Stuff and Substance: Ten Key Practicals in Chemistry

This booklet is part of the ‘Innovations in Practical Work’ series published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). Understanding the idea of a ‘substance’ is central to making sense of the variety of materials in the world and the way that they change. Research on students’ understanding shows that they find many fundamental ideas in chemistry difficult, leading to problems in progression. The booklet looks at how practical work can support the development of critical concepts in chemistry for secondary school students. It includes links to the videos and animations in the Stuff and Substance multimedia package.

The Stuff and Substance booklet contains an illustrated overview of the topic with suggestions for teachers on how to introduce the ideas in the classroom, plus student activity sheets and notes for teachers and technicians.

The downloadable resources include:
• Student activities: zip files containing the activity sheets in PDF and editable Word formats.
• PowerPoint presentations: these contain a complete set of the images used in the booklet and activity sheets.
• Links to the e-resources: a PDF file with direct links for each of the activities to the online Stuff and Substance e-resources.

The carefully constructed sequence of ideas and activities in the Stuff and Substance materials show how these important concepts can be developed and provide a sound basis for further study. The Stuff and Substance multimedia package is available online in the eLibrary, and is open access so that it can be used by students in the classroom:
• Stuff and Substance: multimedia package

The individual videos and animations can also be downloaded separately by teachers so that they can be used flexibly to suit different contexts.
• Stuff and Substance: Teachers’ Resources

The CD-ROM version of these resources can be purchased from Mindsets

• URL: http://stem.org.uk/rx6x4