In school we talk about different ways to generate electricity as a potential exam topic but it's much, much more important than that. Russia's war with Ukraine has brought this fact sharply into focus as people start talking about a boycott of Russian oil and gas. At the same time, the UK is phasing-out its … Continue reading Resources for Electricity Generation
Revising Atomic Structure
Tucked away inside a website of astronomy resources I have just found a brilliant little tool for revising atomic structure, which is required knowledge for AQA Trilogy (and other) GCSE examinations in both physics and chemistry. You can find it at https://astro.unl.edu/newRTs/nuclei/. The assessment is a two-part, drag-and-drop ranking exercise where you have to rearrange … Continue reading Revising Atomic Structure
Energy Revision – new resource
Energy stores and transfers are one of the really big ideas in physics and this is also a topic that AQA has announced will be in Paper 1 for the Trilogy examination this month. With that in mind, I have created a new revision resource that you can use to check your knowledge and understanding. … Continue reading Energy Revision – new resource
How to Revise
I've often stressed that just reading your notes, and even highlighting the important parts, is not enough if you want to revise effectively: you must revise actively and the more you do to process information, the better your revision will be. Instead of highlighting important facts, write summary notes; better still, connect the important points … Continue reading How to Revise
Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
There are various GCSE topics where physics and chemistry intersect, so revising these areas can have a double benefit. One such example is atomic structure. Helpfully, BP Educational Services has just released a new set of resources to help you revise this content as you prepare for this summer's examinations. To access the free knowledge … Continue reading Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
AQA Trilogy – Summer Exams 2022 (revision links)
AQA recently issued guidance about the topics that will be included, and excluded, for this year's GCSE papers (available here). I've gone through AQA's document and mapped the physics topics for Trilogy to revision resources provided by BBC Bitesize: the links are on a dedicate webpage, at https://start.me/p/2px9qe/aqa-trilogy-revision-summer-2022 (see screen-grab below). This page is not … Continue reading AQA Trilogy – Summer Exams 2022 (revision links)
Examination Information
Many readers of this 'blog will not be sitting GCSE examinations this summer but for those of you who are, this is probably the most important piece of information you will read this year! AQA, which sets the Trilogy examination papers, has just released Advanced Information about the content of this summer's examinations: the document … Continue reading Examination Information
Revision Starts Now!
No matter where you are in your learning journey, it's never to early to start "revision". Why have I put quotation marks around the last word? Because if you "revise" early enough you will be front-loading your learning - and that's even better than retrospective revision! Front-loading is sometimes known as flipped learning and it's … Continue reading Revision Starts Now!
Energy: the biggest “big idea”
Physics, let alone all the sciences put together, covers such a vast range of knowledge that it's useful to identify a small number of "big ideas" that link across a greater number of concepts. And energy is undoubtedly the biggest of these "big ideas". When it comes to revising energy, the breadth of its impact … Continue reading Energy: the biggest “big idea”
Revision resources
If you are a member of one of my Y11 classes for 2020-1 then you'll now be on the final straight of your Physics studies. It's a slightly sad time for me because you are the last cohort taking the pure Physics course and I'm especially keen that you all do as well as you … Continue reading Revision resources
Mr Tarrant's physbang 'blog 