Specialising in functional, easy to use, complete and differentiated lesson plans for KS3 Science. Rooting resources in UK National Curriculum but making sure they can be used worldwide.
Specialising in functional, easy to use, complete and differentiated lesson plans for KS3 Science. Rooting resources in UK National Curriculum but making sure they can be used worldwide.
This is a great worksheet to reinforce the principle of conservation of mass. It works well in KS3/ middle school when teaching the concept for the first time or as a great reminder in high school/GCSEs as revision. It can easily be used after a lab or demo to show the principle in action.
The activity follows the precipitation reaction between copper (II) sulfate and sodium hydroxide and is split into 2 parts:
Part 1:
This looks at the experimental method used, asking questions about how the experiment shows conservation of mass.
Part 2:
This is more about the chemical equation, using a particle diagram and a table to help students understand the reaction more at a chemical level.
I’ve tried to upload a preview image which helps you understand the worksheet a bit better and check if its suitable for your students. In the downloadable folder, there is an answer sheet for all 10 questions and the table as well.
This is a great resource to reinforce material about electromagnets at KS3 or GCSE level. The worksheet looks at the classic experiment of increasing the number of coils in an electromagnet and measuring how many paper clips can be attached.
It covers the following:
Variables
Prediction
Results table/ averages
Graphing
Analysis (using data)
I would also use this to introduce required practical 9 (if using) because it is a very similar practical.
It can be used as homework or as classwork and an answer sheet is included in the download.
This is a great activity if you want to check understanding and application of key ideas as part of any chemical reactions unit! It’s especially good if you are limited with time or resources for labs in your school.
The worksheet outlines 6 different reactions. In Page 1 students must first class each reaction as endothermic and exothermic as well as answer a couple of questions about the experimental method. Page 2 is all about equipment and asks students to decide which equipment would be most effective for measuring a change in temperature. Check the preview to check if it’s right for you! An answer sheet is included in the downloadable folder with some suggested answers.
If you want to do any of the reactions I used the following websites (sorry, I can’t share URLs but this should come up with a search result quickly):
RSC website- exothermic-or-endothermic-classifying-reactions
Middle school chemistry .com chapter 6, lesson 11
If you use this worksheet I would love some feedback! Its great to find out if my resources work for other classes and students as well :)
This resource is 3 different worksheets to practice working with force diagrams. They are perfect to use when teaching a forces unit to check for application of understanding.
Each worksheet has an example and then 9 different questions/ force diagrams.
The worksheets build in difficulty as follows:
Calculating net force with 2 forces
Calculating net force with multiple/ combined forces
Calculating net force and describing motion
Each worksheet is complete with fun diagrams and varied scenarios and comes with an answer sheet. They are all only looking at forces in two directions, there is no trigonometry involved. This is perfect for ages 11-14 but could also be used as an intro or recap for older students.
Check the preview to make sure it’s right for your class!
If (like me) you get to the end of the year/ term and want something fun to do with your tutor group this quiz is for you!
I love Kahoots as much as the next person but this is a great alternative if you want to be able to spend a little more time and use a little less technology.
This quiz is set out like a pub quiz with 10 rounds of 5 questions each. The rounds are:
Famous Faces (pictures of cartoon characters)
Around the world (geography questions)
Science (general science questions)
Celebrity (fun riddle-like descriptions of celebrities to guess)
Feeling Hungry (images of uncommon fruit and vegetables)
Sport (scrambled sports and famous players- this round is hard!)
Screen time (TV/ films on most watched lists in the last 2 years)
Game Over (images from video games)
Technology (general tech questions/ related to 2022)
Random (random facts)
The download is a PPT file so you can edit so you can change or delete questions and it also has the template I used as a background so you can add your own rounds if you would like. You can print and hand out the downloadable answer sheet to make the quiz feel even more special. This is a ready-made last lesson of the year!
Note: I made rules/ a scoring system that works for my students but you can change these as well, there is a blank slide at the end of the PPT.
Note 2: Every pop culture question is relevant to 2022 and aimed at KS3 but you might be OK with KS4/ Year 6. Check out the preview so you know if it’s right for your students.
This is a poster that visually looks at several methods of thinking about formula for ionic compounds. It outlines:
Crossover/ swap and drop method
Balancing charges
Hand holding/ branches
Lego
A easy to use table so that students get to grips with valency
When I teach States of Matter one thing I always struggle to get across is the relationship between energy, temperature and change of state. I’ve designed this resource to try and help with that! It can be used in conjunction with any other teaching methods you use in the classroom and asks students to push themselves a little bit in their conceptual understanding!
This download contains 4 documents which you can mix and match as it makes sense for your class. A quick summary of each is below (and there is also a preview):
Resource 1 outlines an experiment for boiling water, questions about the procedure and space for drawing particle models.
Resource 2 includes a results table and instructions on how to plot the graph (a heating curve of water)
Resource 3 is a blank graph for plotting (you can also use graph paper- totally up to you)
Resource 4 is further questioning to understand the graph/ heating curve.
Resources 1, 3 and 4 all have suggested answers, resource 2 doesn’t have any questions so there is no answer sheet for this one.
The folder has the worksheets as pdf individually and combined.
This activity is based on one I’ve done with students that actually works really well in the classroom or at home as a practical. However, this resource contains a condensed version of the method so I wouldn’t personally use just this if I was to do the experiment with students. Instead, I use this resource to check for application and understanding. It works well as classwork or homework.
I’ve used this with Grade 6 as supported group work but also with higher grades as completely independent work, you know your classes best!
When I teach States of Matter one thing I always struggle to get across is the relationship between energy, temperature and change of state. I’ve designed this resource to try and help with that! It can be used in conjunction with any other teaching methods you use in the classroom and asks students to push themselves a little bit in their conceptual understanding!
This download contains 4 documents which you can mix and match as it makes sense for your class. A quick summary of each is below (and there are screenshots in the preview):
Resource 1 outlines an experiment for boiling water, questions about the procedure and space for drawing particle models.
Resource 2 includes a results table and instructions on how to plot the graph (a heating curve of water)
Resource 3 is a blank graph for plotting (you can also use graph paper- totally up to you)
Resource 4 is further questioning to understand the graph/ heating curve.
Resources 1, 3 and 4 all have suggested answers, resource 2 doesn’t have any questions so there is no answer sheet for this one.
The folder has the worksheets as pdf individually and combined.
This activity is based on one I’ve done with students that actually works really well in the classroom or at home as a practical. However, this resource contains a condensed version of the method so I wouldn’t personally use just this if I was to do the experiment with students. Instead, I use this resource to check for application and understanding. It works well as classwork or homework.
I’ve used this with Grade 6 as supported group work but also with higher grades as completely independent work, you know your classes best!
This is the perfect activity for any unit where you are teaching chemical reactions. E.g. KS3 in the UK curriculum or at any middle school level.
In the worksheet students are given three chemical reactions to read about:
Zinc and hydrochloric acid/ hydrogen chloride
Combustion of iron wool
Lead nitrate and Potassium Iodide (a very cool precipitation reaction)
They need to work through different activities including:
Matching reaction descriptions to “before” diagrams
Drawing the “after” diagram for each reaction
Filling in a results table (scaffolded)
Matching the reaction to the chemical equation
Explaining each reaction (scaffolded)
See the preview image if you want to make sure it’s right for you.
If you need a resource to help your student really get to grips with signs of chemical reactions this is it.
I’ve also included a teacher guide which has links to my favourite YouTube video of each reaction and a method to do them as a class experiment (for zinc and hydrochloric acid) or as a demo (for the combustion and precipitation reaction). There is a separate document of suggested answers, too, because no one has time to make that on the fly!
If you download and like this resource, I would love any feedback, I want to strive to keep making my resources as user-friendly as possible.
This worksheet contains 22 questions in a table arrangement of either:
working out the chemical formula from the compound name (i.e. formula for potassium iodide)
naming the compound based on its formula (i.e. name KI)
All of the examples in worksheet are simple ionic compounds, there are no polyatomic ions.
On the second half of the worksheet is a word search to find some of the names of the compounds (just for fun/ for the fast workers!)
Answers are included, including the word search.
This worksheet contains 22 questions in a table arrangement of either:
working out the chemical formula from the compound name (i.e. formula for potassium hydroxide)
naming the compound based on its formula (i.e. name KOH)
All of the examples in worksheet are compounds of polyatomic ions (carbonate, nitrate, hydroxide, sulphate and phosphate)
On the second half of the worksheet is a word game to make words using the letters from two compounds (just for fun/ for the fast workers!)
Answers are included, including some suggested answers to the word game.
Super simple, clean and bright, this is a middle school appropriate getting to know you poster. It takes students through 8 questions to help them identify important parts of their personality/ interests to share with the class. Perfect for homeroom/ tutor group and nice enough to display on a board afterwards at the beginning of the year.
Covers:
Books
Animals
Sport/ fitness
Identity
Adventure
TV/ film
Super power
Food
Weird fact
This is another clean and easy to use template for a differentiated lesson/ block of lessons investigating diffusion using simple equipment. Its a classic experiment that can be done to build lab skills or teach diffusion.
This folder includes:
A teacher guide with tips on running the lesson
3 different differentiated templates for students using the same format (blank, guided and fill the gaps/ cloze exercise). Each template has a list of words that can be used to help guide the students
A suggested set of answers to help students see the level of detail and scientific (but approachable!) answers they could give
This could be:
A longer lesson including the lab for students familiar with investigation
A week long introduction to investigations for less experienced students
A series of lessons to explore diffusion as a topic
A reminder of investigations at the beginning of the year
A group based lab with a shared template and multiple levels of help
A break from a series of dry science lessons with something using more independence.
This lesson was planned as a classroom activity and to be printed but can easily be adjusted as a home-based learning project that uses simple equipment swaps. A glass as a beaker and a teaspoon as a pipette