The electron shell diagrams for the elements from hydrogen to calcium

How to teach atomic structure at 14–16

2025-02-04T07:16:00+00:00By

Strengthen your students’ grasp of the atom and electronic configurations with these models and strategies

Education in Chemistry

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Ideas

Cartoon of a person sturggling to separate two objects shaped like an 8 and a 9

Teaching tips to tackle maths anxiety

By

Help your students develop their numeracy confidence with these back-to-basics steps

A cartoon of students using drama to express organic chemistry processes

How to teach organic mechanisms using roleplay

By

Improve your students’ understanding of one of post-16 chemistry’s trickiest topics

A student interacting with artificial intelligence to do homework

Add AI to your students’ toolbox

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How to upskill learners to use AI as an interactive tutor, reduce frustration and build their confidence at home

Exciting demos

A dish with a mottled pattern of a milky cream liquid in a clear brown liquid

Experiment with surface tension and convection currents

A glass dish with sweets around the edge whose colours have bled into the middle

Dissolve coloured sweets to create a rainbow

A conical flask of yellow liquid bubbles with a heavy white smoke

Demonstrations with dry ice

A hand using scissor-handle tweezers to hold a piece of paper that is on fire but not burning

Non-burning paper: investigate the fire triangle and conditions for combustion

A glass beaker pouring liquid uphill into another

Illustrate polymer properties with a self-siphoning solution

  • Experiment with surface tension and convection currents

  • Dissolve coloured sweets to create a rainbow

  • Demonstrations with dry ice

  • Non-burning paper: investigate the fire triangle and conditions for combustion

  • Illustrate polymer properties with a self-siphoning solution

Evidence-based teaching

A teacher in a computer lab with some students looking at a acid-base simulation on the computer screens

How PhET simulations help students with abstract concepts

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Use digital resources to improve students’ chemistry learning outcomes

Cartoon of students in a lab

Celebrate curiosity, creativity and co-operation in your chemistry lessons

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They’re key to learners identifying positively with chemistry and achieving success

Students discussing global issues

Improve assessment accessibility for multilingual learners

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Teaching tips to help you tackle four key language challenges EAL learners face in chemistry

Opinion

A high school student in detention dreams about the football practice they are missing

Why detentions work

By

Because they deter negative behaviours and paralyse peer pressure

A hand writing chemistry equations with a ball point pen

Should we retain the skill of handwriting?

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Discover why one teacher thinks writing by hand is vital for science learners

An exercise book with three gold stars and a "great work well done" written in red pen

Does rewarding good behaviour deserve a gold star?

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Using commendations to encourage positive behaviour can have an impact beyond the chemistry classroom

How to teach ...

The electron shell diagrams for the elements from hydrogen to calcium

How to teach atomic structure at 14–16

Two people unable to shake hands because they are offering mirror image hands

Teaching isomerism at post-16

A series of diagrams showing how a balloon traps gas from a chemical reaction and the weight of the reactants is the same as the weight of the products

Teaching conservation of mass at 14–16

A coloured X-ray of a fridge showing the food and drinks inside and the cooling mechanism at the back

How to teach Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution curves at post-16

The molecular structures of diamond, graphite, graphene, fullerene and a nanotube

How to teach structure and bonding of carbon at 14–16

  • How to teach atomic structure at 14–16

  • Teaching isomerism at post-16

  • Teaching conservation of mass at 14–16

  • How to teach Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution curves at post-16

  • How to teach structure and bonding of carbon at 14–16

News & analysis

Chicken breasts cooking in an air fryer

Air fryers significantly reduce cooking pollution

Study highlights the impact of cooking methods on indoor air quality

A bright yellow powder in a closed glass jar in front of a university clock tower

Porous polymer promises to combat climate crisis

This cutting-edge research is the perfect context for teaching your 14–16 learners about tackling climate change

A tattoo artist using blue ink

Scientists find hazardous pigments in tattoo ink

Use this science research context when studying instrumental methods with your 14–16 learners

Signs for a hydrogen-powered bus refuelling station in Iceland

New material could help power the hydrogen economy

Cryogenic cooling enables record hydrogen storage in new material

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January 2025
Start the year off with engaging contexts, scientific language tips and CPD articles

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