We are so privileged this week to be joined by Christina Astin (@ChristinaAstin). She wears so many hats she would keep a division of milliners employed, but she kindly talks us through some of her most recent and most important work. She makes a passionate case for school partnerships, not just in physics but across all aspects of school life, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

We start off chatting through some really helpful work that Christina has done assembling a collection of free resources (or at least currently free in some cases) to support teaching the required practcials online. We’ve all been there, searching through YouTube videos for the perfect demo of F=ma… and then it’s in French. Well fret no more! Christina has done the legwork for you – see the links section for more. There’s also a link to your favourite podcast’s foray into resources. If you are aware of some resources that you feel could be included, don’t hesitate – get in touch.

Christina has been involved in Physics Partners for a long time, and is a champion of their work, building links between local teachers to help teach physics. Due to the concentration of physics teachers in private schools, this has often resulted in state-private partnerships, but PP are adamant that this must be a supportive and equal partnership, and stress the professional collaboration and the genuine desire of all teachers to help their colleagues.

Another of Christina’s accomplishments is some very slick videos she did with friend-of-the-podcast Alom Shaha and we have taken the opportunity to links to these videos and more below.

If you are wondering about enrichment during these difficult times, Christin has also let us know about the Young Scientists Journal. What a great opportunity this is for your students to explore and area of science and build their confidence. It reminded Robin of the IRIS project that he had seen during their exhibition at the Royal Society: another way of involving students in the scientific process.

Christina is a dedicated and seasoned campaigner for physics and for school partnership. If you would like to know more, or to get in touch, pop by her website.

Links

• Christina on Twitter
• Astin Consulting website
• Physics Partners – physicspartners.com
• Physics Partners GCSE Required Practicals
• The resources site Thomas has pulled together https://resources.physicsteachingpodcast.com
• Christina’s and Alom Shaha’s videos on nustem
• Alom’s videos on YouTube
• Physics Online (Lewis Matheson’s channel)
• IOP Spark – detailed instructions for shuttling ball demo also see Thomas’s video below
• Young Scientists Journal https://ysjournal.com/
• Institute or Research in Schools (schools-based research projects)
• Schools Together (Schools partnership incubator)

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