Thomas and Robin respond to a request from a listener and investigate the BL4S Competition run by CERN. Win an all expenses trip to a high energy beam lab where you will be supported to do your own experiment. They also announce the subject of the next “Ways to teach…” episode: Distance, Speed and Acceleration.

TimeStamps

• Cataracts @ 00:58
• Cameras that (don’t) see round corners @ 2:20
• LSST and its huge camera @ 3:40
• Beam Line for Schools (BL4S) Intro @ 5:12
• BL4S @ 6:03
• The next “Ways to teach…” Episode (Distance, speed and acceleration) @ 19:04

Summary

Robin describes a Camera that (doesn’t) see round corners. It was published in nature (PayWall) but The Guardian has a nice summary. The LSST 3,200 megapixel camera is being built in Chile (it turns out it is well under way, and not really news, but is still really impressive). The CERN Beam Line for Schools (BL4S) competition is the main focus this week in response to a tweet from @teachingofsci. Thomas chats with Prof. Pete Watkins and Dr Elizabeth Cunningham about the competition. The BL4S web site is a mine of useful information, including previous entry videos, previous winners’ 1,000 word proposals and ideas to get you started. Finally Robin introduces the next “Ways to teach…” Episode: Distance, Speed and Acceleration.

Ways to teach… Distance, Speed and Acceleration

Episode 20 (assuming we make it) will be all about ways to teach distance, speed and acceleration (or displacement, velocity and acceleration). How do you do it and what works best for you?

Join in!

Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions – on our Facebook Page: https://fb.me/physicstp .  You can also message us via our website contact form at the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, Twitter @physicstp, email using  the address given in the podcast (if we remember), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.

Music

• Season 7: Physics Is Our Business by Miracles of Modern Science.
• Seasons 5 and 6: Crescents by Ketsa.
• Seasons 3 and 4: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear.
• Seasons 1 and 2: One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus.
• Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License