100g mass. Nothing else. Challenge - how are you going to measure the mass of the ruler? This resource is structured to begin with GCSE ideas, then move on to A-level handling of graphs, gradients and uncertainties.

Pretty much a whole lesson. A quick qualitative intro to the National Grid (no calculations). Then a walk through fuses, RCDs, earthing etc to give an overview of electrical safety.

Our equipment has a long tube in which we can adjust the water level, with a speaker at the top, driven by a signal generator. Hopefully you can set up something similar. The worksheet walks students through the procedure and the data processing. To keep it simple, I’ve ignored end corrections.

An overview of the properties of alpha, beta and gamma radiation. The sheet consists of a blank table with jumbled answers underneath for pupils to sort. I use it during the first lesson of the topic where I show the class radioactive sources and what happens when you put paper/aluminium/lead in front of them. See www.darvill.clara.net/nucrad for more gcse radioactivity stuff.

Intro powerpoint , and a worksheet where students use a=(v-u)/t and v^2 =u^2 + 2as in calculations.