Secondary Science

Planning KS3 and KS4 Science

With the new school year on the horizon, we asked Science consultant Ed Walsh for his advice on effective planning for both KS3 and KS4 Science. Q: I have been asked to come up with a skeleton, ‘knowledge based’ scheme of work for KS3 (which, for us, includes Years… Read More

Fritz Haber’s Nobel Prize

In the autumn of 1918 the First World War was at last approaching an end. In neutral Sweden the committee for the Nobel Prize for Chemistry met.  As in 1916 and 1917 they decided that there had been no discovery that “conferred the greatest benefit on mankind” so did not… Read More

A-level Biology: Neurotoxins

The history of accidental and deliberate acts of poisoning predates the arrival of humans. Toxins of some kind have been used by both animals and plants to avoid being predated upon or to deter other species from competition. Neurotoxins are a group of chemicals which directly affect the functioning of… Read More

5-year Science course teaching: what’s the big picture?

A couple of years ago I was at a science education conference and ended up in the same workshop group as (Lord) Jim Knight, who had previously been a Schools Minister. At the time the new GCSE Science specifications were in the process of development. I offered the opinion that… Read More

A-level Biology: Chordates and Tetrapods

In previous articles we have looked at the possible methods by which protocells could have started and later evolved into prokaryotic cells and eventually, eukaryotic life. These were very distant events occurring in the Precambrian period around 2-3 billion years ago (2-3 thousand Ma ago). Taking the view that the… Read More

Chemical Anniversaries: 1968 – Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn

Lise Meitner has an element, Otto Hahn a Nobel Prize. This is evidence of the esteem in which the science community holds both scientists. They worked together for over thirty years, were born a year apart and died fifty years ago.  While their lives are closely entwined their collaboration is… Read More

2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry

The Medicine/Physiology and Physics prizes went to the popular topics of body clocks and gravity waves. The subject of the Chemistry prize is perhaps a little more obscure yet very important for those interested in the molecules of life. The three chemistry prize winners, Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard… Read More

Chemical Anniversaries: Celebrating Nobel Prize Winners

The 2017 Nobel Prize winners will be announced tomorrow, so it is a good time to look back at some previous winners with particular anniversaries this year. One hundred years ago the First World War was into its fourth year. With most of the industrialised countries involved and the deaths… Read More

Reading the Runes

No doubt anyone with an interest in GCSE exam results will have followed the stories emerging from this year’s data set. This was always going to be a more complicated picture with the impact of revised specifications and the new grading system. Furthermore, this year, being a transition year with… Read More