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.