Root tip Squashes

 Creating root tip squashes of garlic root tips to stain and look for evidence of mitosis Hemel private tuition in action

Network Homework

 A-level Computing Homework analyses your home network for 30 seconds using Wireshark. Who would have guessed that the network is so busy with different devices and data protocols, getting emails - and checking on machines

Pendulums

 Such great fun with pendulums. Changing the mass or pushing it harder or softer has no effect on the Period. Changing the paths from back and forth to more elliptical also has no effect, only changing the length makes a difference.

Electrolysis

Time in the holidays to go over some of the required practicals like electrolysis. We can spend some more time repeating the experiments and making sure that they are thoroughly understood @ Hemel Private Tuition

 

Resistance and length of wire

10 minutes to do a required practical measuring the length of the resistor wire using a @pascoscientific ultrasonic Motion sensor and the voltage/current sensor linked to Capstone to work out the resistance and plot the results.@Hemel Private Tuition

 

The functions on a Calculator

 These are two popular A-Level Calculators, but how many students need to learn many of the functions? Most I meet need to learn about the memories, the ENG function, how to get improper fractions as answers or know of the other log button and that's just the 991EX calculator. https://hemelprivatetuition.co.uk/

Centripetal force

 An A-level online practical with me doing the dangerous part.Investigating how the force varies with speed for a fixed radius and mass. https://hemelprivatetuition.co.uk/

Pond

 One of the advantages of having a Pond is the abundance of life we can see down the microscope. Duckweed is my major problem and keeping the pond healthy so all types of creatures can inhabit it. https://hemelprivatetuition.co.uk/

Hashing

 Hashing - a black art of storing lots of information in a little space so the information is quick to access. Theory is one thing but trying it out and building a system explains how and why it works. https://hemelprivatetuition.co.uk/

Energy conversions water turbine

 Looking at energy conversions using a water turbine to a generator and creating light. It is a bit quicker than using the steam engine but brings in discussions on using reservoirs and other forms of HEP.

Benzene Model

 The benzene electron orbital model at #ALevel reveals the beautiful complexity hidden in the GCSE's simpler structures. A closer look can truly transform our understanding!

At GCSE level, students are often taught that benzene is a ring of six carbon atoms, each with one hydrogen attached, and they might be told that the ring contains delocalized electrons which can be represented as a circle inside the ring of carbon atoms. This is a simplified model to help them understand the basics of organic chemistry.

At A-Level, however, the electron orbital model of benzene is introduced, where we delve into the actual quantum mechanical model. Here, it is explained that benzene has a hexagonal structure with each carbon atom forming three sigma bonds (two with other carbon atoms and one with a hydrogen atom). The remaining electron in each carbon atom is in a 2p orbital, which overlaps with the 2p orbitals of the adjacent carbon atoms, forming a delocalized pi electron cloud above and below the plane of the ring. This structure gives benzene its stability and special properties, such as its resistance to addition reactions.

This model further illustrates how the properties of benzene, like its stability and reactivity, can be explained by understanding its electron configuration, how these electrons are delocalized and create regions of electron density, and how this influences how benzene will interact with other molecules.

The shift from GCSE to A-Level and onward into undergraduate studies often involves understanding the underlying principles that explain the rules and patterns students previously learned. It emphasizes the value of digging deeper into these subjects and appreciating their inherent complexity.

Creating a quadratic

 Creating a quadratic from a square, a cube and an inverse square. Sometimes Math can be a bit of a challenge.

Balance

It is a wafer-thin disk. It won't stand on its edge. So how can I achieve this as in the picture? A-level Physics students playing for a Twirl trying to balance the disk  A fun lesson intro to discovering centripetal forces.

 

Kidney dissection

 Students having a go at a Kidney dissection, seeing what structures they can identify. As usual some dissections were better than others, but this is a learning environment, and so there were plenty of kidneys to go around and have another go if necessary.

Exploring OS

Getting computers talking together, Linux to Windows to Mac. Creating a web server and setting up a file server. All done fairly inexpensively using a few Raspberry Pi's.

 

The Story of the electron

Recreating the story of the electron as JJ Thomson discovered it. Presenting students with the facts and discoveries and getting them to come up with their own ideas of what they have found. I really want one of these Teltron tubes, but can I justify the cost?

Lascells Gyro

 My new Lascells Gyro arrived. Here is my son trying it out. I put it later in the classroom, where one student spotted it, and we had a brief look at it and saw how it made them rotate on the stool on the turntable as they moved the gyro. They loved it.

Momentum

 Looking at momentum in different ways - using a Lego track with a couple of wagons or the @Pascoscientific track and the ultrasonic sensor show that other measuring systems can achieve the same results.

Maths GCSE to A Level

 Bridging the Gap between Maths GCSE and A-Level is very hard for some students, that is why over the holidays I look at the skills the students should have learnt at GCSE but didn't.

Newtons cradle

 Newtons cradle - a simple demonstration of momentum. I was surprised with such a common toy and A-level Physics students how many would predict wrongly what would happen if I set up a particular pattern.

Spiders

 Think of a spider, and students only think of one like this, but there are so many species of spider with varying hunting techniques, from those jumping spiders to wolf spiders. How are they adapted to their various modes of hunting? Questions for the lessons.

New project book

 My entire of stock of these books is now out with the students so I had to buy another one for me

Online demonstration terminal velocity

 One of the challenges of teaching online is doing good demonstrations. With plenty of cameras, we can get in on the action and using @pascoscientific sensors like the rotary motion sensor, we can record the activity in real-time and deliver it to the students.

Chromatography required practical

Investigating the chromatography of the pigments in green plants. It's a better chromatography experiment since we have to use different solvents other than water, which brings in the idea that there are actually other solvents.

 

Ultrasonic sensor

The most useful sensor I have is the @pascoscientific ultrasonic sensor. It gets used in most experiments since measuring some sort of distance is involved. It's great at distance measurements over about 15cm. At distances less than 15cm, you have to get creative.
 

Real world Maths

 

#Maths is more than equations. It's about solving real-world problems. From integration to logs & indices, where do you see these concepts come to life in your everyday routine? #RealWorldMaths

What is temperature?

Online A-level Physics What is temperature? Heat moves from a hotter body to a colder body, and in doing so, we can see this energy movement powering the fan.

 

Dihybrid cross

Learning about dihybrid crosses resulted from doing lots of crosses with Drosophila over many weeks. Now the students seem to occasionally see this, only in a textbook and wonder what it is all about. Students don't see a Punnett square as explaining reality.

 

Networking

Learning about how networks work. This then involves building a server and a couple of workstations and getting them to connect to one another. Raspberry Pi's work well for this. We build wired and wireless networks.

 

Boxes of Equipment

 All ready for the day ahead. Boxes of equipment are prepared to enable all the practical work.