About
I’m a science teacher in the UK, East or West Midlands depending on who you ask. I blog discreetly – rather than secretly – because it gives me the freedom to say what I want without it affecting my classroom role. If my students have managed to track me down to this blog, and actually read this far, they probably deserve a BTec in ICT.
I’m also a husband, a father, a geek*, a reader, a writer, a climber, a walker and lots more besides. Just like a real person, in fact. (Don’t tell the students!)
I use this blog to collect together and share my ideas about teaching in general, and science education in particular. I’m also passionate about problems with science communication, especially bad science, in the media. Some posts are about ideas, some include the resources I’ve produced; I probably average about six a month. I’m currently working on CSciTeach accreditation and my CPD portfolio will shortly be linked to the blog, from GoogleDocs. We’ll see how that works out… Please feel free to pinch anything that interests you and use it how you like – as long as you don’t sell it. I’m gradually adding Creative Commons Licences to the resources but in general, like everything else on the web, it’s here to be used. The only payment I would appreciate is a comment on how it worked for you.
In fact I’d really appreciate any and all feedback you have. I’d love for you to comment on the relevant posts or pages, but you could also email me at teachingofscience@hotmail.co.uk or reach me on Twitter where I’m @teachingofsci.
*I’m a geek, not a nerd. A geek wonders what sex in space would be like. A nerd wonders what sex would be like.
Recent Comments
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Very good website, full of useful information and thoroughly enjoyed browsing it. Do u have any good ideas or chemistry experiments that produce a good demonstration or big bang or nice display of colour?
It really depends on what you want to show, and for what age group.
Sprinkling flour over a bunsen flame is very impressive to show combustion, for example – but make sure the ceiling is high enough!
Group 1 metals in water are fairly colourful, or use a garden sprayer for metal salts to get colourful flames (yellow for sodium etc).
Producing ethene gas bubbles, using pipes and detergent, gives good exploding bubbles.
H2 gas is also dramatic if you collect enough and has the advantage the kids can do the experiment on a smaller scale if you want, reacting Mg with HCl.
Practical Chemistry is a good place to check out…
@Chad. We run a range of courses around demonstrations for teachers and technicians. Have a searh through our courses at http://www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk.
If you have a look at our blog you will also find a range of video demonstrations which may also be helpful.
I have produced lists of resources for demonstrations for chemistry, physics and biology, with some really spectacular chemistry demos explained. Most of the resources in the lists are vidoes so you can see how the demo should be carried out. The link to each list can be found in this blog on the National STEM Centre website:
http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/blog/olympic-rings-the-monkey-and-the-hunter-and-electric-sausages—