Tests for cations and anions

I recently created a set of matching cards for a student who was struggling with answering exam questions on tests for anions and cations (click here to download). I´m also going to use them during revision lessons with GCSE students.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina


Where can you use this resource?

Source: Cambridge iGCSE Combined Science Specification, p. 31

Source: Edexcel iGCSE Chemistry (9-1) Specification, p.20

Source: OCR GCSE (9-1) Gateway Science Chemistry A Specification, page 36

Source: Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Chemistry Specification, p.36

Electrolysis

I really like to teach my students how to use less reagents (click here to see my precipitation reactions worksheet). Microscale chemistry offers a great way to do so. While doing Teaching Practical Science: Chemistry course from the National STEM Learning Centre, I learnt an easy way to conduct electrolysis using less reagents. The set-up includes using a Petri dish:

Petri dish contains sodium chloride solution and universal indicator

Once the electricity is flowing through the circuit, the changes are easy to observe almost immediately:

The same set-up can be used to conduct electrolysis of copper (II) sulfate solution:

An alternative to the graphite electrodes are ordinary pencils sharpened at both ends. 

Click here to get the worksheet for this experiment.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

Let YouTube help you teach Science #9

Today I would like to recommend an outstanding YouTube channel called Freesciencelessons. It features a fantastic selection of videos linked directly to the exam papers. Here´s an example of one of their videos:

The channel offers a number of playlists for all sciences. The videos are short and use easy to understand language and good visuals.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

Let YouTube help you teach Science #8

In today´s installment of my Monday series, I´d like to recommend a video you could use in your physics lessons. The video is a great resource to introduce the topic of radioactivity as it offers a lot of context. It is also useful at the end of the unit to sum up covered points. To engage the students further, you could ask them to research each location mentioned and find out which radioactive isotope are relevant to each place.

Which topic/s could you use this video with?
- Edexcel - topic 6 Radioactivity
- AQA - 4.4.1 Atoms and isotopes
- OCR - Topic P6: Radioactivity
- Edexcel iGCSE - topic 7 Radioactivity and particles
- Cambridge iGCSE - iopic 5.2 Radioactivity

Key words: background radiation, ionizing radiation, radioactivity, sieverts

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina