SCIENCE REVISION FOR PARENTS 2016 YEAR 11

Welcome Dr Joanna Rhodes – Director of Science, Mr Jack Wyatt – Dept. Director of Science

Background Why revise? What does good revision look like? How can I tell if my child is revising? What can I do to help?

Why revise? No talking for this bit! Activity 1 Try to remember what you did on your birthday three years ago. Write down as much as you can, you must include: Where you were What you did The presents you received Who gave you each of those presents No talking for this bit!

How did you do? It’s OK to talk with the person next to you! How would you rate your performance Green – I could remember everything – no problemo! Amber – I managed to remember something about the day Red – What birthday? – I’m only 21 after all so I must have missed a few ;-) It’s OK to talk with the person next to you!

What am I trying to prove? Your birthday is quite an important event An ordinary lesson is even harder to remember Your birthday is one day Lessons happen every day If the lesson happened in year 9… would YOU remember it?

How do you revise? Do you know what is happening behind this…

I am revising – with my revision guide OK let’s see how that works… Here is a page from the revision guide You have 5 minutes to read it Only read it. Be honest - if you are a chemist let me know and I’ll give you a different one... No talking for this bit!

Now try to answer… No talking for this bit! Why does it take a lot of energy to melt sodium chloride? Why are compounds like methane and ammonia gases at room temperature? Explain why diamonds are very hard Why do ionic compounds need to be molten or in solution to conduct electricity? No talking for this bit!

Can you answer questions easily by just reading? Research tells us that reading without any other activity is the least effective way of revising We know that a lot of our students revise this way – because they tell us that they do. If you have just read the material – it is very hard to memorise it or use it to answer questions Discuss your thoughts with the person sitting next to you. How did you find it? It’s OK to talk with the person next to you!

Reading and texting Many teenagers revise and use social media at the same time. Be strong and say no to phones and computers while revising

Making a mind map It’s OK to talk with your group! In the group around your table I would like you to use the large piece of paper to create a mind map on the topic: Giant covalent structures It’s OK to talk with your group!

Using your mind map (close the revision guide) try to answer Why do giant covalent structures have high melting points? Name two forms of carbon that are giant covalent structures? Name a form of carbon that is a football shaped molecule Why is graphite able to conduct electricity? How many bonds does each carbon atom make in diamond? It’s OK to talk with your group!

Did the mind map help? No talking for this bit! There are lots of ways of making notes Mind-maps can be useful BUT Sometimes they lack detail Index card notes can be helpful and they can also be quite portable allowing you to revise on the bus, train or anywhere. Fact packs that you can revise from and test each other on can be really useful for rote learning. No talking for this bit!

Which looks nicer – which is more useful?

Being a text detective It’s OK to talk with your group! Working in a group I want you to try and answer as many of the questions on page 48 as you can using the revision guide to help you. It’s OK to talk with your group!

Exam questions Exam questions often bring together a range of topic areas. Once you are confident in the topics use the past papers on the exam board website to practice REAL questions. http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/exams- guidance/find-past-papers-and-mark-schemes

Working together How much better did it feel to work as a group? Encourage productive joint revision Be the revision friend

To close… I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy. But I can promise you it’s worth it.