Ready for a heart dissection

Preparing for a heart dissection. Making sure all the scalpels have new sharp blades and the students have all the tools for the job

 

Chromatography

 We took some ground up plant leaves and ran them in a chromatogram using 3 parts hexane, 1 part chloroform and 1 part Acetone. The students had not met using solvents other than water and were surprised at the results.

Doing Maths online

Some subjects are much easier to teach online. Maths is one of them, Using products like openboard the teacher can project the board in front of the student, but what is the best way of getting to the process back? Using openboard on the students systems works well.

Charging and discharging a capacitor

 

A level Physics online We built and charging and discharging capacitor circuit from locktronics by @MatrixTSL and then looked at what was happening across the bulbs with an oscilloscope

Water Turbine

 This eisco kit does a good job on energy conversions. From a header tank which the students have to fill, to drive the turbine to drive a generator to make light and spin a motor. They also pick up energy loss well too.

Taking an ECG

 Looking at a @pascoscientific ecg sensors to record the students heart rate and electrical signals using sensors on their arms.

Systems Analysis

 A major part of A level computing is the project which takes 2 years. Most students seem to want to start with coding, but persuading them to start with analysing the system and how it works saves much more time in the long run.

Chemistry Required Practical

 Electrolysis required practical investigating the products produced. Hydrogen and oxygen where hard to test for because of the amounts produced

Maltose snatoms A level Biology

 Creating a molecule of Maltose in Snatoms to show how to create a Glyosidic Bond and create water in the process. The Snatoms give the student s a real sense of what molecules look like and how they have to bend

Physics - Efficiency

 GCSE Physics investigating efficiency. How can we make it more efficient to wind up a 100g mass one metre. Using gear ratios more turns = less effort and less turns = more effort

The sine Rule for area of a triangle

Is it better to use the windows built in calculator or the Casio app to demonstrate how to do a calculation. I find it better to use the app as it is the same as the student is using.

Garlic Roots and Mitosis

 The Garlic is growing well, and soon it will be time to see if the root cells are undergoing mitosis by creating stained slides of root squashes. The process is difficult for the students so they create at least 10 slides hoping that one will be ok

Real world programming vs what is taught in schools

 

As the new A Level computing students start learning and they start to look for projects, should we just teach them programming or use real world environments such as docker that they will meet if they do any real projects

Moving Electricity

 Its a great demo when you can show how using step up and step down transformers how electricity can be moved across the country from the power station to the home. Its also fun generating the electricity from chemical to steam to a generator.

Metallic Structure Model

 A Petri dish, some water and washing up liquid, a straw and a pipette tip and with a gentle blow we have a model of a metal.

Calcium Oxide reacting with water

Adding water to the Calcium Oxide to make slaked lime and a lot of heat. The lump in the middle is the bit that didn't react that upset the figures.

Limestone experiments

Heating Limestone intensely to make Calcium Oxide, thermal decomposition. Weighing before and after showed a slight decrease in mass. Not as much as the students predicted until they did the next experiment
 

Fuel cells

Setting up and running a fuel cell to make hydrogen and oxygen and then reversing the fuel cell to make electricity. We made the electricity either by wind or solar power to split the water

A level Maths

 Amid the Prime Minister changing and a beloved Monarch dying and a new King Proclaimed, A level Maths continues unchanged

Installing and using VNC

 A challenge for the students. To obtain a screen capture from a Linux Machine on a Mac or PC. They decided on VNC but had to download and install all the software to get to to successfully work on the end.

Reducing Copper oxide

 @ChemixLab diagrams make it quick and easy to create chemistry diagrams to illustrate how to set up equipment for students, then they can piece together the things necessary to do the experiment

Determination of the amount of energy in food

 Determination of the amount of energy in food. Using this type of calorimeter the student gets to see an approximation of the amount of energy in food typically crisps because they burn so well. Lots of discussions on better healthier eating.

Investigating electric fields powered by a Wimshurst machine

 Investigating electric fields powered by a Wimshurst machine

Calculators and Sketches

 Often in A level Maths questions the student has to sketch a graph. Using a graphical calculator helps with this demonstrating what it should look like so the sketch produced by the student is more accurate.

Properties of a Capacitor

 A level Physics - looking at how to make a capacitor, how them work, and creating our own from aluminium foil and paper

Computing Storage capacity technology advances

 How data is stored in cameras has changed over the past few years and how the storage capacity has gone up. Keeping up with technology changes in Computing is a constant challenge

A level chemistry Experiment

 A level Chemistry working out the formula mass by measuring the mass of the gas lot to fill up a 600cm3 cylinder with butane/propane gas to determine the ratio of the mixture and knowing the exact pressure and temp

Investigating Friction on Different Surfaces

 Starting the year 10 syllabus by having a look at friction on different surfaces. This is always a surprising result for the students and they have to get used to the idea of designing their own experiments. Four surfaces given and five needed, caused some thinking to be done