woodchurch science » C1a

just exactly how big are carbon atoms?

woodchurchscience — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:19:12 +0000

use this to compare atoms (and other things) to the size of a coffee bean or a grain of rice (slide the thing at the bottom).
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/

james may 20th century…making glass and neon lights

woodchurchscience — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:58:38 +0000

play from the beginning to about 13.5min for skyscrapers and glass making and then from about 22.5min to about 27.5min for how to make neon lighting.

Watch James May's 20th Century Ep. 06 in Educational | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

absorb chemistry resources

woodchurchscience — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:14:38 +0000

most of these are excellent interactive whiteboard resources, highly recommended. click here to access, choose your subject then the ‘view online’option.

nevada copper

woodchurchscience — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:44:27 +0000

here’s a link to the copper mine that was seen in the ‘rocket science’ program. the company is called nevada copper. you can download a copy of their information booklet here.

updated link for y10 past papers

woodchurchscience — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:59:23 +0000

aqa have changed their link. this is the one you need for the most to date past papers and mark schemes.

pictures of rotary kilns for c1a

woodchurchscience — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:27:34 +0000

here are a few pictures showing the scale of rotary kilns for cement manufacture. they’re about 30m long and about 3m in diameter, operating temperature about 775degC.
pic 1, pic 2

eco-friendly cement

woodchurchscience — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:27:29 +0000

making 2bn tonnes of cement globally every year pumps out 5% of the world’s CO2 emissions – more than the entire aviation industry, so any innovations which will reduce this must be welcomed. british scientists (hooray!) have developed a new type of cement that ‘eats CO2′. you can read all about it here.

honda fcx clarity – hydrogen powered car

woodchurchscience — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:27:41 +0000

here’s a clip from topgear with james may showing us the future of motoring – a hydrogen powered electric car. handy for when crude oil runs out…

how science works hangman

woodchurchscience — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:03:05 +0000

here’s a good game to test your knowledge of how science works words. usual rules apply.

smart materials

woodchurchscience — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:53:51 +0000

here’s a load of links about smart materials for c1a chemistry:
a nickel-based alloy that changes shape in response to a magnetic field is attracting interest and funding from some powerful sectors, including the U.S. military.
trick spoons bend when you stir hot coffee.
dental braces and orthodontic archwires: using memory metal causes less pain for patients, and increases the amount of time between needed visits.
nitinol faqs
car parts: shape memory actuators
all these and more can be found in this informative smart materials activity booklet

china buys peruvian mountain at bargain price

woodchurchscience — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:34:16 +0000

the chinese government has bought an entire mountain in peru and plans to ship it back to china – every last ounce. why? it’s one of the largest copper resources in the world and china is desperate for copper which it is planning to use to re-wire its entire infrastructure. this from the bbc…

The Peruvian government is happy with the $3bn (£1.53bn) that Chinalco will invest in the Toromocho mines. The Chinese will be even happier. They have got themselves a bargain. The copper Chinalco extracts from Toromocho will cost something like US$410 (£210) per ton. Today, the price for copper on the London Metal Exchange was $8,255 (£4,220) – 20 times more. Chinalco stands to make a 2,000% profit on its investment.

here’s a short video clip.

smart materials nanotechnology podcast

woodchurchscience — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:54:03 +0000

here’s a link to the guardian’s tech page which in this episode discusses smart materials and nanotechnology applications. good for a listen while you’re doing something else. you can even download it for your mp3 player.

year 10? revising?

woodchurchscience — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:16:58 +0000

start here, your first stop

iron photos

woodchurchscience — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:35:02 +0000

is this idea useful for anyone? let me know using comments button.

blast furnace flash revision C1a

woodchurchscience — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:22:19 +0000

try this flash for revision. it helps you understand (a) what goes in, (b) what happens inside and (c) all the equations.

gaia hypothesis and climate change

woodchurchscience — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:41:51 +0000

the what? the gaia hypothesis (first postulated by james lovelock in the 1960s) is an ecological hypothesis that proposes that living and non-living parts of the earth are a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism. it postulates that all living things have a regulatory effect on the Earth’s environment that promotes life overall.

lovelock’s writing makes for gloomy reading. his latest book ‘the revenge of gaia’, predicts that by 2020 extreme weather will be the norm, causing global devastation; that by 2040 much of europe will be saharan; and parts of london will be underwater.

lovelock believes catastrophe is inevitable, carbon offsetting is a joke and ethical living a scam. so what would he do? find out here

i met this bloke on a train yesterday who just happened to be professor peter f smith special professor in sustainable energy at the university of nottingham who said that lovelock’s outlook is too pessimistic and wrong when it comes to the answer to the problem. he wrote a letter to the guardian which I just happened to be reading which says:

james lovelock is right to suggest we have already crossed the tipping point into irreversible climate change. the time lag between cause and effect means that the momentum in the climate system will inevitably propel us over the critical CO2 threshold of 450 parts per million in the atmosphere. he is right to be sceptical about offsetting schemes and the potential of wind power, but he is wrong to put his faith in nuclear energy. like all fossil fuels, uranium reserves are limited and some put exhaustion of stocks at 2030. nuclear will never be sufficient to power the uk economy after oil begins to run out in about 2040 and gas a decade or so later. even peak coal is put at 2025.
the uk will survive provided it: legislates to achieve dramatic reductions in energy use; embarks immediately on harnessing the power of tidal energy; and changes building and planning codes to cope with everything that escalating climate impacts will inflict on us over the coming decades

i had an interesting conversation with prof smith about climate change, and how we teach it in schools at ks3 and gcse. He agrees with lovelock that we have gone over the ‘tipping point’ and we are now in a period of damage limitation. all is not lost but we must seek out new efficient technologies and pray for more joined up thinking from our leading scientists and government leaders. any thoughts?

isa past papers

woodchurchscience — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:51:40 +0000

the aqa website has isa specimen papers with isa questions in that you can try. these are for y11. i can’t find year 10 isa past papers as they usually run for a 2 year period so may not be published.

uk carbon footprint project

woodchurchscience — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:43:08 +0000

join schools across the country taking part in the uk carbon footprint project. here are some lesson plans to help integrate this project into the curriculum. in addition to this particular activity, the lesson plans explore the topic of climate change more broadly, with ideas for how to use google tools such as google earth, google maps and search to bring the subject to life.

our own ‘how science works’ leaflet

woodchurchscience — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:14:31 +0000

how science works leaflet

how science works prompt sheets

woodchurchscience — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 11:22:15 +0000

here’s a two page document download of all the important ‘how science works’ key words and phrases.

year 10 past papers updated

woodchurchscience — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:11:58 +0000

this link takes you straight to the aqa site and the latest updated past papers (and mark schemes). march 2007 now included. why not try a few for your revision. tests next week!

global dimming horizon video

woodchurchscience — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:45:05 +0000

this video is about 50 minutes long but is worth watching as an introduction to the phenomenon of global dimming. video here. may be best to watch it at home rather than in school (network streaming issues).

stanlow refinery visit 2.11.07

woodchurchscience — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:53:26 +0000

the year 10 separate science group visited stanlow refinery today. here’s some interesting information about it, as well as some aerial photos. someone asked what will happen when all the oil runs out and stanlow has nothing to do. here’s shell’s answer – shellrenewables.com. here’s a handy flow chart showing how stanlow works.

science uncovered scheme and homework

woodchurchscience — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:59:06 +0000

here’s the link to the science uncovered resources. you’ll need the username and password. see your science teacher.

C1a 3.0 oil mind map

woodchurchscience — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:06:06 +0000

C1a 2.0 useful metals activity

woodchurchscience — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:57:22 +0000

choose one of the following activities and produce a magazine article or presentation. be prepared to speak for 2 to 3 minutes.
(a) stainless steel and surgical instruments
(b) corrosion resistant steels and the angel of the north
(c) molybdenum high speed drilling bits
(d) metals used to make coins

C1a 2.0 metals mind map

woodchurchscience — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:26:56 +0000

year 10 past papers science A and B

woodchurchscience — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 20:38:38 +0000

this link goes straight to the aqa page for science modular tests commencing in 2006. all the answer sheets and mark schemes are available too. can be slow during the day (aqa very busy) but definitely works, just tried it 7pm.

c1a 1.0 limestone mindmap

woodchurchscience — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 18:06:05 +0000

link to interactive mindmap here

structure of atoms – lots and lots of space!

woodchurchscience — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:34:54 +0000

if you thought there was a lot of empty space in the solar system, you should try going inside a hydrogen atom some time. we have not, as yet, built a large-scale walkable version of the atom, but there is this web page model. when the page loads it shows a large blue ball representing a proton in the nucleus at the centre of a hydrogen atom. the scroll bar at the bottom can be slid to the right showing lots of space (!!!) then a very small electron. the actual page is probably the widest on the internet at nearly 11 miles wide!