Determining molecular mass

 Heating a gas syringe to 100C using steam from a steam generator and then adding a known mass of a volatile liquid allows us to determine its volume and, thus, its molecular mass.

Vector Analysis

 A ball is thrown into the air, reaches maximum height, and then falls to the ground. It is videoed, and using @pascoscientific Capstone, the motion is analysed, and vectors are drawn on it to describe the motion. Amazing what can be done in an hour.

PROBABILITY

 Investigating probability: I look at the weather forecast and opinion polls for the election to work out the likelihood of rain, which party might win which seat, or whether I can roll six sixes.

Air Wedge

 Betting on how much mass I could lift with just air. None of the students had seen an Air Wedge before. Then moved on to Lego pneumatic systems to investigate how they work

Aphid lifecycle

 Black flies and green flies are attacking the plants. Now seems an excellent time for the students to investigate life births and how they feed through the phloem. This is a great homework investigation for the movement of stuff in plants.

Golden Rain Experiment

The Golden Rain Experiment! Watch as Lead Iodide precipitates out of the solution, swirling in the flask like golden rain falling.  #ScienceExperiment 

Pressure and Temp

 Fixed Volume. The flask is warmed, but the Bordon gauge doesn't seem to move. But add the @pascoscientiofic pressure sensor, and with much relief, we can see the pressure change with the wireless pressure sensor, which is a bit more sensitive than the Bordon Gauge.

Normal Distribution and Hypothesis Testing

 A-Level students find hypothesis testing the most challenging concept and type of math to understand. In the run-up to the last Maths Exam, this is what all the students ask about and need to go over again. 

Pullies

 Playing with Pullies Finding out that with an eight to one pully the mass of the rope balances a 3 kg mass.

Potometer

 A potometer is used to measure the transpiration rate of a plant. We started using a leaf, but a few gave much better results, and we tried in different wind conditions - powered by a fan and measured with an anemometer.

Analog Computing

 Analog Computers can easily do things that are complex in digital terms, and it is right that students should be exposed to all types of technology so that they can make informed choices in the future.

Kipps Apparatus

 The students had to figure out how the Kipps apparatus worked and what it could produce. Defeated, the use of the Internet improved things, and then a demonstration with Zinc and Acid explained everything.

Protecting the Ultrasonic sensor

 Protecting the @pascoscientific Ultrasonic sensor when investigating Simple harmonic motion of a weight on a vertical spring. Safety also protects the equipment as well as the students.

GCSE Maths Done

 GCSE Maths Done—Now is the time to think about how to get to A Level GCSE to A-Level Maths is a huge jump, and a conversion course is just what is needed to help. Those who didn't do it will regret it when the new term starts.

The Potentiometer Circuit

 A potentiometer circuit is created to test how much better these circuits are than those with a resistor in series. Using Locktronics, the circuits could be created from the circuit diagram within moments, and observations could be taken and recorded.

Plant Hormones

Investigating Plant Hormones. How does light affect cress growth? When plants are growing in a clinostat and on the windowsill, how does the clinostat affect which way the plant grows?

Wireshark Network Analysis

 Using Wireshark to look at the network and attempting to analyse what is going on the network for A-Level Computing. Most students are amazed at the network traffic on the system even when not much is apparently happening.

Allotropes of Carbon

I brought the allotropes of carbon to life with some real-life examples, such as a diamond cutting glass, carbon fibre tape cutting it with scissors, and looking at examples like my computer fan filter, drawing with a lump of natural graphite. Fullerenes beat me as I didn't have any!

 And the real life examples

Automatic Titrations

 One of the things I teach is repeating titrations to get answers within 0.5ml of all the others. Using the @pascoscientfic titration drop counter, I only have to do this once and produce a perfect titration curve and temperature curve at the same time.

Slide Rule

 How does a slide Rule work? I created a number line slide rule with two rulers as an example, then raced students with a calculator, showing that some old technology has some advantages, especially when you don't need 9 or 10 sig figs.

Strobe

 Using a strobe light at the same frequency as the vibrating string freezes the string, making the counting of the nodes and measuring the wavelength much easier, so the velocity can be measured.

Blood Tests

 Playing detective identifying blood using simple ABO blood tests on artificial blood. Fun and educational, leading to an understanding of tissue rejection and markers on cells for identification.