Category: Podcast

Categories

Underrepresentation (the elephant in the room)

Moses Rifkin came to the attention of Fox news for his short course on underrepresentation in Physics and Science and this led to the The Underrepresentation Curriculum Project. He tells us his story.

Timestamps

  • The Underrepresentation Curriculum with Moses Rifkin @ 00:53
  • Moses’ Practical in Memoriam – eggs from the sky! @ 31:50

Summary

Moses Rifkin came to the attention of Fox News for his short course on underrepresentation in Physics and Science (video below), but this has led to the growth and promotion of The Underrepresentation Curriculum Project (www.underrep.com). Thomas, Robin and Patrick agree that as white middle aged men we have a responsibility to challenge underrepresentation wherever we see it.

Moses also shares his practical in memoriam – eggs from the sky! He shared two videos with us of this spectacular activity!

Not to be left out, Patrick also shared a video of his trebuchet competition:

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) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile, +44 7898 814716 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message or upload an mp3 or ogg). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

The music we use remains One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus. Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

Send Message
Reset Form
Categories

Birdsong – Connecting Physics with the Real World

Friend (now Hero, surely?) of the Podcast James de Winter talks birdsong and uses it as an example of how to connect physics with the real world in more imaginative ways.

We all know how it goes, you teach newton 3, you talk about a rocket, you teach momentum you talk about trucks and cars colliding. Vectors? Aeroplanes… pressure? stilettos and snowshoes… friction? car tyres. It’s not that these examples don’t give context; they do! And mightily useful it is too, but James challenges us to find something a bit different. Go outside our comfort zone and bring in an unfamiliar example. James makes the case for birdsong when teaching frequency and he’ll be back in a couple of weeks to talk about an everyday object that is an almost limitless source of physics context that every child can relate to. Spoiler alert: there’s probably one rusting in your shed.

James makes a great case. Variety in examples and contexts broadens the appeal of physics and students’ idea of the relevance of this wonderful subject. Physics is so ubiquitous that it is a bit odd that students leave school doubting its relevance. So follow James’ tips and advice and reverse engineer something new and different into your context. Cooling rate of a dead cow, anyone?

S02E11 Timestamps

  • Physics in the News: 3D Display with a polystyrene bead @ 01:15
  • James de Winter @ 03:36
  • Ogden Trust @ 19:20
  • Finding an interesting context @ 20:45
  • Thomas has a cover lesson and uses Quidditch as the context with the expected result @ 24:14
  • Robin suggests ideas for friction @ 26:00
  • Thomas is pleased with the Monkey Hunter at Open Evening @ 28:00
  • Favourite Resources – The Nuffield Red Books @ 29:46

Summary

James has wanted to talk about birdsong for a while but surprises Thomas and Robin with what he actually does with it – he teaches graphs as part of a way to make the physics meet the real world. If you fancy a lesser spotted grebe in your lab, then James has lesson plans and resources available at http://www.physicsandbirdsong.com/ – just a beautiful set of resources. And if that has got you in the mood for some bucolic physics, how about www.naturephysics.co.uk for some convection with mushrooms, or bees that ‘see’ electric fields?

James is a font of ideas and particularly likes perusing https://hypertextbook.com/facts/ for things he could use. Another of his hats is the Ogden Trust, and Robin reassures Thomas that getting involved is well worth it. Robin then helps Thomas with some real World ideas for contexts that will be more accessible for the students. Robin imagines a fruit machine that gives three words that someone has to use in the lesson (and Thomas duly obliged).

Nuffield Red books:

Nuffield Physics has loads of resources for download, but here are the two Thomas uses for A Level, they are based on the 1980s version of the course. (Selected purely because that is the A Level he first taught in 1993).

Thomas also found his ancient TES Resources:

Stories from Physics – Richard Brock

  1. Weird units and wonderful measures
  2. Forces and Motion

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) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile, +44 7898 814716 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message or upload an mp3 or ogg). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

The music we use remains One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus. Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

Send Message
Reset Form
Categories

CLEAPSS, The Physics Teacher’s Best Friend (and a few Loose Ends)

We have a final missive from Charlie, the response to WTT Ionising Radiation and an Interview with Samir from CLEAPSS.

S02E10 Timestamps

  • Thank you for the jam, Stuart Farmer @ 00:49
  • Update from Charlie @ 01:15
  • We love Chemistry and we have imposter Syndrome @ 5:03
  • Follow up to Ways to teach… Ionising Radiation @ 07:54
  • Freebie from Lewis Matheson of A-Level and GCSE Physics online @13:38
  • CLEAPSS @ 15:30
  • Visiting CERN – please send in ideas @ 29:50

Summary

GCSE Physics On-Line

We have been a bit remiss n keeping up to date with things over the last couple of episodes, so we make amends by catching up with Charlie, who has had some success with his pupils taking physics from the classroom to the rugby pitch. Next we catch up on the Ways to teach… Ionising Radiation episode: we missed a couple of contributions and had an interesting follow up email from Friend of the Podcast, John Hamilton grumbling about gamma.

Friend of the podcast, Lewis Matheson of alevelphysicsonline.com has an offer for Physics Teachers – unlimited access to his new gcsephysicsonline.com until December 20th Lewis said in his email to us:

My GCSE Physics website is getting there – 329 videos on the site and many more planned. If listeners want to have a look themselves then I’ll leave a free login until December 20th: username <strong><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="mailto:tptp@gcsephysicsonline.com" target="_blank">tptp@gcsephysicsonline.com</a></strong> and the password tptp . If they’d like to buy it for their school then should just email me at <strong>lewis@gcsephysicsonline.com</strong> and I’ll sort that out for them (it’s not being widely advertised on the website at this time).

Lewis Matheson

Royal Society of Chemistry Teach Chemistry website gets a shout out, as does the Gatsby research and advice on practical work. before we meet Samir from CLEAPSS. Finally we ask for your tips on trips to CERN.

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) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile, +44 7898 814716 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message or upload an mp3 or ogg). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

The music we use remains One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus. Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

Send Message
Reset Form
Categories

Force or False (Forces @ Primary School)

Ex -colleague and ex-colleague Andy Harrison is writing a scheme of work for Primary Science and asks Thomas and Robin to help him with his understanding of forces.

S02E09 Timestamps

  • What’s a force? @ 02:40
  • Gravity @ 04:20
  • Electrostatics @ 08:20
  • Reaction/Support force @ 17:30
  • Energy @ 21:12

Summary

Ex-colleague Andy Harrison reached out to Robin last week for some help. Andy, a Biologist, is no longer in the classroom but working as an Outreach Officer for a medical research organisation. Andy has been working with Primary Schools and is working on a scheme of work around Forces. Sensing an opportunity for a podcast Robin and Thomas hooked up the microphones and off we went.

Andy is working on a task that might be called “Force or False” where the pupils have to state whether something is a force or not. Amongst other questions, we talked about Is Fire a force? Is Pressure a Force? Is Gravity a Force? We also appealed for some ideas that could be used for practicals in primary science. You know the kind of thing, minimal specialist equipment required but allow primary students to practise their practical skills (e.g. modelling; conducting a fair test etc.).

Alom Shaha’s fine book gets another mention and can be found here. If you are looking to liven up your science lessons in primary school, this is a great source of ideas that won’t break the bank.

N.B. We haven’t forgotten Charlie, we’ve just forgotten to include his latest update. It will be in the next episode.

Send Message
Reset Form

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) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile, +44 7898 814716 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message or upload an mp3 or ogg). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

The music we use remains One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus. Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

Send Message
Reset Form
Categories

Ways to teach… Ionising radiation

Listeners have been more than generous with some tips for ionising radiation and how to teach it. Thomas, Robin and Patrick introduce some great ideas and discuss how to put IR in context.

Wisdom and wit

Patrick, Thomas and Robin get together to tackle ways to teach Ionising Radiation with context proving to be the most common tip.

Friend of the podcast, Dan Toomey shares his love of the radioactive sources and how to build a radiation detector, while Sarah Nunn and Mary Wild both weigh in with some tips on the best ways to run class demos and to help students remember the relative properties of alpha, beta and gamma. Everyone loves a story!

Patrick, it turns out used to have his own nuclear reactor that the US government gave him (none of this is quite true, but in Thomas’ and Robin’s heads it always will be!) and he tells us some of the real-life ways in which he avoided being toasted – we’re so glad he did.

Horror stories appeal to the kids too, so Thomas shared this genuinely terrifying clip of Russian ‘safety’ measures, whilst Veritasium gets a mention for the fantastic video on the world’s most radioactive places.

XKCD.com/radiation is another great resource for getting kids thinking about how common and everyday radiation really is. The circumstances surrounding the Goiânia accident are as bizarre as they are terrifying.

For careers advice, tell your students about Medical physics careers and many more. Just one of the jobs you can do if you study ionising radaition.

Thanks to Dan, Mary, Sarah, Patrick and to you for listening!

HAVE A GREAT HALF TERM!!

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) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile, +44 7898 814716 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message or upload an mp3 or ogg). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

The music we use remains One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus. Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

Send Message
Reset Form
Categories

CPD at SPEED

Our first foray in to the wild as we took our shiny new audio recorder (aka Albert Einstein) to the SPEED Physics teaching conference in Cambridge. SPEED is organised by the legend who is Ally Davies and is a well-established and popular CPD event for teachers in East Anglia. If you would like to pop along to your local CPD day, see the “Forthcoming events” link to Talkphysics, below.

S02E07 Timestamps

  • Physics in the news – Nobel Prize 2019 @ 2:06
  • Robin has had a fun time teaching electricity @ 04:16
  • Thomas has been doing revision in the round @ 06:25
  • Charlie the non-specialist @ 08:11
  • SPEED @ 13:40

Summary

Charlie’s odyssey continues, and we hope you are enjoying hearing his enthusiasm as much as we are. If you have any tips for Charlie, drop us a line. The main focus this week, though was the SPEED event in Cambridge. This is a gathering of many physics teachers and teachers of physics with all sorts of stimulating talks. Here are links to a couple of the things we talked about:

The podcast is trying to provide a link for physics teachers who don’t have anyone they can talk physics with, and the IOP regional days are trying to do the same so if you love the podcast, chances are you’ll enjoy an IOP regionakl day!

Ways to teach… Ionising Radiation

Please share your ideas about teaching Ionising Radiation. Tweet us @physicstp with the hash tag #tptpir , use the contact form below, our Instagram account @physics_teaching_podcast or email us contact at thephysicsteachingpodcast dot com!

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) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile, +44 7898 814716 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message or upload an mp3 or ogg). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

The music we use remains One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus. Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

Send Message
Reset Form
Categories

Mary, Mass and Melting

Our first T-shirt winner, Mary Wild, joins us to chat about helping Charlie with mass, weight and gravity and also to share a practical she loves: Specific Latent Heat of fusion for Ice.

S02E06 Timestamps

  • Introducing our guest Mary Wild (@MaryWild) @ 01:10
  • Physics in the News – Static Spiders @ 02:15
  • Charlie’s audio diary @ 05:06
  • Mass and Weight @ 07:00
  • Forces at a Distance @ 12:30
  • Weightlessness @ 16:40
  • Mary’s Practical In Memoriam (PIM) Specific Latent Heat (Fusion) of Ice @ 21:09

Summary

We are joined by Mary Wild, a teacher in West Sussex. She kicks of with a Physics in the News that she fears might not be recent: Spiders use electrostatics to float! We then hear from Charlie the non-specialist who poses some tricky questions about forces: mass ad weight and non-contact forces.

Mary likes to show the Hammer and Feather dropped on the Moon (Brian Cox updates it in this video) and Adam Hart-Davis dropping tomatoes (Thomas can’t find that video). Stephen Hawking on the Vomit Comet. @DanWestPhD found Robin’s favourite video on gravity courtesy of the excellent channel Veritasium.

We close with Mary’s favourite demo/practical. Determining the specific latent heat of fusion for Ice -> Water by melting ice in a funnel using an immersion heater. Don’t forget to run it without the heater and subtract the volume of water melted by the room!

Ways to teach… Ionising Radiation

Please share your ideas about teaching Ionising Radiation. Tweet us @physicstp with the hash tag #tptpir , use the contact form below, our Instagram account @physics_teaching_podcast or email us contact at thephysicsteacohingpodcast dot com! After tweeting about this we already have seen a brilliant video about dealing with radiation issues in Russia (Thank you David Cotton @Newmanphysics).

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) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile, +44 7898 814716 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message or upload an mp3 or ogg). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

The music we use remains One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus. Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

Send Message
Reset Form
Categories

Active Instruction

Trying to cheer up Thomas, who has had a bad day, Patrick introduces the concept of Active Instruction. Also an update from Charlie and our first contact through WhatsApp!

S02E05 Timestamps

  • Thomas has an announcement @ 00:44
  • Thomas has had a bad week @ 02:00
  • Update from Charlie @ 04:45
  • Patrick introduces Active Instruction @ 09:02
  • Contact on calculators via WhatsApp @ 26:31
  • Please help with Ionising Radiation! @ 32:37

Summary

A bad day for Thomas made the team (Thomas, Patrick and Robin this week) reflect on the nature of teaching, often lonely and sometimes a bit manic. Every teacher has moments of anxiety and imposter syndrome and it’s important to give yourself a break as they say in New Hampshire. Charlie is loving his science and his year 7 group is clearly loving working with him. Charlie is one of those heroes teaching physics despite not having a science background. It’s lovely to hear his enthusiasm permeating his classroom and the joy he takes in the questions his kids are asking. If you are teaching physics and it’s not familiar to you, thank you and I hope you enjoy it as much as Charlie. Active instruction takes centre stage as the team discuss prompting kids to think and guide their discussions on physics. Finally Matt Bowman joins us from Peru and we talk calculators.

Patrick’s Links

Ways to teach… Ionising Radiation

Please share your ideas about teaching Ionising Radiation. Tweet us @physicstp with the hash tag #tptpir , use the contact form below, our Instagram account @physics_teaching_podcast or email us contact at thephysicsteacohingpodcast dot com! After tweeting about this we already have seen a brilliant video about dealing with radiation issues in Russia (Thank you David Cotton @Newmanphysics).

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) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile, +44 7898 814716 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message or upload an mp3 or ogg). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

The music we use remains One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus. Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

Send Message
Reset Form
Categories

Open Evenings

It is Open Evening time of year. Dan Toomey (@MrDToomey) joins us from Dublin to share what he does to entertain parents and students and also give some advice to Charlie the non-specialist who is starting to enjoy teaching Physics.

S02 E04 Timestamps

  • Introducing Dan Toomey @ 00:48
  • Open evenings @ 01:43
  • What Should Charlie Do? @ 13:42
  • Circus vs Carousel @ 18:02
  • Dan’s Practicals in Memoriam @ 23:00
    • Planck’s constant with LEDs @ 23:07
    • Dropping a ball and timing it @ 27:31
  • Please send in Ideas for teaching Ionising Radiation @ 31:24

Summary

Patrick, Robin and Thomas are joined by Dan Toomey in Dublin to dicuss open evenings and also to give more advice to Charlie the non-specialist who is working through forces. Dan loves the collapsing can experiment but also uses the Van de Graaf and this year is breaking out the Vacuum Cannon. Thomas likes splitting activities into ones to distract the students whilst parents talk to teachers and “show pieces”. Patrick says his “Open House” in the USA is nothing like UK Open Evenings at all!

Charlie’s been told that the kids are arriving with no books for his next lesson and is looking for ideas. Dan suggests doing a friction on different surfaces experiment and gathering the results on the board, whilst Thomas thinks giving out graph paper and concentrating on graphing skills might be the way to go.

We end the podcast by putting Dan on the spot for a Practical in Memoriam.

Ways to teach… Ionising Radiation

Please share your ideas about teaching Ionising Radiation. Tweet us @physicstp with the hash tag #tptpir , use the contact form below, our Instagram account @physics_teaching_podcast or email us contact at thephysicsteacohingpodcast dot com! After tweeting about this we already have seen a brilliant video about dealing with radiation issues in Russia (Thank you David Cotton @Newmanphysics).

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) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile, +44 7898 814716 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message or upload an mp3 or ogg). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

The music we use remains One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus. Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

Send Message
Reset Form
Categories

Summer Placements and Teaching without Demos/Practicals

Charlie tells us about an unexpected lesson in his audio diary. Patrick talks a little about his placement at MIT Haystack telescope. Thomas worries about how to teach when there is no practical or demo to be done.

S02 E03 Timestamps

  • Charlie’ the non-specialist’s audio diary @ 01:00
  • Physics in the News, water vapour on exoplanet @ 05:04
  • Colin Lonsdale of MIT Haystack @ 08:00
  • Teaching without practicals and demos @ 19:48
  • Fermi Questions @ 26:10
  • Air Pressure tricks @ 27:06
  • Ways To Teach… Ionising Radiation @ 28:10
  • Return of the vacuum cannon #tptpir @ 29:24

Summary

MIT Haystack

Charlie’s audio diary kicks off the podcast, telling us how he has not taught forces at all yet as he had to finish off the induction topic. Thomas then gets excited about the water vapour spotted on a planet 110 light years away from Earth. Amazing precision! Patrick then plays us the interview with Colin Lonsdale from the MIT Haystack observatory. Patrick did a placement there over the summer. Thomas then talks about teaching without practicals and demos and gets some advice from Patrick before deciding it is too big a topic; it needs a whole podcast. At the end of the episode we talk about Fermi questions and estimating and introduce a new Ways to teach… episode.

Ways to teach… Ionising Radiation

Please share your ideas about teaching Ionising Radiation. Tweet us @physicstp with the hash tag #tptpir , use the contact form below, our Instagram account @physics_teaching_podcast or email us contact at thephysicsteacohingpodcast dot com! After tweeting about this we already have seen a brilliant video about dealing with radiation issues in Russia (Thank you David Cotton @Newmanphysics).

Lead lined trucks radioactivity

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) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile, +44 7898 814716 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message or upload an mp3 or ogg). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

The music we use remains One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus. Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.

Send Message
Reset Form