Transporting Chemicals
A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award science course. The story-line for this unit is the whole world market for manufactured chemicals and the need to transport them safely to where they are needed. This shows the importance of systems which convey concise, accurate information, independent of national or linguistic…
The Atmosphere
A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award science course. The first section of the module introduces the formation, composition and structure of the atmosphere. The Sun is our main source of energy. Students consider why sunlight is more intense near the equator and how the tilt of the Earth’s axis causes the seasons.…
Restless Earth
A Year 10 module from the Salters’ double award science course. Restless Earth was designed as a short module of four to six lessons. The module begins with stories about earthquakes. This is followed by practical work with rock puzzles to see how information is gathered about past movements in the Earth’s surface. Evidence…
Moving On
A Year 10 module from the Salters’ double award science course. This module develops ideas about forces and motion in the context of road transport. It begins by eliciting some of the ideas students already have. Text activities consider the driving and counter forces involved when a bicycle starts, reaches a steady speed,…
Mining and Minerals
A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award science course. The module begins with a survey of minerals world wide and their constituent elements. This provides opportunities for practice with symbols, formulae and equations. A practical simulation of geological mapping shows how ores are located, leading to a role-play…
Keeping Healthy
A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award science course. Practical tests using “urine” samples illustrate chemical diagnostic testing for illness. Different types of illness are classified, also different types of micro-organisms and the body’s defences against them. Experiments show how bacteria grow…
Food for Thought
A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award science course. A text activity on world food supplies introduces a series of experiments on photosynthesis and the role of chlorophyll. Experiments on the effects of nutrient deficiency leads to consideration of the use of fertilisers. Preparation of nitrogen leads to discussion…
Energy Matters
A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award science course. The module begins by looking at the large variety of labour-saving devices now available and their impact on life-styles. Students work with a range of common electrical devices to investigate the relative amounts of energy transferred when each is in operation.…
Electricity in the Home
A Year Ten module from the Salters double award science course. Models are used to illustrate conservation of current in a series circuit leading to studies of voltage, current and resistance and the resistance law. Devices which have different resistance in response to conditions, such as LDRs and thermistors are investigated. Students…
Construction Materials
A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award science course. A surveyor’s report on a proposed barn conversion is used to introduce different materials used in construction and issues associated with their use. The lessons which follow then consider each type of material in turn, reviewing structure, properties and…
Communicating Information
A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award science course. Exercises on codes and signalling methods introduce ideas about communication. A study of the ear leads to sound communication systems such as radio and telephones. Lenses are studied and the formation of images. Studies of pin-hole cameras lead to comparison…
Balancing Acts
A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award GCSE science course. This module deals with interactions between species in ecosystems. Students are shown how stable conditions lead to a natural balance in populations and how human activities can disturb this balance. Feeding relationships, food chains and food webs are studied…
Waste Not, Want Not
A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. The breakdown of domestic waste is observed. A text exercises describes the processes used in a waste water plant. Natural cycles, including the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle are studied. Finally, students consider the extent to which household…
Staying Alive
A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. This module explores the controlled and co-ordinated energy changes which maintain a complex series of interlinked metabolic processes in living tissues. Different objects are compared to revise the characteristics of living things. The structure…
Sports Science
A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. The context for this module is the use of scientific ideas to explain human performance. Students discuss what is meant by being ‘fit’. They compare different uses of the word 'work' and are given a formal definition. Calculations…
Sound Reproduction
A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. The science content of this module covers electromagnetism, the inductive effect and the motor effect. These topics are developed in the context of recording and reproducing sound. Students begin by recording and playing back their own voices.…
Seeing Inside the Body
A year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. This module deals with radiation and radioactivity, introduced through their uses in medicine, both for diagnosis and treatment. Students simulate non-intrusive tests made by doctors in diagnosing illness. The advantage of access to ‘inside…
Making Use of Oil
A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. This module deals with the location, extraction and processing of oil, the way in which supply of different oil fractions is balanced against demand and the issues related to conservation of supplies for the future. The unit also considers the differences…
Evolution
A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. The module begins by considering variation within humans and in other species and how this could arise. The gene theory of inheritance is then studied, and finally the structure and function of DNA and applications in genetic engineering. The…
Energy Today and Tomorrow
A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. This module deals with the generation, transmission and supply of electric power. Understanding of the inductive effect is developed through demonstrations and practical work progressing to the design of dynamos and generators. The flows of…
The Earth in Space
A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. This module begins with revision of prior knowledge about stars, planets, moons and other bodies found in space. Students then consider gravity as the force which controls movement of bodies in space. They study the effect of gravity on falling…
Controlling Change
A Year 11 module from the Salters Key Stage Four double award science course. This module introduces ideas about how living organisms control their internal environment and respond to changes in their external environment. Students are reminded that few living things can survive for long without water. A text exercise is used to…
Burning and Bonding
A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award gcse science course. This module draws together ideas about chemical bonding and the energy changes associated with bond making and bond breaking. The relationship between type of bonding and the properties of the resulting compounds is considered. The number and…
The Ploughman's Lunch
In this biology extension module of the Salters’ Science course, an exhibition of foods is used to introduce examples of using microbes in food processing. Students make sauerkraut and learn about the establishment of microbial populations in new habitats. Positive uses of fungi (yeast) and bacteria (lactobacillus) are discussed. A…
Off the Blocks
In this Salters’ Science biology extension module, sporting contexts are used as a basis for study of various systems within the body. The module also considers how diet, exercise and life-style can contribute towards fitness and good health. The relationship between different sporting activities and body shape is illustrated.…
Industrious Microbes
This biology extension module from the Salters’ Science course reviews the history of biotechnology to introduce the use of microbes in large-scale industrial biochemistry. Student ideas about positive uses of microbes are reviewed. Students monitor the growth of single-celled organisms in fermenters to produce protein. Advantages…
4/5- Publication year: 1990 - 1999
- Activity sheet
Growing Crops
This Salters’ Science extension module for biology deals with the breeding, cultivation and harvesting of plants as crops. Experiments on soil structure and nutrient content are matched with data about major crops to show why different crops require different conditions for growth. Controlled environments such as glasshouses…
Water
This chemistry extension module of the Salters' Science course revises and extends students’ ideas about the structure and properties of water. It deals with hardness of water, the action of soap and other detergents and properties of emulsions. Processes associated with domestic water supply and waste water treatment…
- 3/5
- Publication year: 1990 - 1999
- Activity sheet
Energy and Chemical Change
This chemistry extension module from the Salters’ Science course deals with the energy changes which accompany chemical reactions. Photosynthesis is considered as the fundamental source of energy to sustain life process, and respiration as the mechanism for coupling the energy to body processes. ‘Calorific values’…
The Chemistry of Food
This chemistry extension module for the Salters’ Science course deals with the nutrients provided by food and their contribution to the diet. It also deals with methods of food processing and preservation. The module begins with a survey of the chemical composition and structure of carbohydrates, fats and oils and with tests…
We Have the Technology
This physics extension module from the Salters’ Science course covers the action of sensors and amplifiers in electronic systems. Potential dividers are studied as a way of supplying different voltages. The action of light dependent resistors and thermistors in potential dividers is studied. Transistors are introduced as devices…
All Systems Go
This physics extension module from the Salters' Science course deals with binary digital electronic devices, taking a systems approach. Ideas of input, output and control are considered and the concept of feedback. The use of logic gates to control switches and latches is studied and relays are explored as a way of switching…