Factorising

 GCSE Maths - working on factorising - taking one term out and fully factorising taking more than one term out. Plenty of practice using the Wacom pen and screens.

Sounds

Learning all about sound. Using the Oscilloscope to see the sound made by different instruments and things. Looking at the difference between repeating sounds and once-only events.

 

small quadrat

 This is the time of year when many teachers reach the end of the course and find they need to use the quadrants. Few plants are around, and the weather is poor. I use photographs from the camera quadrant and get the students to analyse these.

I have a series of transects looking at different environments and various random samples from different types of fields and meadows. The students can go outside and try the techniques but they can all analyse the same data.

Cleaning a motherboard

Teaching students that maintaining computers is vital to keep them going. Regularly blowing out all the dust, cleaning the dirty fans, and getting out all the dust can keep the computer going.

Online Chemistry

 Investigating Chemistry mechanisms online using Snatoms to examine how nucleophilic and electrophilic substitution work in 3D.

Desalination

 Helping students to understand distillation using a cold finger to help with the desalination of water. Sea water is harder to come by here in the Middle of England so we made our own from sea salt crystals from Cornwall.

Doppler Rocket

Teaching out on the pavement using the @pascoscientific Doppler Rocket to demonstrate the Doppler effect as the sound changes as the rocket comes towards you and moves away. Helping us to learn about red shift in a practical way.

 

Invariant Matrices

Further Maths  - Investigating Linear Transformations. Discovering Invariant Points and Lines. Learning how Matricies can help real-world problems.
 

Pascals Vases

 Lots of experiments are done every year, but sometimes, looking at different experiments, like Pascal's Vases, provides some interesting ideas, especially to help students think about designing experiments.

Compound Microscopes

Learning how to make slides of stained cheek cells and view them on a Compound Microscope and then record the sample by using the students' phones. Not many successes but we had more luck with some prepared slides.

 

Educational Terms

These are a few of the Abbreviations  I use when marking students' work. What ones do you use or have been used on you?

Apple IIe

One of the iconic computers of its time - The Apple IIe. The students could see how large all the chips were and the size and capacity of the 5 1/4 floppy disks. How could you manage these programs with so little memory and no mouse?

 

Making Ligands

Making Ligands and looking at their shape with the aid of Molymod models. I like how Copper ions which are normally blue turn yellow when making a Copper Chloride ligand.

 

Determining G by Freefall

 A Picket Fence and a @pascoscientific Lightgate and a simple drop and pretty accurate values every time. Some students believe they have discovered a gravitational anomaly in part of the classroom, or this could be a student error.

Maths in Science

 Sometimes, the Maths required in Science, especially Physics, exceeds the Maths learnt and required in Maths. So what is there to do but teach Maths in the Science lessons so the students can learn the Math required.

G by Freefall

 Using the Lego as a G by freefall machine to estimate the drop of a ball bearing 0.5m. For10 tries, we managed an average of 9.7ms-2

Air Quality

Measuring the air quality, CO2, particles, and ozone levels. Investigating the damage caused by particulates and looking at the air quality index in Hemel Hempstead, which exceeds three WHO limits, and London, where pollution is way too high.
 

Finishing the project

 Just putting the final touches to the computing projects. Making sure that all the criteria are met and that all the checkboxes are ticked.

Centre of Mass

Determining the Centre of Mass of a triangle using a Plumb line and then testing by balancing the shape on the point of a pencil. Accuracy counts here.

 

Test for CO2

Testing for Carbon Dioxide using Limewater turning cloudy with Year  8. Some household chemicals are used to show they are the same as laboratory chemicals.

 

Rates of Reaction

Using the @pascoscientific colourimeter to demonstrate the rate of the reaction of Sodium Thiosulfate and Hydrochloric Acid. Probably one of the best and easiest ways to demonstrate the effect of a change of concentration on the rate of a reaction.

 

Physics in Maths

 Mechanics in A-level Maths for non-physicists is complex. So, in the Maths lessons, I need to get out an inclined plane so they can see and, if necessary, measure the forces, making understanding the Maths easier.

Superimposition of Waves Demo

 Superimposition of waves in action as two small waves meet and pass through each other. The Demo in the wave tank is the best way of demonstrating this.

Water Flow Meter

 I have the water flow meter back all working again, so Paul and I went out to test it in the River Gade, which has burst its banks. A flow rate of 1.31 m/s at its highest flow rate in a narrow channel at 300mm.

Project Backups

 Something I say to my students all the time is to take backups, but they only back up this and that, and only occasionally, so when something does go wrong, and it does, they are horrified by the amount of work they have lost and the time it takes to recover or rewrite.

Phases of the moon

 Teaching all about space and looking at what causes the moon's phases. Surprised by how many students didn't know and how most living in the city had never seen stars or the Milky Way. One said that the Milky Way didn't exist because he had never seen it.

CHemistry continuing from flame tests

After looking at flame tests in Chemistry seeing where the different colours come from using discharge tubes and a @pascoscientific spectrometer to ensure all the students see the same thing.

 

Weather Sensor

 We seem to be having a lot of weather events at the moment, so it is worth recording some of these events using the @pascoscientific wireless weather sensor for later use in the classroom.

Maths Draw a Diagram

 Some online Maths Tuition. Drawing a diagram to show what is happening is even more important. Colour coding helps identify which part we are talking about

Refraction

 A simple but still cool trick with a glass of water and an arrow behind, watching the arrow switch directions because of refraction.

Coloured Mould

 Some interesting Red Coloured mould on an old piece of cheese was found in the fridge. It will make an interesting study under the microscope.