physics experiments gcse

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"With the restrictions imposed by COVID-19 CoreSciences has been an excellent resource for students and staff. Students are able to engage with the Required Practicals, and practise the knowledge and skills required for their future examinations.

Originally purchased as a resource for our online learners, CoreSciences is also being effectively implemented with our in-school learners to consolidate and review the practicals at their own pace.

Thank you CoreSciences!"

Ajman Academy, United Arab Emirates

"As Head of Science at The Bridge Education Centre I was asked to investigate online learning strategies to help meet the challenges presented by the Covid pandemic and for longer term teaching strategies that would support the delivery of investigative work with challenging and poorly motivated students. CoreSciences has proven to be successful in both regards, allowing independent work for students at home on core science practicals, whilst at the same time providing stimulating in class collaboration on the main interactive board."

The Bridge Education Centre, United Kingdom

"Just a quick note to say a huge thank-you for your excellent online teaching tool. I've found it invaluable over the last month. My students really love using it. Such a great idea!"

Eden Education, United Kingdom

"CoreSciences covers all required practicals for GCSE. Students have shown great interest in the ability to click and drag equipment, getting instant feedback from the supportive online tutor if mistakes are made. The capacity to get results that support the theory rather than get frustrated by poor results generated by limited equipment is wonderful. In addition the students have been motivated by the challenge of reducing errors by repeating the practical, competing with each other to do so."

"CoreSciences offers an accessible alternative to classroom practicals. The instructions are detailed and fully supported with helpful hints, while the worksheets and exam questions offer a range of assessment opportunities. Students comment that they feel they have learnt almost as well as working in the lab, while having the opportunity to revisit experiments easily or watch detailed tutorials. The new class analytics have improved the user experience for both students and staff, and the CoreSciences support team are always on hand to help and fully understand the environment in which teachers work."

Thank you CoreSciences – you are making this difficult year a little bit easier."

Priory School of Our Lady of Walsingham, United Kingdom

"The CoreSciences simulations are very well presented, colourful and representative of the actual demands of the GCSE practicals. Such relevance helps when it comes to the curriculum requirements and GCSE examination questions. I can recommend the software without reservation and given the students feedback can see this as a long term investment in their future success."

"I started using CoreSciences with my students, it's an awesome tool to enhance the teaching and scientific process by helping them to get a rich experience with experiments that they were unable to do remotely. We love the setup, the learning checks, ease of experimenting for all subjects. Thank you CoreSciences for this great package."

St. Jago High School, Jamaica

"My students have told me that they really enjoy using CoreSciences. They also comment on how quick and easy it is to learn what they need to know about each required practical. It's such a useful learning tool that it's become an essential part of my students' learning experience. I can't imagine replacing it with anything else."

"The CoreSciences platform provides a great alternative to the face-to-face teaching/learning of science. With a mixture of simulated experiments, presentations, tests and activities, it provides a diverse learning environment for science students to explore concepts and test their knowledge. The platform also enables teachers to fulfil their roles easier as facilitators of learning."

Mannings High School, Jamaica

"As a teacher of science in a SEN school using the online practical facility has been useful in getting my pupils to have a go at practicals before carrying them out physically in the laboratory. I can check pupils’ performance and progress as well as identify areas they find challenging through the reports sent to me via email. Pupils have the opportunity to re-do practical sessions to correct themselves which they find amazing!"

Acorn Park School, United Kingdom

"CoreSciences has made such a great difference for my son. Attending school is not possible for him. He is 14 and very intelligent, but he misses the ability to interact with and learn in person to experiment with science. CoreSciences has really filled a gap in my son's science education that was getting harder for me to fill."

Dawn M. (Parent)

"CoreSciences is a good way for me to learn practically, as I am not able to attend school. It's a great way for me to learn and feel like I am interacting and taking part in the experiments."

Harris M. (Student User)

"I can't thank CoreSciences enough for what they have done for my son Tom. Tom is being home-schooled and therefore missed out on doing his practical science experiments for his GCSE science. Tom has really enjoyed completing the experiments, as they are so interactive, and says he is far more likely to remember the processes (for exam purposes) by doing them this way.

I am also extremely grateful for all the after care they have given me. For someone like me who is not particularly IT literate, the help and support I have received to ensure we are using the platform correctly, has been invaluable. I would recommend CoreSciences to anyone. Thank you so much."

Tracy I. (Parent)

Required Practicals

Fully immersive interactive experiment simulations for all required practicals.

Advanced dual mode question database for revision and testing.

Performance Analysis

Detailed analytics of class and student performance with intervention and feedback.

Games & Activities

Challenging but fun games and activities for more engaged learning.

• Interactive labs enhancing familiarity and understanding of all GCSE required practicals.
• Comprehensive teaching resources and activities, including theory presentations, required practicals, tests and games that make learning fun!
• Our uniquely designed fully interactive simulations of the required practicals are ideal for all students wishing to enhance their familiarity with these procedures and especially for SEND and HomeSchooling students whose access to lab experiments may be limited.
• Intelligent testing and performance analysis by topic and student aptitude.
• Eliminates time-consuming lesson preparation and reclaims teacher time through student evaluation, auto-intervention & on-demand report preparation.
• Empowers teachers & parents through collective involvement on students’ performance with real-time activity notifications for parents.
• Class and student analytics for performance based student intervention.
• Available both inside and outside school for lessons, homework and revision. Subscriptions are available for schools, parents and tutors.

GCSE Required Practicals

The required practicals element in the new curriculum is guaranteed to constitute a minimum of 15% and sometimes as much as 35% of total marks in every single exam paper. This is equivalent to at least 1 or 2 grade boundaries. Our unique required practical lab simulations enhance familiarity with practical work and working scientifically and is a valuable asset to all student groups including SEND or Excluded pupils who may not have ready access to real lab experiments. CoreSciences offers access to all required practicals for Biology, Chemistry and Physics where students can carry out unlimited experiments making it easy for pupils to understand and learn.

Science Tests and Student Analysis

CoreSciences analyses student progress through scoring of practicals and multiple choice questions. Teachers are able to reclaim time when evaluating performance through a sophisticated analysis system that determines strengths and weaknesses of topics at class and student level.

Learning Progress and Performance Notifications

Auto-generated progress reports and drill-down performance data are available to monitor student progress and assist with setting performance targets for classes and students. Performance analysis allows for bespoke student interventions, whilst real time activity notifications engages parents directly in their students' ongoing progress.

Educational Games and Activities

There are also a number of games and activities available for pupils to complete if there is extra time in class, or to give as homework. They’re fun activities that help to consolidate their learning.

Contact us so that we can arrange to provide you with a free trial. We aim to respond within 1 hour, and have you setup shortly after.

GCSE Physics Required Practicals

Gcse physics required practicals without a lab.

The link below is to a powerpoint file for the workshop delivered in March 2022. This introductory session provided demonstrations of simulations that can be used to facilitate teaching of required practicals.

Watch the YouTube video of the session from 23rd March 2022 led by Christina Astin.

Useful Simulations

Our trainer, Christina Astin has also collated link a list of useful simulations. This spreadsheet maps all the GCSE required physics practicals for AQA, Edexcel and OCR to online simulations and virtual labs.

All are free (or at least offered on a free trial), most run straight from the internet but some require a download. These are simply our recommendations – there are plenty more examples on the internet. Please feel free to share with science teaching colleagues!

Have you seen our Physics Fuel Videos?

Physics Fuel: Power Boosts  are a series of short, teacher-focused CPD films to support you in overcoming those common misconceptions. Carefully created by a team of expert teacher-trainers, the films cover 20 different topics, providing you with practical advice and no-fuss experiments that you can implement in your next lesson.

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GCSE Physics Experiments

A brief video outlining the different types of physics experiments and their functionality.

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Please be aware that resources have been published on the website in the form that they were originally supplied. This means that procedures reflect general practice and standards applicable at the time resources were produced and cannot be assumed to be acceptable today. Website users are fully responsible for ensuring that any activity, including practical work, which they carry out is in accordance with current regulations related to health and safety and that an appropriate risk assessment has been carried out.

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AQA GCSE Physics Paper 2 Whole Unit Revision (3-4 Lessons) - Foundation

Subject: Physics

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

28 August 2024

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This sequence of lessons of 190 slides is a highly effective summary of the whole of physics paper 2 for foundation tier combined science students. This lesson/sequence is fantastic revision following AQA GCSE Physics Paper 2 specification. The students complete an A3 revision poster throughout the session which is effective at maintaining high engagement throughout the lesson as most content is already completed for them.

The lessons include revision on:

• Scalar and Vector Quantities
• Resultant Forces
• Newton’s Laws
• Paper 2 Calculations
• Acceleration
• Terminal Velocity
• Frictional Forces
• Elastic Objects and Hooke’s Law
• Stopping and Thinking Distance
• Speed Distance Time Relationships
• Velocity-Time graphs
• Waves: Longitudinal and Transverse
• Waves Required Practical (ripple tank)
• Radiation and Required Practical
• Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Magnets and Electromagnetism

These lessons are all visual lessons which support all learners to access the curriculum, pushing students as well as scaffolding where appropriate.

The lesson follows AQA GCSE Physics with GCSE Exam questions as assessment for learning throughout, as well as a number of other fun and engaging activities to support learner agency and exam paper accessibility.

These lessons are an effective and balanced mixture of teacher-led explanation, student AFL, literacy approaches, student exam questions and pair discussions.

This unit has proved highly successful at increasing pupil engagement, and increasing exam outcomes.

There is also dual-coded integrated instruction method worksheet to support student agency in the laboratory. Disclaimer: Practical inquiry must first undergo risk assessments in your department and be performed only with trained professionals, I accept no responsibility for what is done following the download of this resource - this resource is an example only and teacher’s must ensure their own safety measures are followed. I take no responsibility for practical elements of this lesson – teachers must complete their own risk assessments and are entirely responsible for the safety of their students.

This lesson includes foundation tier combined science content only.

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WJEC  Specified Practical Work

Specified practical work must be undertaken by learners in order that they are suitably prepared for all assessments.

Choose your experiment:

IV Characteristics [FREE]  - Investigation of the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics for a component

Heat Transfer -  Investigation of the methods of heat transfer

Density [FREE]  - Determination of the density of liquids and solids (regular and irregular)

Waves  - Investigation of the speed of water waves

 SHC [FREE]   -  Determination of the specific heat capacity of a material

 Transformers  -  Investigation of the output of an iron-cored transformer

Terminal Velocity  -  Investigation of the terminal speed of a falling object

Springs  - Investigation of the force-extension graph for a spring

 Moments   -  Investigation of the Principle of Moments

Half-life  - Determination of the half-life of a model radioactive source

Required Practical: Investigating Resistance ( AQA GCSE Physics )

Revision note.

Physics Project Lead

Required Practical 3: Investigating Resistance

Equipment list.

• Metre ruler = 1 mm
• Ammeter = 0.01 A
• Voltmeter = 0.1 V

Resistance of the Length of a Wire at a Constant Temperature

• The aim of this experiment is to investigate how the length of a wire at a constant temperature affects the resistance of electrical circuits
• Independent variable = Length of resistance wire,  L
• Dependent variable = Resistance,   R
• Potential difference of the power supply
• Temperature of the wire

Resistance of the length of wire apparatus

• Set up the apparatus by connecting two crocodile clips to the thin resistance wire a distance of 10 cm apart and setting the power supply to 1.5 V
• Connect the wire, using the clips, to the rest of the circuit
• Record the potential difference from the voltmeter and current from the ammeter
• Move the clips in 10 cm intervals further apart
• Take new measurements from the voltmeter and ammeter for each length reading
• Continue until the crocodile clips are a length of 1 m apart
• An example table of results might look like this:

Analysis of Results

• Calculate the resistance of each length of wire using the equation:

• R = resistance (Ω)
• V = potential difference (V)
• I = current (A)
• Plot a graph of resistance (on the y-axis) against length (on the x-axis) and draw a line of best fit
• An example graph might look like:

• This means that the longer the piece of wire, the higher the resistance
• In other words, the resistance is  directly proportional to the length of the wire

Teacher tip

This practical is notoriously difficult to obtain valid results from because it is so difficult to control for the heating effect in the wire. Temperature affects resistance, so when the wire heats up, the increased temperature affects the resistance as well as the length of the wire. When this happens, we call it a confounding variable. A variable other than the independent variable has impacted the results, and it is therefore impossible to tell the extent of the effect of the independent variable. There are ways that you can minimise the impact of a confounding variable (scientists have to work around them all the time in real life situations), and so this often comes up in exam questions. I used to tell my students to only have the circuit connected to take the reading and then disconnect it straight away until they were ready to take the next reading. But at longer and longer lengths of wire, the resistance increases causing more and more heating. In an ideal scenario, you would wait until the wire had cooled back to room temperature before you took the next reading, but you simply don't have the time to do this in class. However, these are things you could talk about in an exam question if asked for suggestions on improving the investigation.

Combinations of Resistors in Series and Parallel

• The aim of this experiment is to investigate how combinations of resistors in series and parallel affect the total resistance in electrical circuits
• Independent variable = Number of resistors
• Dependent variable = Total resistance,   R
• Temperature of the resistors

Series and parallel resistor combinations apparatus

• Connect the circuit shown in figure 1 with a battery of 4 V, first with one resistor (R 1 ) with the voltmeter connected in parallel and ammeter in series
• Close the switch and record the reading on the voltmeter and ammeter
• Repeat steps 1 and 2 for just the second resistor (R 2 )
• Open the switch and add connect both R 1 and R 2 in series as shown in figure 2, connecting the voltmeter in parallel to both resistors
• Close the switch and record the new readings on the voltmeter and ammeter
• Open the switch and arrange R 1 and R 2  now in parallel shown in figure 3
• Close the switch and record the readings on the voltmeter and ammeter

• Similar to the previous experiment, the resistance for each voltage and current reading is determined by the equation:
• The resistance of the combined resistors is equal to the sum of the two individual resistances
• This is because the electrons flow through just one path through both resistors, so the current does too
• The resistance of the combined resistors is  less than the sum of the two individual resistances
• This is because the electrons are split between the different paths (or 'loops') but the resistors still have the same potential difference across them

Evaluating the Experiment

Systematic Errors:

• Otherwise, this could cause a zero error in your measurements of the length
• Both the ammeter and voltmeter should be checked to start from 0
• This keeps the temperature of the wire constant, so it doesn't change its resistance
• The current should be switched off between readings so its temperature doesn't change its resistance
• Repeat the experiment by reducing the length of the wire 10 cm each time down to a length of 10 cm
• Add more resistors in series and parallel to calculate the effect on the combined resistance

Safety Considerations

• Make sure never to touch the wire directly when the circuit is switched on
• Switch off the power supply right away if burning is smelled
• Make sure there are no liquids close to the equipment, as this could damage the electrical equipment if spilled

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Author: Ashika

Ashika graduated with a first-class Physics degree from Manchester University and, having worked as a software engineer, focused on Physics education, creating engaging content to help students across all levels. Now an experienced GCSE and A Level Physics and Maths tutor, Ashika helps to grow and improve our Physics resources.