woodchurch science

here’s a load of whiteboard resources courtesy of freezeray.com
physics:
coloured filters
eye defects
law of reflection
angle of reflection
refraction
dispersion
many more physics

chemistry
haber process
rates of reaction - surface area
rates of reaction - concentration
rates of reaction - temperature
structure of atoms
structure of ions
many more chemistry

misc
graph plotter
pulleys and gears

at last the problem of discarded chewing gum may soon be over. chemists have invented a completely biodegradable type of chewing gum that washes away within a week. revolymer claims its product is easier to remove from pavements, shoes and carpets than gums currently on sale.

loads of stuff here for students and teachers. well worth joining (use their sign-up page). pupils should find the topicality of the activities - especially those based on popular culture - motivating. the articles are designed to get pupils talking about science, helping to develop important discussion and argumentation skills about the nature of science. the activities are easy to use and are helpful in keeping up to date with breaking science.

this resource is designed to show real-life applications of science and showcase the variety of scientific careers available within the cosmetic, toiletry and perfumery industry. students often query the application of their learning and this website has been produced to put that learning in context and may prove useful in terms of introducing work-related learning. it is levelled to be accessible to all key stage 4 students and some sections of the resource are also suitable for key stage 3 students. there are also downloadable pdf documents for use in classrooms.

make your own ginger beer! it’s much better than shop bought rubbish and only contains natural ingredients. plus you also learn how fermentation works. here’s the recipe:
add one cup of sugar to a clean 2 two litre plastic pop bottle. finely grate about 2 tablespoons of root ginger and add this to the bottle. juice a lemon and add that. now add about 1/4 teaspoon of baking yeast. fill to about three quarters with cold water. shake until the sugar is dissolved then top up with water to about 4cm from the top and screw the lid on as tight as you can. leave in a warm place (about 30-35°C) for 24 hours. DANGER! any longer and you run the risk of an explosion so BE CAREFUL!! the bottle goes rock hard when it’s done. put the bottle in the fridge for about 4 hours to stop the reaction, then very carefully release the pressure. sieve off the bits of ginger and drink. (it is alcoholic but only just, about 0.2 to 0.4%). mmmmm! nice!

this site gives a printable explanation of the process of converting vegetable oil into biodiesel. the printout is not that easy to find so here’s the link

suitable for: ks4 pupils & teachers, this access excellence activity from the us national health museum poses a murder in a school biology laboratory. to solve the crime, students perform hair microscopy, blood (artificial) analysis, ink chromatography and dna fingerprinting, together with analysing other evidence and interview information.

suitable for: ks4 pupils & teachers, this csi activity takes viewers through the initial stage of a “walk through” of the crime scene to get a feel for matters, then the task of documenting the scene, collecting evidence, crime laboratory processing, analysis and reporting. there is even comment from a forensic scientist as to how realistic the tv series are.

suitable for: ks4 pupils & teachers, this site provides a rather different angle - how carefully evidence needs to be gathered, processed and communicated to juries. It provides an array of court cases in which the evidence was inadequate but where convictions took place. there are also reports on the reliability, or otherwise, of various techniques employed in this field.

suitable for: ks3 pupils & teachers, here the students can solve a fictional crime through the analysis of hair and thread samples and fingerprints.

suitable for: ks4 teachers, this is a vast resource of links to forensic science in general, to entomology, palynology (study of fossil spores and pollens), medicine, anthropology, arson, bombing, explosions and more.

suitable for: ks4 pupils, teachers and careers advisers, this is a careers website from connexions.  it gives details of the job forensic scientists do, typical salaries, entry requirements, career development, training, case studies, where one might be employed and more.

the new football that is being used for the first time in the world cup is likely to bamboozle goalkeepers at some stage of the tournament, a leading scientist has warned.

The adidas ‘teamgeist’ football has just 14 panels - with fewer seams - making its surface ‘smoother’ than conventional footballs which have a 26 or 32 panel hexagon-based pattern. this makes it aerodynamically closer to a baseball and, when hit with a slow spin, will make the ball less stable, giving it a more unpredictable trajectory in flight. “with a very low spin rate, which occasionally happens in football, the panel pattern can have a big influence on the trajectory of the ball and make it more unpredictable for a goalkeeper,” said dr ken bray, a sports scientist at the University of Bath and author of the new popular science book How to score – science and the beautiful game.

here’s a couple of links to previous papers and their mark schemes: these are the higher papers from june 2005 (mark scheme here) and the paper from january 2005 (its mark scheme is here). look them up, have a go, mark your own then try more!

here’s a link to your own downloadable resistor colour code chart.