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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
- Mirror holder blueprint
- The Time and Space of Uncle Albert
- Thingyverse
- Printables
- Dr David Boyce on YouTube
- Buy a vacuum cannon
- https://www.appropedia.org/3D_printable_science_equipment
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
- 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
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
- CanSat
- Rosie’s CanSat Group’s Instagram
- IoP Spark on Materials – and their huge spreadsheet
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
- 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
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 TrustThe 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
- The Ogden Trust
- The Ogden Trust – SKPT
- PhET and PhET Build an Atom
- Inside the Atom – Physics Online (aka LegoPhysicsGuy) and Primrose Kitten
- Richard Brock – Stories in Physics
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
- 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
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
- 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
GCSE Astronomy (via Teams)
Space physics is a crowd-pleaser and a ‘way in’ for many physicists. There are few things in physics more memorable than seeing Jupiter for the first time through a telescope.
We chat with William H who teaches GCSE Astronomy to three schools at the same time via Teams. He makes a great case for teaching astronomy, not just growing the excitement of physics, but also extending the professional repertoire of teachers.
See the links for the schools observatory: a way around the inevitable issues of cost when it comes to accessing telescopes.
We finish by reflecting that teaching across multiple schools will be an increasing (if depressing) feature of physics education. Get in touch if you want to put your view!
Links
https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/
The nuclear valley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_stability
Edexcel GCSE Astronomy: https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/astronomy-2017.html
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
- 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
Don’t be scared of Ionising Radiation
When it comes to emotive topics in physics teaching, radioactivity is up there. We have experienced colleagues who would refuse to work with school radioactive sources, even though there you generally encounter more risk while boiling a kettle. But you need to register, store and handle them properly or you could land your school with a fine.
Thomas and Robin talk radiation and encourage you to get over the administrative hurdle, talk to your RPS and get trained in the use of sources so you can teach radioactivity with sources. If your school doesn’t have an RPS and you don’t know where to start, make sure you have a CLEAPSS membership and give them a call (see links for how to contact CLEAPSS).
Surprisingly, the greatest risk is financial as falling foul of the regulations can result in a LARGE fine, so do make sure you satisfy all the requirements. You will need a Radiation Protection Officer (different to the RPS mentioned above, and generally more ‘expert’ on the regs). Between the RPO and CLEAPSS you should get enough advice to become compliant (or rarely to conclude that radioactive sources are not an option in your school).
So whilst you shouldn’t be gung-ho, this is more to ensure you don’t risk a fine; the sources themselves are not inherently dangerous if handled carefully.
Links
PDF L93 Ionising Radiations and Radioactive Substances – CLEAPSS
XKCD – comparing radioactive doses
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
- 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
That Einstein Fellow
Thomas and Robin were bowled over to hear from the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow 2023-24. Thomas caught up with Michael Stewart to talk about the amazing opportunity he has had to be involved with Education policy at the highest levels in the USA.
Michael reminded Thomas about an episode in 2021 (GCSE Long Answers and MyMarkingMachine.com) in which Mark Robinson talked about a structured way to address questions: PVsELS. Thomas has run with this and renamed it the “DVEL’S in the Detail” to help his students process their way through questions.
Robin had already returned to work and was teaching radioactivity. Check out the links for some fun radioactivity sites, and also a reminder of friend-of-the-podcast Richard Brock’s stories, including the origin of the Banana Equivalent Dose (no, really – it’s a thing!)
Don’t forget: if you want to hear it, let us know!
Links
Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship
Richard Brock’s Stories from Physics: Weird Units and Wonderful Measures
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
- 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
Chat(GPT)ting
Everyone has been talking about it for a year or more so high time your finger-on-the-pulse physics teaching nuggets got to grips with ChatGPT (other AIs are available).
To start though, we cantered through another week of physics teaching. Robin was finishing electricity with his year 10 groups, and wondering what others do with those odd bits of the specification that someone up the exam-board food chain (presumably) feels it’s ‘important’ for children to learn. For Robin, this was ‘mains safety’ in electricity which has minimal physics but lots of detail. How do you deal with this? Back when I had to teach biology a lot (don’t ask!) I used to have to teach “Commercial Uses of Plant Hormones” and it took two lessons – so I feel your pain if you are not a physicist. All tips gratefully received – perhaps you’d like to come on and talk about it?
Meanwhile Thomas had been doing great things with inverse-square law investigations, challenging his A-level students to prove inverse-square or not. See the Inverse Square Carousel below for more, but as always, WP adds an inspiring dash of creativity to what could be some pedestrian practical work. If you’ve done anything similar, drop us a line.
We chat ChatGPT and this was where we landed…
Things ChatGPT is good at…
- getting past writers block. If the blank page looks vast, try putting a brief into ChatGPT. At the very least it will give you a structure to work with, at best it will give you ideas. Do be careful to rewrite ideas in your own words…
- more text-based problems. Robin always struggles to imagine up testing explanation type (long-answer) questions, but ChatGPT is pretty good at this – but do check carefully as it is not 100% reliable!
- a source of material that students can critique. Thomas used this method to good effect – if ChatGPT spits out a load of garbage, can your students spot the nonsense?
- mindless low-impact admin. Use it to generate standard email responses, box-ticking reports, PM targets and objectives – the sort of things that sap time and have minimal impact.
Things ChatGPT is not so good at…
- Numbers! If you want numerical questions / answers then ChatGPT can be a bit weak / suspect. Again, possibly a source of critique for your students but there may be other AIs that do a better job – let us know! (Mark Whalley mentioned claude.ai which appears to do a better job?)
- Technical diagrams / circuit diagrams etc. Again, there are probably better AI engines for this so do let us know if you have found one.
All technology goes through an initial phase of over-excitement in terms of its transformational potential, but AI does have uses and strengths and Robin has included some examples of a worksheet (with answers) and a set of practical activities in the thermal energy transfer topic so you can see what you make of them. These took about 30 minutes to generate, most of which was getting to grips with the interface and what question to ask (you need to phrase carefully), with remaining time given over to tidying up. You may feel (like Jo) that this represents too much of a time sink, but some will find it helpful I’m sure.
Links
Inverse square Law Carousel
Thomas loves this one. No photos of the GM tube and sources, but that is pretty standard.
They are not allowed to touch the magnet (risk assessment) Two pencils to record the angle of rotation Vernier to get the clamp diameter and hence height of lift from circumference – also a 4mm pieve of aluminium to set the height of the clip above the magnet Light – don’t forget risk assessment of the hot bulb vs black paper Sound – stop the beam and just measure amplitude Sound setup 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
- 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
Retention Done Well
We talk to Doug Simon, who takes issue with the assertion that CPD is not C, P or D for Physics teachers.
Having heard from Mark Whalley last episode about some of the gotchas that schools can fall victim to when trying to hang on to their (physics) teachers, we hear this week from Doug who reports some of the positive things they do to support their science teachers and keep them teaching.
First up, though, Thomas and Robin talked electricity as that is what they both had been doing this week.
Thomas had demonstrated a bit of uncertainty that GCSE students can get their heads around: the meters sometimes lie! See below…
Thomas’ three ammeters and three voltmeters reading randomly This is a nice way to introduce a discussion on precision and accuracy in measurement.
Robin had been investigating LDRs and Thermistors and trying to avoid the pitfalls he has hit in the past – either it takes waaaay too long, or it causes cognitive overload with all the fussy details: digital multimeters on the ohm setting, light meters (probably for the first time), multiple experiments, different scale settings with different units, new circuit symbol (ohm-meter anyone?). Doing both together might seem odd, but if you emphasise that both experiments are effectively looking at the same thing – an energy transfer changing resistance – students can see parallels. You only have to set the DMM up once, and I always explain that it is doing what they did recently: measuring voltage and current at the same time and working out R for them – they like that. There are better ways to teach this, sure, but this is ‘quick and dirty’ if you are short on time (and we always seem to be!). See the thermistor practical in the links section – thank you Mrs Cook! I hope you are still teaching physics.
… and talking of still teaching, back to Doug who gives us practical advice on how science teachers can be nurtured and recognised. Some highlights:
- a specific period per week to support planning & teaching
- commitment to the subject in department meetings (not exam admin, other initiatives, safeguarding etc.). Meetings are used for discussion / CPD
- CPD for teachers in meetings based around answering tough questions / misconceptions and ways topics have been taught.
- Ensuring a common language in maths. Where skills are common (e.g. rearranging equations) can you provide physics-based maths exercises to your maths colleagues?
- 6 periods per fortnight for KS4 science.
- specialist physics technicians whose CPD is also worthy of investment.
Doug’s school has had success in holding on to their teachers – it can be done! Why not reach out to a school doing good things and keeping science teachers? Culture can make a real difference and Doug’s school has shown how positive culture can help a school keep its teachers.
Thanks to Doug for getting in touch. Do let us know if you have anything to share with the physics teaching community. It was great for us to be in contact with Clare Harvey from the Ogden Trust this week (we’ll hear from her on the podcasts soon). the Ogden Trust do great work supporting physics teachers and we will be hearing about their work and how they can help support your practice.
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
- 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
Retention – Full Interview
We thought that Mark Whalley had a lot of interesting things to say on retention and couldn’t fit them in to the main podcast. Here is the full interview as promised.
We mention the previous episodes on force and weight, here are a few:
- 6. What happens when your jelly won’t hold your weight? Is it time to lose some mass?
- TAG, Mass and Weight
- Force or False (Forces @ Primary School)
- Teaching Forces to 11 Year olds
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
- 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