A simple cut/stick or card sort activity whereby students will need to sort planets and bodies of matter in the solar system into order.

Key terms and definitions which could be made into… card sort match 'em up activity cut and stick activity etc. Includes some diagrams too. Fully editable and aimed at KS3.

A set of cards which just need printing and snipping to provide a nice card sort activity. Once the pros and cons have been sorted, this task could then be extended by asking students to rank effectiveness of the resource or perhaps rank how useful they might be if installed in the UK. A great resource with lots of scope to be creative! (I’ve just saved you the time of creating all the cards!!)

Who? Those teaching the new (and old!) GCSE Physics. This worksheet would fit nicely into the P3 Edexcel specification. This is for students who are getting to grips with identifying the useful and wasted energies made by electrical devices. What? The worksheet is a grid to be filled out after considering/discussing the different types of energy output delivered by the different electrical devices. There is also an opportunity to consider aspects of their design which have been developed to reduce wasted energy. This will extend some and deepen the thinking involved. Answers are included on the second sheet of the resource.

A great worksheet to get students thinking about useful and wasted energy stores/transfers relating to everyday electrical devices.

Who? For those who are teaching GCSE Physics ‘Motion’, specifically ‘Stopping Distances’. This is a card sort for students to decide which factors fall into the ‘thinking distance’ pile and which the ‘braking distance’ pile. What? This is a grid of different factors which students may discuss and decide whether they affect the thinking or braking (or both) distance of a vehicle. There will be plenty of opportunity to debate which are worse. This activity is flexible enough to become a ‘diamond 9’ type activity too. How? Cards can be cut out and arranged or colour coded.

A lovely little class activity or homework whereby students will need to complete a data collection by asking as many other students in their class, year, school how they get to school. Students will then need to display their data in a pie chart (although you could issue them with graph paper and ask them to produce a bar chart) and then complete the question task at the bottom of the page. This task would nicely lead up to a lesson on how we can save energy.

A simple match them up for students to consider how and why machines waste energy and then solutions on how to reduce wasted energy.

This differentiated worksheet builds in demand as you work through it and so there really is something for everyone. It begins simply with the primary and secondary colours, what they are and how they are formed (secondary). The activity then moves on to how we see coloured light and how/why objects appear certain colours under white light and then finally under different coloured light. This activity is essentially a good assessment tool of a really tricky topic. I’ve included answers to the questions to save you having to do the thinking! They are essentially a set of model answers which you could even give students.

This great booklet contains 5 different tasks which would be ready to introduce at the very beginning of your electricity topic teaching. The booklet focuses on electrical safety but also where electricity is used everyday plus one task to start getting them to think about how they might experimentally solve some problems to do with electricity. All five tasks could be completed or the booklet could be broken down into individual activities. Would make a great holiday project or and introduction to the topic homework project.

Who? For anyone trying to plan something creative to allow various science skills to be developed. This project/lesson has so much scope. At a push this could be done in a lesson and then perhaps for homework but it would work a lot better if a couple of hours of time was given to make a good job of it! The project would sit nicely anywhere within the year or would make a great end of term activity as it is a completely ‘stand alone’ topic. Perhaps you could use this in a STEM week or during Science week? This bundle of resources contains a powerpoint to guide through the project as well as teacher/technician notes, a detailed lesson plan, plus some suspect profiles to work out ‘whodunnit’. I have included a student sheet to allow them to gather and record data and draw conclusions. Students will need to drop ‘blood’ onto the floor/ a surface and gather a set of control diameters of blood splats which are created upon the blood hitting the floor. Students will have to consider how to control various elements of the project/investigation and how to improve accuracy, repeatability, precision etc. They will then need to plot a graph of their results before drawing a final conclusion. I love using this resource! It is fully editable but gives you a resource you can use straight away (you’ll just need to talk to your technicians about making some fake blood…). Enjoy!

Who? For anyone trying to plan something creative to allow various science skills to be developed. This project/lesson has so much scope. This could be delivered as a stand alone lesson or coupled with my other forensic project lessons to create an extended investigation. The project would sit nicely anywhere within the year or would make a great end of term activity as it is a completely ‘stand alone’ topic. Perhaps you could use this in a STEM week or during Science week? This bundle of resources contains a powerpoint to guide through the project as well as teacher/technician notes, a detailed lesson plan, plus some suspect profiles to work out ‘whodunnit’. I have included a student sheet to allow them to gather and record observations and draw conclusions. Students will need to set up a microscope to observe some pre-prepared slides showing hair and fibre samples and draw their observations. This resource is fully editable but can be used straight away (you’ll just need to talk to your technicians about making some hair and fibre slides using the suspect profiles for guidance…). Enjoy!

Who? For anyone trying to plan something creative to allow various science skills to be developed. This project/lesson has so much scope. At a push this could be done in a lesson and then perhaps for homework but it would work a lot better if a couple of hours of time was given to make a good job of it! Have a look at my other forensic resources which this could be combined with! The project would sit nicely anywhere within the year or would make a great end of term activity as it is a completely ‘stand alone’ topic. Perhaps you could use this in a STEM week or during Science week? This lesson could also be used within a Biology topic which involves ‘food tests’ (sugar and protein). This bundle of resources contains a powerpoint to guide through the project as well as teacher/technician notes, a lesson plan, plus a student worksheet to allow them to gather and record data and draw conclusions. Students will need to test four different urine samples for the presence of sugar and protein (these will need to be prepared - see tech notes) using the benedicts and sodium hydroxide/copper sulfate solutions. Students will have to consider how to control various elements of the project/investigation and how to improve accuracy, repeatability, precision etc. They will then need to record their observations as they go along (this can be done on the student sheet). Great resource! It is fully editable but gives you a resource you can use straight away (you’ll just need to talk to your technicians about making some fake urine…). Enjoy!