Lesson Plan

5. Explore making fertilisers in the lab and in industry

KS4-17-13

Learning Outcomes

State the elements in NPK fertilisers, how the compounds and NPK fertilisers are produced and compare the industrial production of fertilisers with their production in a lab

Higher: Can state the elements in NPK fertilisers, how the compounds and NPK fertilisers are produced and compare the industrial production of fertilisers with their production in a lab
Middle:
Lower:

Activities

Mission Starter - Engage

Method:

Lesson Starter: Why do some argue that the Haber process is fundamentally the most important invention of all time?

Resources:

Lesson Starter Slide

The Story - Explore and Explain

Method:

Answer questions and take part in activities during the presentation. Stop the presentation at the relevant slides: Talk Partners; AfLs; Songs. Take part in the Choral Response Questions activity (see Assessment section) after the Keywords/Rocket Words slide.

Resources:

Presentation Sticky notes

Mission Expert - Explain

Method:

Food Production - Fertilisers - GCSE Biology

Resources:

Expert Film Slide

Mission Assignment - Elaborate

Method:

Extended writing: compare how fertilisers are produced in industry and in the laboratory.

Investigate what was used as fertiliser before the industrial preparation of fertilisers was invented.

Haber’s ambiguous morality could be discussed in the context of his work with fertilisers compared to his work on poison gas in World War I.

Resources:

Handout

Mission Log - Evaluate

Method:

Quiz With their talk partners, the children are to go through the quiz at the end of the presentation and answer the questions. Formative Assessment Forms Students are to complete these forms where present. Assessment Trays Ask the children to place their Handouts, notebooks, Formative Assessment Forms, Investigation Sheets, into either the Discover tray or Explorer tray * Explain that the green tray means that the learner has understood the lesson well, and that the red tray means that the learner needs more time to practise. * use whichever colours of tray you have in stock, or prefer to use for this. Children to take interactive Assessment Quiz to test lesson comprehension.

Resources:

Quiz in presentation Formative assessment forms Assessment trays Interactive quiz

Assessment

Questions to Ask During the Lesson

Recall the names of the salts produced when phosphate rock is treated with nitric acid, sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid.

Teacher Mastery

Compounds of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are used as fertilisers to improve agricultural productivity. NPK fertilisers contain compounds of all three elements.

Industrial production of NPK fertilisers can be achieved using a variety of raw materials in several integrated processes. NPK fertilisers are formulations of various salts containing appropriate percentages of the elements.

Ammonia can be used to manufacture ammonium salts and nitric acid.

Potassium chloride, potassium sulfate and phosphate rock are obtained by mining, but phosphate rock cannot be used directly as a fertiliser.

Phosphate rock is treated with nitric acid or sulfuric acid to produce soluble salts that can be used as fertilisers.

Curriculum Fields

National Curriculum

Compare the industrial production of fertilisers with laboratory preparations of the same compounds, given appropriate information.