Science Sauce
This is based on an idea that Jacques Venter (@MrJVenter) shared with me during a CPD session at work. My blank “Planning an Investigation” Google Slides sheet is free to use. Click here to get it. You’ll be prompted to make your own copy which will be stored in your own Google Drive. The Concept […]
Funnel diagrams are basically just worksheets, but with a specific structure. While traditional worksheets are “top down”, and tend to lock students into focusing on them start to finish, funnel diagrams put the work into chunks, so the teacher can do a learning activity, then draw the students’ attention to a small section of […]
I asked a few experts to answer some IGCSE Biology (aimed at 16 year olds) questions, on the assumption that they should, if the assessment is fair and appropriate, be able to get full marks, given their superior level of knowledge and skills. They didn’t.
Term 1 is the longest one for most of us, and by the end of it I’m in no mood to be trying new ideas. The winter holiday is a good chance to recharge and get some of that drive back. With that in mind, here are some of the things I want to try […]
The presentation I used: here (as a PDF) The webpage I directed teachers to as part of the introduction: here Direct link to the flipped learning video: here This week my school had a twilight CPD afternoon with all sessions run by teachers. There was a timetable with four 20 minute time-slots, and a range […]
Last week I did an activity with an A Level Biology group that demonstrated the concept of genetic drift. Genetic drift is the idea that in small populations, allele frequencies can change as a result of random selection, rather than only natural selection. The activity uses two different colours of Skittles to represent different alleles. […]
If you’re a teacher that’s been anywhere near Twitter in the past year you’ve probably stumbled across #FeedbackNOTmarking, which has been a major focus from @MrsHumanities. The emphasis is, as it says, on giving meaningful feedback to students rather than marking for a grade/score. It’s no secret that summative assessment generally offers little to students in […]
So a little while back I was teaching a lesson on enzymes. For a Biology teacher this is pretty standard stuff and it comes up on the specification in a few different places in different key stages. At A Level we teach about 5 to 10 enzymes by name – they usually come up when talking […]
Hundreds of thousands of educators are out there every day making learning and revision videos for students, and all are making those videos using different styles and to varying levels of professionalism. By professionalism, I’m talking about that perceived production value (I say “perceived” because higher production value doesn’t necessarily cost any money). A lot […]
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: making learning videos is really easy if you want it to be. Sure, you can make things as simple or as complex as you want, and I won’t belittle the work that some teachers go to in producing content; some have spent years perfecting their skills and spent hours […]