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.

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.

A multiple-choice quiz written in PowerPoint with hyperlinks, then exported as a pdf. Formatted so it’ll fit nicely on a phone screen. A simple idea which I came across on [The Physics Teaching Podcast]https://the.physicsteachingpodcast.com/). I’ve included the PowerPoint file so you can edit or adapt it if you feel the urge.

A multiple-choice quiz written in PowerPoint with hyperlinks, then exported as a pdf. Formatted so it’ll fit nicely on a phone screen. A simple idea which I came across on [The Physics Teaching Podcast]https://the.physicsteachingpodcast.com/). I’ve included the PowerPoint file so you can edit or adapt it if you feel the urge.

A quick lesson plenary with a couple of on-screen questions about SHC, in an “underline the correct answer” format. The first 2 slides are the questions only, you could give those to students either on paper or electronically, the other slides animate the answers once they’ve had a go.

A quick lesson plenary with a couple of on-screen questions about the relationship between electrical resistance and the length of a wire, in an “underline the correct answer” format. The first slide is the questions only, you could give that to students either on paper or electronically, the second slide animates the answers once they’ve had a go.

A quick lesson plenary with a couple of on-screen questions about springs, in an “underline the correct answer” format. The first slide is the questions only, you could give that to students either on paper or electronically, the second slide animates the answers once they’ve had a go.

A quick lesson plenary with a couple of on-screen questions about F=ma, in an “underline the correct answer” format. The first slide is the questions only, you could give that to students either on paper or electronically, the second slide animates the answers once they’ve had a go.

A multiple-choice quiz written in PowerPoint with hyperlinks, then exported as a pdf. Formatted so it’ll fit nicely on a phone screen. A simple idea which I came across on The Physics Teaching Podcast. I’ve included the PowerPoint file so you can edit or adapt it if you feel the urge.

A multiple-choice quiz written in PowerPoint with hyperlinks, then exported as a pdf. Formatted so it’ll fit nicely on a phone screen. A simple idea which I came across on [The Physics Teaching Podcast]https://the.physicsteachingpodcast.com/). I’ve included the PowerPoint file so you can edit or adapt it if you feel the urge.

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

Use a simple pendulum and a known value of g to measure Pi. A puzzle for KS5 students, presented as ‘confirm that our region of spacetime can be considered locally flat’. Let them wonder for a bit, then tell them they’ll be given a lump of metal, a ruler, stopwatch and a bit of string, and see where the discussion takes you. Opportunity to really go for those uncertainties - if you don’t get a result that you can believe in to 3 or 4 sig figs then you haven’t really tried! Original idea from Matt Parker https://twitter.com/standupmaths who has an unhealthy fascination with Pi.

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

This was inspired by Gethyn Jones at emc2andallthat.wordpress.com https://emc2andallthat.wordpress.com/2019/10/27/fifa-for-the-gcse-physics-calculation-win/ I turned his idea into a powerpoint & worksheet.

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.

Remove the turntable from the microwave oven, place a large bar of chocolate in there (maybe raise it a bit on a plastic plate). Run the microwave oven, with luck and skill you can get melted chocolate spots at the antinodes. Measure the distance between the spots, double it and you have the wavelength. Look up the frequency on the back of the microwave oven, use the wave equation and calculate c. Then eat the chocolate.

Print one set of cards per group. Each card names an energy resource, e.g. Fossil fuels, wind power, etc. The last card has instructions, e.g. sort the cards into fossil fuels vs others, sort them into renewable vs non-renewable, sort them into ones that use the sun vs those that don’t. See www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg for a complete web site on this topic where pupils can research it all.

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.

A source emits alpha, beta and gamma. but how much of each? This sheet give pupils a chance to figure this out using a bit of subtraction as different absorbers are put in front of the source. See www.darvill.clara.net/nucrad for more gcse radioactivity stuff.