The Nature of Light

Red and Green Make Yellow. In years 10-11 this is the first time many students have mixed light and become aware of how light is different to paint. And that the sun produces white light broken into a spectrum rather than a yellow sun they got taught in primary school.

 

Balancing ionic Equations using Ionic cards

Balancing ionic Equations using Ionic cards. Using the Visualiser on the desk to take images and place them into the electronic book to record the results.

 

Simple Harmonic Motion

 A spring and a mass using @pascoscientific ultrasonic motion sensor is an excellent introduction to Simple Harmonic Motion. Within seconds, we had Position, Velocity and Acceleration graphs to compare the motion of the spring, and then, including a force meter, we could capture all the info.

Matrix Manipulation made easy

Matrices aren't hard but they certainly are laborious. The @CasioMaths CG-50 calculator makes Matrices very easy to manipulate so the student can get on with the important thing of learning how to solve problems using Matrices.

Lasers online

 Teaching all about reflection and refraction online. In the lab, we can work in a darkened room with a light source, Online, we have to use the laser in a Wave Tank using Fluorescein dye to help the green laser show up so the students can see the path of the beam of light.

Competition in plants Experiment

Comparing the growth rate of cress seeds sown 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 in a petri dish. Each day, we looked at and compared the heights of the tallest plant as they germinated and grew.. Conclusion: the best cress for eating was in the 256 as they were the tallest. Healthy eating, too.

Other things being equal, does the presence of other plants from the same species affect the growth of individual plants in a predictable fashion?

Starting Procedure:

1. Obtain a set of six petri dishes Put an inch or two of tape on each pot as a label and label each petri dish with the number and type of seeds to be planted in each plus something to identify them as yours. Use pencil as the pots will be sprayed regularly with water and left in sunlight. Ink can fade and wash away but the pencil marks should persist.
2. Fill each petri dish with cotton wool.  
3. Plant either 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 seeds in each petri dish Do your best to space them evenly over the dish
4. The plants will be watered and tended for the next several days.
5. Once the plants have germinated measure their growth at the same time each day.

Try another experiment using the same number of seeds but this time half are mustard seeds and the other half are cress. Make sure to mix them.

How do the results compare?

Normalisation

 Normalisation seems like a black art to many students, but getting the data to 3NF becomes quite easy using a stock, order and customer table. Real-world examples which many on to use in jobs in the future.

Westminster motor

 A very successful Westminster motor build with it rotating at high speed. Sometimes it just works like this. Other times, it is a struggle. Getting the commutator right is the skill and a small amount of sticky tape.

Alkali Metals Reactions

The Alkali metals are always a good start to Chemistry comparing their hardness, how fast they oxidise when exposed to air and of course their reactions with water. Lots of fun and lots of science Why are the metals stored under oil and why are they double stoppered?

 

Determining G

We went to determine G using a Lego ball drop experiment - 8.8 m/s2 and then via the @pascoscientific picket fence and lightgate. 9.81 m/s2 spot on on the second go.

 

Planning ahead

 I had a look at the new Blackmagic Camera coming out in October. I think it will be ideal for in front of the organ, so we will need a wide-angle lens for this so I decided to try out the Olympus 14-42 Lens

First Principles

Diving into differentiation from the first principles. Starting with the basics and then tackling more complex equations.

Centre of mass

 

Irregularly shaped objects and finding their centre of mass. Also fun with the broom. With this simple trick, it is easy.

Blood types

Year 9 students learn all about blood types and how the antigens work. Who is the universal donor and who is the universal recipient, using synthetic blood.

 

Disk boot speed

 What is the speed difference between booting from an M.2 drive, an SSD , a hybrid drive and a fast hard disk. The students set out to find out. The order did not surprise anyone but just how slow the fast hard disk was did.

Classroom Computer

 The student's classroom computer can now access the smartboard and a local screen as well as a visualizer and a graphics tablet - which should make for easier work creating notes.

Collection over water

 A simple experiment that always seems to create problems for students - how to fill a measuring cylinder with water and then invert it without getting a drop of air inside. Cling film works best 

Air pressure, density and temperature

 Creating a test tube submarine. Investigating how the effects of air pressure, temperature and density affect the homemade test tube submarines. 

Math Paper Practice

 Maths papers to start the year. We start with one a week at both A level and GCSE and later after Christmas move up to 2 per week.

Boyles Law

Boyle's Law is a fundamental concept in #Physics and #Chemistry. It states that when the temperature of a gas is kept constant, the pressure and volume are inversely proportional. So, as volume ⬆️, pressure ⬇️, and vice versa. Understanding this law helps us explore the behaviour of gases!

Emmas Heatbeat

Using the electronic stethoscope connected to a phone, to record students' heartbeats
 

Start from Scratch

Sometimes it is best to start with a clean operating system and install everything how and where you want it. Students install Python3, an Apache web server and Django to control their Python programs in a Web environment.

 

Expansion of Metals

Exploring metal heating and properties, especially the bimetallic strip. 🌡️ Some essential topics vanish from the syllabus and skip years 7-9. It's concerning when Year 11 students miss out! 📚 #ScienceEducation #TeachingEssentials

 

Ligands

Making some very pretty ligands using Conc HCl with Copper Chloride to make the yellow colour of  CuCl2 and then Ammonia Solution to make the deep blue of Copper  Ammonia ligands, then onto bidentate with ethylenediamine and then  a multidentate with EDTA

 

New Casio Calculator

 The new Casio fx-85GT CW is different to the older calculators. It is very different to use and has new menus. Many of the usual features are hidden behind menus and many new exciting and useful features, such as number lines.

Pressure Temperature Law

Using the @pascoscientific wireless pressure sensor to understand the pressure-temperature law. As the temperature increases the pressure increases if the volume remains constant.

 

Solving Quadratics

 A-level Maths: Many students need to remember that all the papers are calculator papers, and they can use the calculators to solve the quadratic and use the graphing functions to help them see the shapes of graphs.

Centripetal force

 Demonstrating that a spinning ball in a glass can be lifted into the air.

Which natural antiseptic works the best

A good fun practical all made with natural ingredients to investigate which is the most effective antiseptic plant extract to kill bacteria. As well as some of the normal heroes students tried out some of their own ideas

 

Network Topology

 Learning all about network topology is not about looking at a diagram, it is about building and using a network and wiring from scratch and learning about traceroute.

biology field trip writeup

Trying to help a student with a biology field trip write-up. It's difficult when they don't know the trip's aim; they only have half of the data, and the other groups did the recordings differently, and they didn't take any photos or GPS tag anything.

 

Universal indicator

 An excellent year 7 practical introducing indicators as chemicals that change colour according to the pH. Except this was for year 11 students who didn't know about Universal indicator because they hadn't done any experiments until the required practicals in year 10.