Year 8 KS3 Science Practicals - FULL SET of 14 resources

A ready-to-use KS3 Science core practical booklet covering 13 x Year 8 practicals, with methods, results tables and exam-style questions.

These follow the content from Pearson’s Exploring Science scheme. The practicals have been sequenced for my specific setting, so may not match your teaching order for year 8. I’ve included the Exploring Science topic code so each practical can be matched to the textbook

A core practical is a required hands-on investigation — the kind exam boards expect students to have carried out and be able to describe from memory by GCSE. This booklet gives Year 8 students a structured, printable record of every practical they complete this year, so nothing gets lost between exercise books and folders.

Each of the 13 x practicals follows the same format: an aim and “what you should know” learning objective, a step-by-step method with labelled diagrams, a results table where relevant, scaffolded questions, and an extension or challenge task for higher attainers.

Practicals include:

• Chromatography (7E Separating mixtures)
• Filtration & Crystallisation (7E Separating mixtures)
• Simple distillation (7E Separating mixtures)
• Reflection (8J Light)
• Refraction (8J Light)
• Digestion – Starch and amylase (8A Digestion)
• Conservation of mass – burning Magnesium (7H Atoms, molecules and compounds)
• Current and Voltage (7J Electricity)
• Series and parallel circuits (7J Electricity)
• Wiring a plug (7J Electricity)
• Resistance in a wire (7J Electricity)
• Extracting DNA (9A Genetics)
• Energy in fuels (8E Combustion)

A bonus “Equipment and Their Uses” worksheet is included at the back to help familiarise students with the names and uses of the main apparatus they will come across in Science. It is also included here as a separate two-page printable, so you can issue it on its own in the first lesson of the year, or as revision before mocks, end-of-term assessments and exams without printing a whole booklet.

How I use this resource: I issue the whole booklet at the start of the year and students complete the relevant pages during each practical lesson, then use it as a revision resource ahead of assessments. Because every practical includes full method instructions, it also works well for non-specialist or cover staff running the lesson.

Last updated August 2026. Teaching Year 7 and 9 too? Take a look at the matching Year 7 and Year 9 KS3 Science Practical Booklets.

Credit: Diagrams created using Chemix.