The Physics Teaching Podcast

Category: Podcast

  • Inspiration with Sir Peter Ogden

    Inspiration with Sir Peter Ogden

    The first in our series of interviews with the Ogden Trust and a glimpse into the key life experiences that motivated Sir Peter Ogden towards a life time career supporting physics educators and education.

    Thomas, Robin and I reminisce about the inspirational teachers that lead us into careers in physics education; Quirky characters and memorable methods abound. We also share our favourite practical actives to bring fun, flair and engagement into the classroom.

    Sir Peter Ogden

    If you have a moment please do share with us your favourite YouTube videos or memorable practicals to inspire and engage – there is a contact form on every page of the web site – the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email us contact at thephysicsteachingpodcast dot com or on X – @physicstp or BlueSky @physicstp.bsky.social.

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

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  • Primary Physics with Ben Rogers – Space

    Primary Physics with Ben Rogers – Space

    This week, as the term starts, Rosie has been using plastic bottles to allow her year 10s to ‘feel’ gas pressure increasing with temperature. Thomas has had to slow down and take things easy having lost his voice (but thankfully he recovered in time to join us to record this podcast) and Robin has made the time within his fast-and-furious schedule at his new school to speak with Ben Rogers, author of Big Ideas in Physics and How to Teach Them, about Physics in Primary Science and more specifically the topic of Space.

    Dear listener, what advice would you give to a non-specialist primary school teacher about to teach space? Is it “That all kids love space and dinosaurs” or would you go into the common science misconceptions that are picked-up at a young age and how to go about building models and stories into teaching pedagogy to help students understand abstract concepts? Whatever your preference Ben and Robin have some great ideas on both these areas. Including how to make Primary science tactile by using globes and getting students moving by learning technical terms through British Sign Language. (Link to BSL scientific keywords can be found below).

    Finally a huge thank you to all our dear listeners that have sent in their favourite Youtube videos. If you haven’t had a chance to contact us then there is still time to send in a link that you think other teachers would enjoy and benefit from using. Contact forms can be found on every page of the web site –the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email us contact@thephysicsteachingpodcast.dot.com or on X – @physicstp or on Instagram – @physics_teaching_podcast or on BlueSky @physicstp.bsky.social.

    Links

    Marvin and Milo

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

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  • Ramps and Trolleys

    Ramps and Trolleys

    Welcome back for another year of Physics Teaching ramblings. It has been a momentous Summer with Thomas cycling off into the mountains for his sabbatical, Robin becoming ever more important in his new school and the arrival on board of the new co-host Rosie McTavish. Robin and Thomas visited Rosie at McTavish Towers to deliver her vacuum cannon and think about the year ahead. We forgot to take a photo though. We have new theme music – it is called Physics Is Our Business by Miracles of Modern Science

    The new season starts without Robin who is up to his eyeballs in management stuff – though he has recorded an interview that will be the backbone of Episode 2. Rosie and Thomas reminisce about their summers and Thomas asks the dear listeners if they have any favourite “must see” youtube videos they would like us to share.  Then on to the meat of the podcast – taking the podcast back to its roots: supporting the heroic non-specialists who take on this magnificent subject.

    If someone is teaching a required GCSE practical or PAG and need advice, what would you say to them in that 10 minute chat at break? This episode we selected good old Ramps and Trolleys. What can you do, what should you record and how can you use the data?

    Thomas thinks it will be large groups so is keen to give specific roles for the experiment and Rosie likes to measure the speed of the trolley once it has left the ramp. We both love light gates and think they are worth the time to learn how to use them for the excellent data they can provide. Good questions to ask are if you double the height do you double the speed (no) or halve the time to descend the ramp (yes) – these can give more of a focus to the lesson rather than just gathering data.

    Inevitably we want to draw a graph and Rosie reminds Thomas about scale selectors – little strips that allow the students to line up with the bottom of their graph paper and work out which scale is best.

    Do share your favourite youtube videos – there is a contact form on every page of the web site – the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email us contact at thephysicsteachingpodcast dot com or on X – @physicstp or BlueSky @physicstp.bsky.social.

    Scale Selectors
    More scale selectors

    Links

    Youtube on straws in to a pumpkin aka Deadly Straw bullets – thanks to Gian Ascone.

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

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  • The Ogden Trust – Teaser Episode

    The Ogden Trust – Teaser Episode

    Thomas tells Rosie about some special episodes coming next term.

    As the summer holiday is finally on the horizon, Robin is off sailing and Thomas cycles his way into his sabbatical, crossing Northern Spain from Santiago de Compostela to A Coruña, and stops to take a breather and share with Rosie some of the exciting new episodes lined up for September.

    Listen in as Thomas asks some titans of the Physics teaching world “What does the Ogden Trust mean to you?” and gives us a taste of episodes to come in September. 

    Links

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

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

  • Breakthrough Technologies III: Graphics Tablets

    Breakthrough Technologies III: Graphics Tablets

    Robin and Rosie are joined by former physics teacher Thomas to talk tech… After making the case for peer tutoring (low-cost, high impact according to the EEF), we turn our attention to EdTech for the 3rd time.

    Dr David Boyce returns for the last in our series of chats about seismic technological shifts driven by EdTech. I hope you have checked the two previous episodes on 3d-printing and AI. Today, David makes the case for graphic tablets as an alternative to blackboards, whiteboards and smartboards. This has real resonance with the team – and hopefully will give you another option to consider when you are planning tech for the classroom. David’s point that the limited functionality makes it more appealing is a tantalising one.

    David’s ReMarkable – using FIFA (Formula, Insert Values, Fine Tune, Answer)
    Rosie says hello via Wacom

    Links

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

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

  • Breakthrough Technologies in Physics Teaching: Exploring AI with Dr. David Boyce

    Breakthrough Technologies in Physics Teaching: Exploring AI with Dr. David Boyce

    The second in our trilogy of breakthrough technologies in Physics teaching, Dr David Boyce takes us on a journey through AI, its possibilities and how he has used it.

    Sharp eyed listeners will note that the title of this podcast does not match the episode art. This is becuase AI renamed the episode for us…

    Don’t forget that the vacuum cannon is back on sale!

    The Apocrophal James Joule and his wife (possibly)

    Will Smith Eating Spaghetti (2023/2024)

    Links

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

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

  • 3D Printing

    3D Printing

    An overdue visit at last from the one and only Dr David Boyce (@DrDavidBoyce). David is a force of nature: physics teacher, mountain leader, chalk advocate, technician champion, the list goes on. An all round enthusiast and he will be joining us in the coming weeks to talk about three of the potentially transformational developments that teachers should know about.

    The first of these is 3d-printing, and if you’re a bit fuzzy: “3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer control, with the material being added together, typically layer by layer.” Thanks Wikipedia!

    David points out that you may well have this technology in school in your tech department, so if you want to flex your creative muscle and craft your own fiducial marker, you may not need to look far.

    See the weblinks below for more about David, and 3d printing. More from David soon…

    Links

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

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

  • CanSat

    CanSat

    The science department often wistfully watch the MFL mob heading off for glamorous trips to Paris, Berlin or Barcelona, plaintively sighing over the challenges of finding exciting ways to boost their students’ passion, when all languages has to do is to head South and feed them their bodyweight in croissants (other nationally stereotypical carbohydrates are available). I mean, sure we’ve got CERN, but it’s been going a while, and breathing in Switzerland costs more than 20 Ryanair tickets to Nantes.

    So there was genuine excitement in the (TP)2 office* when we heard from Rosie McTavish. A true hero of physics Rosie’s been running the exciting CanSat initiative at her school, heroically stoking interest in rocket science… and not a Berliner in sight (it’s a German donut… no really, look it up, I promise). Who wouldn’t want to fire a bean can 400m in to the air and then try to get telemetry from it?! Well lots of people probably, but they won’t be listening to this podcast.

    *local takeaway.

    … and if all this is a bit too exciting for you, why not grapple with the difference between stiff, hard, tough and brittle while a roomful of 17 year olds desperately fail to repress their sniggering? Yes, Robin’s happy to be teaching Materials again and measuring Young’s modulus next week. He’s planning to bribe them with churros (they’re Spanish don… never mind).

    A video of Rosie’s grand day out:

    Links

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

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

  • Ways to Teach… Atomic Physics

    Ways to Teach… Atomic Physics

    We talk with Jackie Flaherty about how the Ogden SKPT programme approaches Atomic Physics. Ths course is broken down as follows and we use this as a structure for the podcast:

    • Challenges as an intro
    • Models of the atom – diagnostics and liaising with colleagues from Chemistry, size and scale
    • Half life – models and limitations, how to develop understanding, multiple representations, 
    • Applications – importance of secure understanding of subject matter knowledge – SATIS style problem solving
    • Background radiation and physics in the news– science capital teaching approach, scientific literacy
    • History and stories
    • Nuclear fission – opinion boards, debate, models and process 

    At the end of the episode we finally inform the dear listener that we will be mothballing the podcast at the end of this academic year. Thomas is off to avoid falling off his bike whilst cycling slowly up mountains and Robin is getting distracted trying to find his dark side as he scrabbles up the tiers of management. We don’t think it is a full stop for the podcast, but a pause until we are both back in the game. We intend to do some work with the Ogden Trust before we go.

    The Ogden Trust aims to increase the uptake of physics post-16 by supporting physics education and engagement for all young people (4-18), particularly those in under-represented groups. The Trust supports schools, teachers, projects and programmes that are committed to enhancing physics teaching and learning.

    The Ogden Trust

    The Ogden Trust mission statement almost exactly sums up our thinking when we started the podcast. They existed long before we began and will continue long after. We will do what we can to promote them in our remaining episodes in the hope that late arrivals to the podcast will have somewhere else to turn other than a couple of nuggets!

    Links

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

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

  • What the Ogden Trust can do for you

    What the Ogden Trust can do for you

    Thomas is fresh off the chunnel from Belgium and can’t wait to share exciting news that is nothing at all to do with Physics Teaching (sorry) – he’s been cycling and staying with a World Champion cyclist, Johan Museeuw. As you will see from the picture below M. Museeuw was less excited to meet his number one fans… until of course he found out that one of them was a world-famous podcaster. Rumours that we are doing a “Ways to Teach… stalking” are entirely untrue…

    When we get Thomas back on to physics teaching we steer (like a world-champion Belgian cyclist) back on to more familiar territory. Robin was privileged to talk to Claire Harvey and Jackie Flaherty from The Ogden Trust. (@ogdentrust).

    We are flummoxed as to how we managed to get this far without talking about the Ogden Trust: it’s a fabulous organisation which – amongst myriad other things – provides non-specialists with the completely free training to become specialist physics teachers on their SKPT (Subject knowledge for Physics Teaching) programme.

    Jackie will be back soon to help with a Ways to Teach… Atomic Physics – if you have any suggestions for this please contact us using the form down below, contact@thephysicsteachingpodcast.com or via twitter @physicstp.

    Oh, and if you fancy dusting off your Teltron tubes… the set-up for measuring the specific charge (ratio of the charge to the mass, e/m) of the electron is below.

    Thomas, Charlie Gilbank (friend of the podcast) and a nonplussed Johan Museeuw (cycling royalty)
    e/m setup
    Matching coils with Hall Probe

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

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