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Ways to talk about… Energy
In the last episode, Robin and Thomas were delighted to welcome Charles Tracy to talk about teaching energy at KS3. Charles generously agreed to come back for the next episode: energy at KS4 Charles lays out the rationale for talking energy using the correct terms: using adverbial forms really helps to enshrine the principal that […]
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Ways to Teach… Energy to 11 Year Olds
There’s no two ways about it, the story we used to have on energy was bad. Inconsistency, incoherence, subjectivity: words to send a shiver down the spines of any scientist. Something had to change. The response from IOP was the ‘stores’ and ‘pathways’ model. This was championed by our podcast guest this evening. Thomas and […]
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Revising for Exams
It’s that time of year: as we prepare to bid farewell to our exam groups, how do we teach students to prepare effectively for GCSEs or A-levels? Thomas and Robin talk through how they help students revise for exams.
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UCAS and Preparing for Uni
Will Pope (@PopeDoes) joins us to talk about all things UCAS. What is our role as teachers, what is the right way to write the reference and how does the reference get used down the line. With grateful thanks to Will, Sarah Butler, Dr Caroline Shenton-Taylor and Alex Sawyer.
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Newton’s Laws for Non-Specialists
Thomas and Robin are joined by our original guest – Jessica Rowson from episode 1 returns to talk Newton’s laws and how we would teach them and in what order.
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SLOP
Mastery, retrieval practice, automaticity, call it what you will, practice makes… better!
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New to A-Level
Ruth Cheesman returns to talk about her first few weeks of A-Level teaching. Below you can find Thomas’ PowerPoint that explains how to do the mass of a 1m ruler. 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 […]
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Ways to teach… The Start of A-Level Physics (16+)
Thomas and Robin return after an extended break, inspired by a Tweet from Ruth Cheesman, who joins us to ask for tips to get started with her A-level class this week (good luck Ruth!). We also welcome Sarah Dowd to help answer Ruth’s query, Sarah teaches at UNIS in New York and joins to share her practice in the first of two upcoming appearances (she’ll be back in a few weeks to talk ChatPhysics!)
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Ways to Teach… Space
Space is a challenging subject to teach, so a good subject for the first “Ways to Teach…” of this academic year. Thomas and Robin start with a look at some physics in the news. The proton is smaller than we thought! About 5% smaller which will make it even harder to find one if you lose it, but let’s not be negative… In other news, a new wonder-polymer promises transparency, strength and lightness all in one. Will it be as successful as graphene (which Robin made the mistake of questioning in front of an engineer). And so to space. If there’s one message (and thanks to Dr David Boyce and others for this advice) try to use models, demos and activity to show what’s going on. It’s tempting to think you can’t do anything other than PowerPoint and YouTube for this topic, but whilst the odd video of cosmic phenomena can be great, you can make this subject live in the classroom. So whether it’s “phases of the egg” or redshift on a balloon, try to get students involved in the subject. Living orreries, using beachballs to represent the sun and modelling the solar system’s scale with a beachball and a pea – all this and more is in our first “Ways to Teach…” of 2022.
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Girls in to Physics II
Thomas and Robin return after an extended break to talk A-level expectations, girls in physics and strategies for inclusion.