Passive Transform sits at the Passive row and the Transform column of the PICRAT grid. Students are passive; the technology is enabling something that could not happen without it.

Geography

Live satellite imagery of weather formation

Year 8 · 30 min · Class display

The class watches live satellite imagery on the projector showing current weather systems globally, with the teacher pausing on a depression forming over the Atlantic, a high-pressure ridge over central Europe, and a developing cyclone in the western Pacific. Students observe the cloud movement, sea-surface temperatures, and isobars. The teacher links what they see to the textbook diagrams.

Tools: Windy

VR Google Earth tour of the Amazon basin

Year 8 · 45 min · 1 device per student plus optional VR headsets

Each student navigates a guided Google Earth tour of the Amazon basin. The tour stops at six locations: the river mouth, three tributary junctions, two deforestation fronts. At each stop students observe the satellite imagery and the timeline slider that shows the same place ten years ago, twenty years ago. Pairs share three observations after.

Tools: Google Earth

360-degree street view of an Indian megacity

Year 9 · 40 min · 1 device per student

Students explore three preset locations in Mumbai using 360-degree Street View: Dharavi, Bandra-Kurla Complex, and the airport district. They are asked to record three observations per location about housing density, infrastructure, and visible economic activity. The class discusses contrasts after.

Tools: Google Earth

Science

Cell biology in immersive 3D

Year 7 · 30 min · 1 device per student plus optional VR headsets

Each student navigates a 3D model of an animal cell at their own pace, observing organelles in spatial relationship and zooming into individual structures (mitochondrion, nucleus, ribosomes). The teacher poses three observational prompts during the navigation. Pairs share three observations after.

Tools: CoSpaces

Live ISS-Earth feed observation

Year 8 · 30 min · Class display

The class watches the live video feed from the International Space Station for 20 minutes, with the teacher pausing on visible weather systems, city lights, and ocean colour patterns. Students observe the curvature, the speed of orbit visible in cloud movement, and the day-night terminator passing across the planet.

Tools: ISS Live Stream

Virtual lab demo of dangerous reaction

Year 9 · 25 min · Class display

The class watches a virtual simulator demonstration of an alkali metal reacting with water (e.g. caesium, francium-style demos that are too violent or expensive for school labs). The teacher pauses to discuss observable phenomena, asks students to predict products, then lets the simulator complete the reaction with chemical-equation overlay.

Tools: PhET Simulations

Lessons that look PT but are not

Useful counter-examples when you are checking your own lesson placement on the PICRAT grid.

This page is one of a growing set of PICRAT examples by cell, subject and key stage. Page maintained by Andy Perryer.