The Physics Teaching Podcast

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  • Entries! and Momentum Round-Up

    @Lath_Physics

    We put out the competition not really knowing quite what to expect. Four entries before 8:15am was an exciting start to the day though as I write at 4:30pm it is still four, which has brought me down to Earth somewhat!

    Momentum Day

    Today was “Momentum” day. After talking with Ben Rogers about cognitive Science (that is in the next episode) I changed the demo away from play (the students making the rockets) and in to a demo so they could concentrate on the key idea of impulse (Ft) being more for the longer rocket, and hence v being higher. I made four rockets myself before the lesson. Showing them the rockets was actually a good way to mention to them that a vernier can be used for internal diameters too. I tried to make all the tubes the same diameter, but it was pretty hard and I think this led to the inevitable inconsistencies in the heights.

    There was much uncertainty! The pump was definitely pretty rough at the low pressures I needed to keep the long one below the ceiling, the diameters of the rockets and the release of pressure through the valve all affected each launch. The results were not quantitative at all (my main aim) but it was clear that the longer went higher (on average).  I think if I made better rockets on fixed tubes it would be more successful, it is certainly worth pursuing. More massive ones would allow more pressure too.

    But as a learning demo it was very good. The idea of the force being constant as the rocket launches and the longer rocket being in contact for a greater time made it easy to imagine impulse and relate it to velocity. At least I thought so. Time will tell.

    An Unexpected Misconception

    What surprised me was that one person thought that the smallest rocket would go the highest. I’d said that all were made from one sheet of A4 so all were the same mass, but suspect that they were thinking “small is light”.

  • 6. What happens when your jelly won’t hold your weight? Is it time to lose some mass?

    6. What happens when your jelly won’t hold your weight? Is it time to lose some mass?
    Jelly chair aftermath

    Thomas and Robin got together in the same room for a chat this week. Don’t worry, as a good physicist and a good engineer they avoided eye contact*. The big news last week was the redefinition of the kilogram which was originally based on the mass of Napoleon’s leg**, but latterly on a  lump of metal held in what looked suspiciously like a cake container. So we discussed misconceptions about mass and weight and about one of Thomas’ favourite experiments: the jelly chair.

    *Well, that’s an unhelpful stereotype!  In fact we were highly empathetic and talked about our feelings extensively.

    **completely made up

    Competition! 

    Now we have listeners, AND an Instagram page (@physics_teaching_podcast) we thought we would encourage you to share the podcast by having our first competition. Win a beautiful podcast T-shirt (in the colour of your choice) by interacting! To win, tell us why you like listening. There are many ways to do this:

    Thomas and Robin will pick a winner in a couple of weeks.

    It remains an enthralling and inspiring adventure making this podcast for you.  You’ve already taken it in directions we weren’t expecting; it really is your podcast, so please get in touch: teachers of physics are our very favourite breed of hero!

    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

  • Interact and Win a T-Shirt!

    T-Shirt logo

    Now we have listeners, and an Instagram page (@physics_teaching_podcast) we thought we would encourage you to share the podcast by having our first competition. Join us at the bottom of an exponential by winning a beautiful podcast T-shirt (in the colour of your choice) by interacting! To win, tell us why you like listening. There are many ways to do this:

    Thomas and Robin will pick a winner in a couple of weeks.

  • Face to Face + Progress on Momentum

    Thomas and Robin
    Thomas and Robin

    I had found an excellent purveyor of T-shirts and as a joke got a couple made up with “I’m at the bottom of the exponential” for Robin and I to wear. This necessitated a visit to his house so we decided to have a face to face chat (so far we have done them virtually using zencastr). Moving a laptop to his living room, plugging in another microphone and getting it all to work proved something of a challenge, even for two physics teachers. Once we got it working we realised that my voice came out pretty poorly at times. Hopefully it is not too bad in the final podcast.

    Recording face to face was another challenge. Usually we have an idea of what we are going to say, but this was pretty freeform, and there was the tension of having a chat with a good friend with the need to get some content you would be prepared to share.  Our numbers keep growing so we must be doing something right.  (Geeky aside: I worked out the URL to get regular stats from the excellent BluBrry podcasting service/WordPress plugin and have made a beautiful graph for Robin and me of “listens” that gets updated every 6 hours. It tries to fit a linear and exponential to the line and currently is a close fit (listens vs days) with exponential.)

    Momentum

    I went for a long bike ride on Sunday and this gives you a long time to think. I mulled over a way of teaching momentum quantitatively using pea-shooters. I thought about a gas rocket I built once and how it could be converted in to a large pea shooter. Maybe if I made very simple rockets out of one sheet of A4 by rolling it up and stapling the top shut I could explore impulse by shooting them vertically? I then remembered that the department actually has its own pressure gun for exactly this that was used with Year 7 a few years ago for a rocket challenge. Happy days.

    So, if I assume the force is constant then the impulse given to the rocket is Ft = Δmv. F and m are constant so this shows v ∝ t (just as v = u + at does of course, a is constant too from Newton’s 2nd Law, F=ma). You can use suvat  to show the length of the rocket, L ∝ t2 ∝ v2 and then in exactly the same wayto show that the height the rocket flies, h ∝ v2 which means that h ∝ L !  At least, that is the theory. I am very aware of Ben Rogers’ ideas about cognitive science and not overloading the students, so this will take a little more thought before Wednesday.

  • Squeezing it all in + pondering momentum ?

    This week’s episode was a bumper edition, and we had to work hard to keep it down to just under 27 minutes. I really wanted to put in the Practicals In Memoriam (PIM) section and this led to cutting down the interview. Robin and I have talked a few times about the ideal length for the episodes, and hit on 20 minutes as short enough for a commute, and short enough to listen to a few on the bounce when you find the podcast.

    As our production skills improve longer ones are easier to do and each podcast has been longer than the previous, but I think we will aim to keep them short. On reflection we felt that this Episode 5 was rather “busy” and maybe we should have kept back the PIM for another day. It deserved a whole podcast of its own maybe.  But when you are aiming to hit a deadline you have to make a decision and run with it. We were still tossing it back and forth on Wednesday night.

    Pine nut shooters (straws)

    In other news I asked Robin if he had any ideas for a class practical that could explore momentum. I wheel out the air track every year, but it is not very inspiring. He came up with pea shooters and impulse (Ft). I would really like to do something quantitative so my idea from this is you propel the pea (in my case pine nut) as hard as you can and see how far it goes as you reduce the length of the straw.  Assuming that the force is constant whilst the nut is in the straw, then the acceleration will be too and the time in the straw will be proportional to the square root of its length (suvat). The impulse is the change in momentum, so the velocity will also be proportional to the square root of the straws length and the distance the nut travels will be too. That’s my theory, but it seems over-complicated and could be done with suvat without any reference to impulse at all!  I am still humming and hahing about whether to use it.

    An alternative would be Stuart’s practical, rolling balls down the slope in to cups. From suvat I can get the students to show that velocity is proportional to square root of the distance up the ruler. But where do I go from there? Pre-schoolers could tell you the cups will go further if the ball rolls faster. If I keep the velocity the same then heavier cups don’t go as far, but again, there is no obvious momentum related quantitative results I can gather. I did use Stuart’s experiment at Open Evening yesterday. IT worked well until the volunteers got excited about monkey-hunter!

    I think I will be rolling out the air-track and doing the pea shooters qualitatively. ?

  • 5. Models, marbles and marvels…

    In a bumper 5th episode, we chat to Stuart Farmer, self-proclaimed “Listener Number 2” about a brilliant visualisation of uncertainty.  In keeping with parsimonious podcast principles, Stuart’s practical involves nothing more elaborate than a variety of marbles and some paper cups.  You’ll love it!

    Thanks to Stuart Farmer

    Stuart got in touch and told us about his favourite physics, and we would love to hear from you.  Please share ideas or successes on our Facebook Page – https://fb.me/physicstp .  You can also message us via our website https://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). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

    Once again, it has been joyous and enlightening making this podcast for you and we want you to be a part of it, so please get in touch: teachers of physics are our very favourite people in the World!

    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

  • 4. Why Don’t More Girls Choose Physics?

    Thomas and Robin try to find A New Hope in Episode 4 by addressing the perennial problem of the small proportion of girls choosing A Level Physics. 

    In this Episode:

    • World Dark Matter Day, 31st October: How did you celebrate it?
    • The Perimeter Institute and their Free Resources.
    • Where are all the girls? Jessica Rowson, former IoP Gender Balance Guru explains why girls don’t choose physics (lack of good teachers of Physics, parental influence and societal pressures), and suggests three easy things to do to make Physics a more attractive option (teach in context, link physics to careers and provide displays that promote the idea of physics in a non-biased way).  
    • Unconscious Bias Tests: Harvard provides them as IAT (Implicit Association Test) in Project Implicit. Robin and Thomas took the Gender-Science one.

    Thank you again to Jessica for her time and wisdom, and we would love you to join in too.  Please share ideas or successes on our Facebook Page – https://fb.me/physicstp .  You can also message us via our website https://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). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

    If you really want to help us grow, please rate and review us on iTunes, thanks!

    We have really enjoyed making this podcast for you and want to make you a part of it in future so please don’t be afraid of getting in touch: teachers of physics are our very favourite people in the World!

    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

  • 3. Reading, Research and Reversing Through Time

    The latest outing for Thomas and Robin in the world’s foremost (only?) podcast for teachers of physics talks about the weighty issues for physics teachers everywhere.

    In this thrill-packed episode…

    Hawking’s Last Book
    • As Matt Groening once said: “It’s all about the merch” Robin and Thomas decide on the logo for the first podcast T-shirt
    • It had to happen. Griffiths’ law states “In any gathering of nerds, talk will always turn to time travel in a time period inversely proportional to the total geekiness of the participants” Robin and Thomas discuss time travel after Stephen Hawking’s last book is published, and frankly we’re both surprised it took us until episode 3.
    • Contributor! A huge thank you to the inspirational Lauren who contacted the podcast to share what she has been up to supporting non-specialists both in her school and further afield. And wow, wouldn’t you love to work with her!
    • Let’s get reading: Lauren introduced us to Ben Rogers’ book The Big Ideas in Physics, and talked about the book club she is part of that shares books like Ben’s. A physics teachers book club? How great would that be in your area?
    • The Joy of Playing with of Coloured Water: The ‘new’ energy is a tough new take on a physics fundamental and Lauren talked Thomas through a way to demonstrate the new thinking.
    • Research Does Work: Lauren finished by talking about her work with the Education Endowment Foundation to create the Improving Secondary Science report.
    • Empty Universe: Thomas puts Robin on the spot by asking follow up questions about energy.
    • Don’t be a meanie: Thomas shares how he has changed his practise teaching Displacement, Velocity and Acceleration after reading Ben Rogers’ book.
    • Really Worth a Look: Robin recommends the the EEF Toolkit.
    Lauren’s Book Club

    A huge thank you to Lauren for joining the discussion, and we would love you to join in too.  Please share ideas or successes on our Facebook Page – https://fb.me/physicstp .  You can also message us via our website https://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 (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

    We have really enjoyed making this podcast for you and want to make you a part of it in future so please don’t be afraid of getting in touch: teachers of physics are our very favourite people in the multiverse!

    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

  • Thinking back to when I started

    Talking to Imogen for the new podcast has made me think back to when I started. I remember very well how I was only a few years older than the kids I was teaching, and my knowledge was only marginally ahead of theirs. I have wondered over the years whether my knowledge has moved on much beyond A Level. I am certainly much more experienced than the kids are and can get to a right answer faster than them, but not being a Physics graduate still leaves me feeling exposed at times.

    There are so many things you need to be a successful teacher over and above a Physics degree that I don’t fret too much. Loving the subject and still finding wonder in it (whilst teaching essentially the same content each year) goes a long way. 

    The paper was pulled along steadily under a swinging sand-timer – SHM

  • 2. A New Physics Teacher

    We made it to Episode two! Thank you for coming back, or a very warm welcome if you’ve just joined us. In this episode:

    • Secret identity: Robin finally gets round to introducing himself
    • Out of this world: Thomas tells Robin about the recent exomoon discovery
    • Goldfinger: Thomas will not make it as a Bond villain.  He couldn’t pop a balloon with the school’s 1mW laser. Can you help him  in his quest?
    • A New Hope: We talk to Imogen, a first year Physics teacher, about the joy of doing something new in the classroom.
    • Journey and Destination: Imogen explains her path to teaching, what she is enjoying and some of the challenges she faces
    • Stores and transfers: Thomas’ cracking contraption – or continuous flow calorimeter, if you like – gets the podcast once-over

    We are so looking forward to you joining the discussion, so please share ideas or successes on our Facebook Page – https://fb.me/physicstp .  You can also message us via our website https://the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, Twitter @physicstp, email using the form below (or the address given in the podcast) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile (don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

    We have really enjoyed making this podcast for you and want to make you a part of it in future so please don’t be afraid of getting in touch: physics teachers are our very favourite people in the world… or indeed the planet-moon system rotating around its common centre of gravity.   Time for bed!

    Fudged together continuous flow calorimeter.
    Continuous Flow Calorimeter; more heaters needed at this point!

    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