Short simple quiz that allows you to judge the understanding and level of your students

A simple challenge where students in small groups or on their own must decide which materials and much of them they should "buy" to build a bridge that must span a 15cm gap(between 2 chairs or boxes) They are allowed a budget and must not spend more than allowed so must choose wisely. The bride is tested to destruction by hanging masses (100g at a time) until the bridge fails

simple activity to first predict and then to test if predictions were correct different materials tested to see if they are Conductors or insulators

Using only a sheet of A4 the students are challenged to do something to it to make it travel as far as possible, no throwing, just simply let go see how far. You might think that some sort of wings are in order use the elastic bands somehow if they want

A nice activity to show the effect of washing woolen clothes in too hot water. I would come to school wearing a woolen jumper ready for throwing out. The worksheet gets the student to cut out a jumper shape as a template to put on my jumper and cut out a real wool jumper shape. 10 to 15 shapes can easily be cut from one of my jumpers (which I continue to wear full of jumper shaped holes) this IS funny The students heat water in a 250ml beaker to different temps (nice investigation) and "wash" their wool jumper shape for a few mins, then see how it has changed by placing it on the second template

This is a tried, tested and improved assesment that has worked well with many students. The assesment is based on the old NC levels 1 to 5 (subdivided into a,b & c)but you can convert into any level description you need, frankly a staged 1 to 5 indicator is as useful as ever whatever you may wish to call it. I have devised a sytem which gives you a measure of success: each question can score 0, 1 or 2, if a student scores a 2 then you can say they understand the concept fully, score of 1 they understand partially, 0 means they may have experienced the concept but do not understand it much if at all. The support sheet can be used as a teaching scheme for staff. Split into 3 columns the first column states what concept is being testsd, 2nd column tells you what is required for a score og 1, 3rd column what is required for a score of 2. I have used this sytem to calculate a score for students...if they achieve 75% or more then I believe you can say they have achieved that level. Good luck

A tried, tested and adjusted assessment which caters for "old" level 1 to about 5. The assesment gives students a nicely set out piece of work, drawing in the lungs, arrowing direction of bloodflow, unlike the "dry" ambiguous written questions you often find. I like to introduce some sort of "practical" in my assessments if possible, this assessment asks the students to measure their own pulse (I suggest stopwatches are made available, and possibly support if required). Enjoy

A nice assessment "old" levels 1 to 5 Assesses student's understanding of the Earth, sun, shadows, Earth's axis, day & night etc etc Students draw in shapes of Earth, orbits to show understanding. Also draw in the position of the sun at different times as well as shadow changes. All in all a friendly way to judge progress. Enjoy.

A simple A4 template that allows students to make a small but useable periscope, you will need the mirror card to glue onto the periscope. Challenges to make them longer...ie make an extension tube...does not need to be square! could be tin foil tube etc...periscope is cut in half and the ends slipped over the extension tube. I have had students make a "sea" out of tables, they crawl around underneath and pop up a periscope in gaps between tables to look around.