You can use this lesson to explore the differences between pure substances and mixtures with your students, and show them how to separate a salt solution using a crystallisation technique, a required GCSE practical.

You can cover different identification techniques in different industries, brought to life by Pfizer scientists in the context of medicine development.

You could divide the learning into two lessons:

Purity and Making Salts - Practical

Identifying ions in a compound

Along the way you will meet Adam, Miheal, Vicky and Amelia from Pfizer. You can share Adam and Miheal’s Science Story videos to share their career journeys with your students or check out John, Steph or Alice’s Science Story for the more unexpected careers in the pharmaceutical industry.

You can use this lesson to explore the varied uses of salts in industry, recap health and safety concepts in the lab and stretch your students to calculate the mass of products and yield from neutralisation reactions.

You could divide the learning into two lessons:

Health and safety in the classroom and lab. Reactions to make useful salts

Calculating ‘The Right Amounts’ for a reaction. Summary task on ‘Making a useful salt’

Along the way you will meet Vicky, Kudzai, Josh, Dione and Dan from Pfizer. You could explore the Science Stories of Emma, Adam, James, Miheal or Roger to uncover the types of careers your students could choose in ‘hands-on’ science. Or for more unexpected STEM careers, inspire your students with Alice, John or Steph’s Science Stories.

You can use this lesson to explore how medicines are developed, researched and tested by following the ‘molecule to medicine’ process in the quest to discover new antibiotics.

The lesson will uncover how clinical trials are run, and some of the people involved, as you meet real people that work at Pfizer and the NIHR. In the final task, your students will get the chance to build their own clinical trial.

This lesson was built with expert input from clinical trial researchers at the NIHR.

You could divide the learning into two lessons:

Infectious diseases, the ‘molecule to medicine’ process and discovering new sources of antibiotics. Optional extraction practical using flowers, vegetables or green plants.

Investigating efficacy of antibiotic compounds and testing through clinical trials.

Along the way you will meet Adam, Harpreet and Ana from Pfizer, and Mandy from the NIHR. You can hear Harpreet, Adam and Mandy’s Science Stories where they share how they got into science.

You can use this lesson to explore how formulations are produced and how we can test them for purity including the production of a pure dry sample of a soluble salt, a required GCSE practical.

You can share the implications of impurities in industry, especially in the context of medicine development as you meet some real people that work to produce pure product at Pfizer, and start a discussion on counterfeit medicines. Students can practice using melting and boiling points to determine purity in the final task.

You could divide the learning into two lessons:

How are salts made – producing a pure, dry sample in the classroom and in industry – required practical.

Testing for purity in industry and using melting/boiling points to determine purity – optional practical.

Along the way you will meet Josh, Kudzai, Dione and Dan who work in the Process Development Facility and Adam, Vicky, Miheal and Amelia who work on medicine formulation at Pfizer. You can link in how Miheal and Adam got into their STEM careers and James’s role in reducing impurities in medicines by sharing their Science Story videos in your lesson.