I have been teaching science for over 30 years. although Biology is my specialism I have lots of experience of teaching Physics and Chemistry to GCSE. I am particularly interested in practical work and believe that all science teachers should be able to teach good practicals and give practical demos.
I have been teaching science for over 30 years. although Biology is my specialism I have lots of experience of teaching Physics and Chemistry to GCSE. I am particularly interested in practical work and believe that all science teachers should be able to teach good practicals and give practical demos.
A science Christmas quiz based around the plants and animals we associate with Christmas. Suitable for higher end KS2 and KS3 as an end of term activity. It looks at adaptations, classification and even science methodology so it reviews topics and has a bit of end of term Christmas fun.
Power point which explains how chlorophyll pigments can be separated using chromatography. This is a basic power point that can be improved with additional details of how to do the chromatography.
Worksheet with information and questions about the pH scale. Has extension question. Requires some prior knowledge as well as comprehension of the worksheet. Ideal as a homework. Just modified it to make it more accessible after my Year 7s completed it for homework. Good to see if they are reading the information properly!
For Nuffield-Salters Edxcel A level Biology Topic 6. Power point has questions on it to help students review their work.\nCovers the symptoms and progression of the disease.
This is a worksheet that assesses a student's understanding of what a "good" hypothesis is and their ability to analyse results. It could be used as a homework after a lesson or series of lessons on enzymes.
Students have to work out which children have cystic fibrosis and how they have inherited it from the symptoms and other information given on the sheet. Could be used as an assessment of student's understanding.
This is for a homework and/or an assessment of the student's understanding of the diffusion topic.
There is a link to 'Practical Science teaching' Blog that has other activities/information about teaching science.
This is a great little investigation to illustrate the pH scale of colours shown by Universal indicator. It is fun for the students to make and this recipe gives good success.
Innovative and fun way for students to show their knowledge of antigens, antibodies and phagocytosis.
Students use i-pads to make a film.
More description of activity and a short video of one of the results are in the blog.
Was a great success!
You can use these to:
shuffle and ask pupils to sort them into pros and cons.
ask pupils to rank them in order of importance.
string a 'washing line' between 2 clampstands and get pupils to position them in rank order of importance/ reasons for and against. Use pegs.
This is a very successful investigation that encourages students to link observations with theory. Link to a webpage with a photo of one of the results the students obtained.
Here is information about the Brazil nut Tree, how it is pollinated and the brazil nut seeds ditributed. It is a great starter to illustrate how important biodiversity is to the survival of species.
Used with GCSE chemistry/physics when teaching about the structure of the atom. Hopefully the repetitive nature will help fix the patterns. Many students get a sense of achievement completing the sheet.
For Biology A level students to help them review and revise respiration - glycolysis Link reaction, Kreb’s cycle and the electron transport chain. The cards have questions on the front and answers on the back. I used it with my A level Biology class as a review of respiration. It took them 10 mins, asking each other questions and worked well.
More detail on how I used it at https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&blogID=3310269823409632851#allpost
where you can find more free resources.
This resource was written to try to get Year 7s to develop their practical skills. In particular to ask them to think about calculating averages, writing a hypothesis, identifying anomalous results and explaining about why increasing rotor width might help the paper helicopter spend more time in the air. This was given to the Year 7s after we had already done some practical work dropping paper helicopters and timing how long they took to reach the floor. We are fortunate in that we have a suitable balcony to drop them from at our College.
This is for the new BTEC Applied Science Course. There are questions here about how to use a colourimeter and an evaluation criteria sheet for some peer-evaluation when the students actually use the colourimeters. This was useful as it focussed them and will also help them evaluate their progress for this part of the assignment.
The aim of this resource is to get children outdoors looking for wild flowers according to the month. This month's sheet is for January - with the others in preparation. Outdoor learning enhances the well-being of children, is fun and instructive. In KS1 and 2 children have to learn some of the common names of living things around them and this resource enables teachers to do this, with plants that can be found around the playground in this case. The short descriptions about each plant are written for children aged 6 to 9 years, so can be used individually as well as a class resource.
To share your children's finds – just post them on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #herbologyhunt or in our new Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/530501890646957/
Measuring the population size of a common species in a habitat is a required practical for GCSE. Personally i love fieldwork, but we will all be in a situation when we have planned to teach this, but it is raining outside! Also there is always that one class that you really do not trust. This activity will help you still do that lesson, but indoors. It is not a computer simulation but involves real ecological techniques.