The Physics Teaching Podcast

Latest Podcasts

  • Ways to Teach… Energy to 11 Year Olds

    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 Robin are honoured to welcome Charles Tracy (@charlesmtracy) of the IOP about how to introduce Energy to 11 year olds.

    Charles did so much to champion the new model of energy, tirelessly convincing educators, exam boards and textbook manufacturers that the new way was consistent and straightforward and gave students a much better account of this essentially abstract quantity.

    If you are introducing energy at KS3 you face an immediate challenges: energy is all about calculation and of course there are no calculations until KS4. That said, Charles tells us that we can think about energy conservation and talk about how much is in a particular store without calculating.

    An important consideration is defining your start and end points for your consideration of the transfer between stores. A bouncing ball may go through any number of transfers between stores over the course of a few bounces, but defining your ‘start’ as just before the ball is released and your ‘end point’ as just before it first bounces, means you can talk specifically about the specific transfer between the gravitational store and the kinetic store.

    To help you frame the start and end points Charles explains how it is important to have a calculation you could perform in your mind when designing an experiment. (eg. “How much kinetic energy does the ball have at the start and the end?”) You don’t need that for most year 11 year olds but it certainly comes in when you revisit Energy in the run up to GCSEs (Exams for 16 year olds in the UK).

    Listen close to Charles’s descriptions: the elegance and clarity of the model comes through. Charles has promised to return to talk energy at KS4 – we could listen to him all day!

    Charles wanted to add:

    It is helpful to look at phenomena using these three steps:

    1. Description – of what you observe and what is happening
    2. Explanation in terms of mechanisms and processes; changes that occur due to forces, differences in temperature, chemical reactions etc.
    3. Energy analysis – based on start and end points.

    Something I would draw out for part 3 is that you should not try to mirror or reproduce the mechanisms and processes in the energy analysis. The energy analysis performs a completely different task – based on solely the start and end points.

    Links

    Teaching Secondary Physics 3rd Edition

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    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.

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  • Revising for Exams

    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.

    Both agreed that past papers form the core of their revision strategies and there are various sources for these, not least the relevant exam board, but also some excellent sites that have grown up in support of past paper practice.

    There’s an overarching theme: the students need to be taught to revise and shown what good revision looks like.

    Robin’s method is confusingly summarised below.

    There are apps and sites that can help (see links section). Also colleagues are generous in their sharing of revision resources.

    Past papers are key and Thomas reminds us to keep them fresh. Tips to keep some balance and not turning it into a slog are:

    • Use knowledge quizzes as quickfire ways of recapping key terms like definitions, equations, unit conversions etc.
    • Involve the core practicals – even if it is just a demo – to remind students how they work. Ask them to describe the experiment, analyse some data,, interpret a graph – anything that your exam board repeatedly asks.
    • Keep a visual log (e.g. on the board) of common learning points, useful mnemonics, little tips.
    • Rehearse specific question types (e.g. 6-markers, questions on practicals) and command words (Explain, evaluate, describe etc)
    • Mix it up so students don’t get past paper fatigue. Use practical resources, post-it notes, small challenges, competitions – anything to mix it up a bit.
    • Coach students in how to engage with the mark scheme.
    • Encourage students to look through the exam paper before they start writing so they can clock the questions and get their minds going.

    Useful links

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    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.

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  • UCAS and Preparing for Uni

    UCAS and Preparing for Uni

    We need physicists and so A-level teachers know how important it is to give the next generation of aspiring physicists and engineers the best chance of getting into uni. Thomas and Robin are thrilled to welcome Will Pope (@PopeDoes) 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?

    Will’s Head of 6th Form, Sarah, kindly talked us through the reference do’s and don’ts. Key take-aways:

    • Relentlessly positive. Don’t put in anything developmental: it’s not a report.
    • Talk specifics. Highlight specific skills / strengths the student has shown. If this is particularly relevant to thechosen course, all the better.
    • It’s the student’s reference. Ask what they want to say and for you to highlight.

    Dr Caroline Shenton-Taylor is an admissions tutor for physics at the University of Surrey. She gave us the lowdown on the reference. In short, it matters: universities do use the reference and so it’s worth doing well. Universities like to hear about the physics skills the student has developed, so talk about their practical and problem-solving prowess, their strengths in maths and any programming skills they might have.

    Note that the UCAS reference procedure changes for 2024 entry, and Will recommends some PD time is set aside to help 6th form tutors familiarise and practise the new regime.

    Alex, a former student of Thomas, agrees: he talked about 3 skills he would recommend:

    • using a lab book to record practical work
    • programming skills for modelling
    • practical-led learning

    With grateful thanks to Will, Sarah Butler, Dr Caroline Shenton-Taylor and Alex Sawyer.

    Links

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    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.

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  • Newton’s Laws for Non-Specialists

    Newton’s Laws for Non-Specialists

    So fundamental… such a minefield. Newton’s laws are central to school physics and so can be daunting for those heroes who teach physics but would not describe physics as their specialism. Even as specialist physics teachers, Thomas and Robin have struggled with “reaction”, free body diagrams and force arrows so it was great to welcome physics coach, teacher educator and veteran of “S1E1” Jessica Rowson joins us to put things right.

    Jessica is a teacher educator and senior lecturer at St Mary’s Twickenham, as well as Teaching and Learning Coach for the Ogden Trust. If you need any help with science / physics teaching or CPD, she can be contacted via the links below.

    Jessica, Thomas and Robin had a suggested teaching order as follows. You can find links to help you on the specifics below, as well as some useful forces resources

    • Start with the idea of a force as a ‘push or pull’
    • Introduce and explore force arrows that reflect both magnitude of the force (length of arrow) and the direction of the force (where arrow is pointing).
    • move on to sketching common objects and forces on them (Free Body Diagrams). Be careful to get students to abstract objects to ‘blobs’ before you lose a lot of time with artistic renditions of bikes or Ferraris).
    • Now on the laws themselves – start with Newton’s 3rd.
    • MISCONCEPTION ALERT: there is often confusion between normal supporting force and reaction force as described in Newton’s 3rd.
    • It’s vital to be clear on the wording of Newton’s 3rd: if object A exerts a force on object B, then object B exerts an equal and opposite (reaction) force on object A of the same type.
    • Spend some time working on the misconceptions around newton’s 3rd with plenty of examples.
    • Move on to Newton’s 1st law and the idea that a resultant force results in a change in motion.
    • MISCONCEPTION ALERT: Students will believe that a moving object has a force acting on it. This dies hard and so lots of examples needed here! Look at the BEST resources in the links section for some help!
    • Address the idea that objects on earth slow down and stop BECAUSE they always have resistive forces (friction or air resistance) acting on them.
    • Lastly, address Newton’s 2nd law where we can work out the change in motion that a resultant force causes.
    • We recommend introducing the iconic formula in the form a=F/m. Why? The acceleration is the change in motion, and can be quantified as the ratio of force to mass.

    Jess finishes with a description of a great experiment that will help students to think through the ideas of forces: any experiment involving a radio controlled car must be a winner.

    Thomas’ PowerPoint on Newtons-Third-LawDownload

    Links

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    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.

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  • SLOP

    SLOP

    We all get in to teaching for the gratitude. Oh yes. Happy students bounding to your door thanking you for your teaching; parents clogging the school switchboard begging to speak to you so they can effuse about the long evenings spent marking an planning; politicians, officials and regulators all falling over themselves to… oh, you get the idea: people don’t say thank you that often.

    He doesn’t like to mention it

    So we are celebrating this month: our very own Thomas WP receiving one of the IOP’s Teacher Awards. This is so well-deserved. Thomas is a passionate physics teacher who believes deeply in the subject and its ability to transform students thinking, and so their futures. He maintains a wonderful mix of wonder and open-mindedness for how to teach the Big Ideas, alongside a steely determination not to be drawn away from the subject he loves (unlike some dilettantes who head off to become a Head of 6th Form or something.)

    This is Robin writing the notes by the way: he will hate this and want me to remove it. Not a chance. Please also ensure that if you contact Thomas about anything, you refer at least once to him being “the award-winning Thomas WP”.

    Book 1

    This week we talk Shed Loads of Practice (SLOP) with another stalwart of physics, friend of the podcast and Lego Physics Guy, Lewis Matheson. Lewis tells us about his new book, and how Amazon is potentially democratising the publishing process.

    Lewis’s book is based on the principle that the ability to tackle physics problems is a skill akin to learning an instrument: it takes practice (preferably daily) to become expert and be confident in tackling new challenges.

    Practice may not make perfect, but it does make you better… we explore some of the educational labels that encompass SLOP: mastery, retrieval practice, automaticity and describe how SLOP might be a useful addition to help students learn.

    See the links section for some of the resources we discuss.

    We finish by musing on the perfect textbook. I certainly haven’t seen it yet: what would you like to see in there? Do let us know.

    Links

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    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.

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  • New to A-Level

    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.

    Mass-of-a-1m-ruler.pptxDownload

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    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.

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  • Ways to teach… The Start of A-Level Physics (16+)

    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!)

    Thanks to all the contributors via Twitter who came up with some great tips which we’ve summarised below (although you really should listen because Sarah and Ruth are great).

    Assume they forgot – year 12s are just year 11s who have had 3 months to forget everything. Ask them to pick up a copy of the CGP book, Head Start to AS Physics. Sarah particularly liked its focus on the skills they should have ‘in the bag’ from GCSE.

    Practical focus – practical work gives them a chance to think, collaborate and develop ideas. An open-ended measurement task works well (see the links section for “How long’s a piece of string”). It also gives you a chance to re-discover your inner 6 year-old, says Sarah: “Why? Why? Why?…”

    Choose questions carefully. Problem-solving and question-answering are central, but be careful to tailor them at first as they develop their skills. Carefully look at past paper questions to ensure suitability, and set them going with Isaac Physics early. We don’t mention him in the podcast, but don’t forget The Science Doctor (aka Friend of the Podcast, Dr Pete Edmunds). See the links section!

    Lest we forget, technicians are heroes: Sarah reveals the list of professionals who saved her life through her career.

    Whatever subject you teach, there are some good principles to help any new 6th former settle in, so help them by coaching them in or teaching them study skills. For example developing a study plan and / or time management (8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for study, 8 hours for you!)

    A lot of discussion on developing note-taking skills: some favoured scaffolding, some favoured question-led notes. Scaffolding of notes varied, so try some strategies and see which work for your group. Sarah was a fan of booklets (try and leverage others’ efforts here – again, see Science Doctor in the links). Sarah recommends using the Visualiser and the Apple Notability App.

    Worked examples are important (I believe the young folk call it modelling) but as with questions, think carefully about what skills you are trying to develop.

    Try and remember a bit of Showbiz – the “awe and wonder”. Sarah wins here with a rooftop in NYC and a tank of Liqui Nitrogen.

    Thomas reminds us that progress is not linear in year 12: expect a hockey stick progress graph, and keep the expectations high. Sarah’s advice on how to deal with stroppy and upset students should be on a plaque in every classroom: you’ll have to listen to find out though…

    We’ll be back soon, and as always, we want to hear what you want to discuss… if you fancy guesting, even better.

    Links

     

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    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.

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  • Ways to Teach… Space

    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. 

    Links to the resources we mention are listed below. 

    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.

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  • Girls in to Physics II

    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. 

    Thomas and Robin start with a chat about how to identify early on whether students are likely to succeed in A-level physics. We identify a number of strategies and challenges here… 

    • Whilst many students might choose physics as an A-level that they study for interest alone, most are looking to also achieve a grade that will allow them to progress. If a student is unlikely to achieve much better than a C it is only fair to have the conversation about what doors will be opened by that grade. 
    • Thomas and Robin both start with a maths test at the beginning of the year as the best indicator of a student’s potential in the subject. A poor performance in this test is not irrecoverable, but if the student also has low-level study skills, then this may be a sign that physics is too steep a challenge for them. 
    • Students who don’t have sufficient self-awareness to judge their performance and so just trust to hope are a difficult case, and a frank conversation with parents to manage expectations is best tackled early on. 

    We are lucky enough to be joined by Emeritus Professor Averil MacDonald who talks about how to make our classrooms more inclusive, for example using adjectives more often and giving physocs context in terms of careers and skills it gives you. Here’s a resource from SEPNet to give you some ideas. The IOP is also doing a lot to try and break down barriers. 

    As we carry on with the podcast we will be doing episodes every month or so, but would love to hear from you about you want to hear from us. And if you fancy coming on and talking about something with us, we would love to welcome you. 

    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.

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  • Big Classes, Small Classes and Thank Yous

    Big Classes, Small Classes and Thank Yous

    Thomas and Robin return for season 4, inexplicably without any awards for podcasting gold, but there are bigger mysteries in the world.  Not least, how does Thomas survive his DIY attempts?

    We start talking about BIG classes at A-level, and ways to get around a lack of equipment, but also address the other end of the size scale thanks to a question from “Thomas Young” (not that one) who has a rolled-together year 12/13 group of 3 students. Thomas and Robin make various logistic suggestions, but if you have any experience of this we’d love to hear from you: contact us below…

    We talk practice – i.e. becoming proficient through repeating techniques until they are 2nd nature. All very well but where do you find resources to help?? Well here’s some info…

    https://isaacphysics.org/

    https://sciencedoctor.school.blog/

    https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/

    We are honoured to welcome Emeritus Professor Averil MacDonald who tells us about a thank you event that the IOP ran at the end of last year to say thank you to physics teachers. If you are interested in the logistics of an online conference that allows ofr networking and breakout rooms etc, see https://remo.co/conference/

    We reflect on how physics teachers LOVE getting together and talking physics teaching. If you want to find the latest events, head to TalkPhysics events section and you will see details of all the IOP events both online and in person.  Averil also mentions eventbrite as a good place to find international events, and don’t forget, you can tell us about an event and we will happily promote.

    We finish with some ways that we ‘start’ at the beginning of the year to save our and our students’ sanities – vocab tests, units and conversions are all useful foundations that won’t generate huge amounts of marking and will be a good foundation for the future.

    However you’ve started, we hope you are enjoying it and that you are still on top of things. If you don’t feel on top of things, don’t worry and a particular tip of the hat to all the NQTs listening / reading – let us know how you are getting on.

    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.

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