Practical work. That’s the main method. The more the better. Science is a practical subject and you learn best by doing and making sense of what you have seen. I like to shoehorn any practical work in that helps students grasp a topic – the more the better.
This lesson in the Pyrotechnics sequence had flame tests in. Students love flame tests but they don’t really help reinforce the concept of elements and compounds. The solution? Keep the flame tests but stick in some extra practical work to reinforce the main learning objectives. I slotted in a small-scale reaction of iron and sulphur (in CLEAPSS recommended quantities of 2g iron/sulphur mix per student), moving this from the following lesson which already contains plenty of meaningful practical work.
This reinforced the concept of elements and compounds within this lesson, and provided more meaningful practical work than flame tests alone.
Practical (used to aid teaching) works best when it helps students to grasp the main objective of the lesson. Don’t be afraid to stick more practical work in your schemes of work if it makes science more fun and aids understanding, or move it to more appropriate parts of your scheme of work.
