UPD8

Teaching trainee primary teachers

Jun 1st, 2011

I used Pump Wars with a group of trainee teachers to get them thinking about current issues about energy and fuels. The stimulus materials were well received by these young adults and generated lots of discussion. Even though we are using thsisresource in Australia the subject content is still very relevant.

Reviewer: Nola Shoring

Pump Wars review

May 22nd, 2011

Good activity for year 9 - although this particular group needed a lot of encouragement. Debating the facts and generating their own opinion was difficult to start with

Reviewer: Audrey Minks

Biofuels

May 8th, 2011

Was the first time I'd used an UPD8 activity and introduced it to a lower ability year 8 group - it worked really well and each group had a go at representing their winning fuel at the end. A fab activity.

Reviewer: Julia Phillips

biology

May 13th, 2010

My bottom set year 11 loved this, it was easy to follow and they learnt somehting from it.

Reviewer: Victoria Barnes

Flexible resource

May 7th, 2010

I have used this with everyone from year 7 to year 11 top set. The information is simple enough for year 7 to understand, and the task can be extended for higher year groups by including e.g. chemical formulae, lists of pollutants etc. A poster activity with what goes into and goes out of your car works well too. Thank you.

Reviewer: Karen Flanagan

great

Sep 28th, 2009

thank you

Reviewer: Apichart Koykume

Pump Wars review

Sep 12th, 2009

This is agreat game and it was very interactive. I had students who never contributes to anything was debating why their fuel was better. I would have liked it if more information about the team was provided within the game.

Reviewer: Elizabeth Anthony

Pump wars

Jun 11th, 2008

Very good interactive introduction to the idea of alternative fuels. The students found the card activity engrossing and most of them came out with an understanding that there is more to choosing an alternative fuel than just cost.

Reviewer: Joy Liiv

Pump Wars review

May 12th, 2008

I used this (in a modified form) with a rump of Y8 students (most had been taken out on a residential course)

I didn't use the game, rather i divided the students into 6 groups, (2 for each fuel) and gave them 15 minutes to preapre a presentation about each fuel. As they were orking i sneaked in soem extra points to each group.

Each presentation was given, with tiem for questions from the other students.

I finished with an open vote, and was most surprised when Hydrogen one!

A useful lesson, enjoyed by most.

Stephen Brian
York

Reviewer: Stephen Brian

Pump Wars

Mar 28th, 2008

I used the card exercise as a 'chunk' of the lesson with a Yr 10 group. We put page 3 on the IWB and wrote the scores on it. The activity worked well with biodiesel coming out top. It did stimulate some debate but the Trinny and Susannah link did not really work, possibly because like the students I thought the link was a bit tenuous. As always, I enjoyed the great graphics and use of colour. The board game looked interesting but couldn't find enough dice to play!

Reviewer: Neil Mitchell

Pump Wars

Mar 28th, 2008

I used the card exercise as a 'chunk' of the lesson with a Yr 10 group. We put page 3 on the IWB and wrote the scores on it. The activity worked well with biodiesel coming out top. It did stimulate some debate but the Trinny and Susannah link did not really work, possibly because like the students I thought the link was a bit tenuous. As always, I enjoyed the great graphics and use of colour. The board game looked interesting but couldn't find enough dice to play!

Reviewer: Neil Mitchell

Pump Wars

Mar 28th, 2008

I used the card exercise as a 'chunk' of the lesson with a Yr 10 group. We put page 3 on the IWB and wrote the scores on it. The activity worked well with biodiesel coming out top. It did stimulate some debate but the Trinny and Susannah link did not really work, possibly because like the students I thought the link was a bit tenuous. As always, I enjoyed the great graphics and use of colour. The board game looked interesting but couldn't find enough dice to play!

Reviewer: Neil Mitchell

Pupm wars

Sep 25th, 2007

A great resource for reinforcing the ideas behind renewable and non renewable. However as a female teacher in an all boys school I constantly battle against sexism and stereotyping .I am aware the motor industry uses images of women to sell cars but do we need to encourage it in the classroom?

Reviewer: Mairead Ulamoleka

Excellent activity

May 14th, 2007

The activity is a good accompanyment to this course. however, the presentation was difficult to download, since none of the computers or formats used could sort out the code it was written in.

Reviewer: Claire Else

Got a hard-to-please group interested!

Mar 23rd, 2007

I used this with a higher set group as a way to vary their learning activities. I thought they might laugh at the idea of using the 'snakes-and-ladders' game. They loved it and as I went round, they were discussing the comments dotted over the game board.

Reviewer: Majella Fergus

Good starter not so sure as a full lesson.

Feb 6th, 2007

I used this with a mixed ability year 10 last lesson. The board game starter was a success and some groups played it a couple of times in the alloted time period.
The card game did not quite hit the spot after the good start. On reflection, I should have given out a brief bullet point of instructions (re the scoring system).
The groups completed the tasks/scoring but the spark of debate was missing.
Given the opportunity I will use either of the activities as a starter but not back to back for a whole lesson. As a trainee teacher I perhaps took the instructions too literally and perhaps needed to be a little more creative in its delivery. I have already noted some good ideas from other reviews such as using the group as a whole/interacting and using whiteboards.

Reviewer: Steven Davies

Technicians point of view!

Feb 6th, 2007

While the activity may sound interesting, I just don't think the practical activity has been though out properly. From a technician's point of view, what is imitation bio-diesel ?
After researching for about 30 - 45 minutes I was able to find out how to make bio-diesel proper, but no imitation bio-diesel.
Also with a flash point of about 350-400oC I fail to see how this is going to burn in a spirit burner. Diesel is only combustible in a compression engine.

Its all well and good writing fun lessons about pretending to be someone off TV
(Trinny and Susannah) but isn't this drama and acting not science.

Reviewer: Matt Belper

A good in context approach that the students could relate to

Feb 4th, 2007

I used the information cards at the back for the students to produce posters and quick presentations on alternative fuels of the furture. I set the scene as set out in the activity which allowed the students to relate to the ideas quickly. I gave the students only one lesson for this but it would have been better to give them more research a preparation time for better results. One lesson worked fine with the top sets but was not really long enough for the lower ability groups.

Reviewer: Beth Harrop

a good way to learn how science works

Nov 8th, 2006

Thank you for developing a brilliant resource for the new year 10 course. It worked really well as i was very pushed for time as we are nearing the module exams in November.

Reviewer: hazel frost

Fantastic Fuels!

Nov 1st, 2006

Brilliant! Thank you for providing this activity! I did this with my 'challenging' year 10 class and for once, they were engaged! a very good lesson for a dull topic. I look forward to more of the KS4 resources :-)

Reviewer: Rysia Kaminski

Speedy Sperm

Jun 30th, 2005

I used the information on the cards as a basis for a drama activity where pupils acted out the scenarios in small groups. One pupil was the egg and the other 3 or 4 took the role of the sperm, then they acted out the sperms journey to reach the egg. The pupils were very creative and really seemed to enjoy the activity after some initial apprehension!!! If I had had time I would have liked to find some suitable music for each mini drama e.g. the James Bond theme for the caffeine driven sperm, and some Latin American carnival music for the cannabis affected sperm! Overall a really good fun activity.

Reviewer: Claire Brown

A very good extension activity

Jun 16th, 2005

I used this with a top set year 10 class. I started the lesson with a reminder on the definition of what a fuel is, what is produced when a hydrocarbon burns etc in order to satisfy the syllabus requirements for the AQA modular course.
In the second half of the lesson I used 'pump wars' as an extension activity and it went down very well. I cut a few corners to get it done in about 20 mins so that a plenary could be fitted in. I recommend this activity. Do have a good look at it as it is very adaptable.

Reviewer: John Brooker

Fantastic approach to fuels

Feb 9th, 2005

Haved used this with a broad ability year 10 group

Teaching alternative fuels is good, but this game and related discussions put the problem and solutions in the pupils context
The pupils quickly relised that replacing petrol is no easy option. They used high level discussion skills to come to compromise solutions.
Discussions moved on to lifestyle changes needed, with 2 pupils discussing their parents home working, with its pros + cons as an alternative to using fuels at our current rate

Reviewer: Grant Cunningham

A fun way of covering a dull topic

Jan 18th, 2005

I used this as a fun lesson in the week before Christmas with a lower set. The atmosphere was a lot more casual than a normal lesson. The class extroverts played the three fuel suppliers. They knew in advance so they brought in clothes and props and got themselves ready while the rest of the class played the starter game. This is quite quick if you let them start without a 6 and end without the exact number, so they had 2 or 3 goes at it. There are quite a lot of facts on the game card and these started to sink in with repetition. Everyone had a go at being Trinny and Susannah to the 3 performers, with the rest holding up scores for each comment on their mini whiteboards. (There is a mistake on P. 3. by the way. According to the teacher's guide, the allowable scores are supposed to be from -1 to 3.) We chose the most popular score for each comment (to avoid having to add up or do an average). We put P.3 on the interactive whiteboard and wrote the scores in over the top. Biodiesel came off best for us, and hydrogen worst. Because it was an end-of-term lesson, I skipped the practicals and the fuel cells details – which would have got a lot more science into the activity.

Reviewer: Pam Large