The Physics Teaching Podcast: Recent Episodes
Thomas W-P and Robin Griffiths
We catch up with teacher and author Dr Ben Still to get tips on how to address Particles at A-Level.
The podcast starts with the sad news that Robin is finding it impossible to make enough time for the podcast in his new job – he is stepping back for the time being and will contribute again when he feels he can. He actually joined to contribute to this episode in his 30 minutes of free time but then his internet died before he said a word. Sad times.
Dr Ben Still worked with neutrinos on the T2K experiment before writing the lego book on Particle Physics and then seeing the light and going in to teaching. Like Thomas, Rosie has no background in Particle Physics and had a few questions for Ben which he was kind enough to answer.
Links* Dr Ben Still * Quarkle Card Game (Pre-printed Deck) * Quarkle Card Game (Printable version from resources shared by Matthew Benyohai) * CERN’s Contribution to Society * Dry Ice on-line – but don’t forget this is easily made for free (and bonus awe and wonder) on-site with protective guantlets, an expired CO2 fire extinguisher and a tote bag.
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.
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The first in our series of interviews with the Ogden Trust and a glimpse into the key life experiences that motivated Sir Peter Ogden towards a life time career supporting physics educators and education.
Thomas, Robin and I reminisce about the inspirational teachers that lead us into careers in physics education; Quirky characters and memorable methods abound. We also share our favourite practical actives to bring fun, flair and engagement into the classroom.
- The Ogden Trust
- Marching Soldiers Activity – Explaining Refraction
- Energy Ball – Teaching Circuits with students
- Brainiacs – Electric Fence Video
- “Air is Heavy”- Thomas’ blog post from the podcast’s early days
- The Flame Probe “Silver, Gold, Blades, Fire and High Voltage”
- Calculating Specific Latent Heat (Bond energy of water) – with Mrs Physics
- Aluminium Foil Speakers – with Rhett Allain
- Wimshurst Machine
Sir Peter OgdenIf you have a moment please do share with us your favourite YouTube videos or memorable practicals to inspire and engage – there is a contact form on every page of the web site – the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email us contact at thephysicsteachingpodcast dot com or on X – @physicstp or BlueSky @physicstp.bsky.social.
Join in!Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social . You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.
Music* 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.
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This week, as the term starts, Rosie has been using plastic bottles to allow her year 10s to ‘feel’ gas pressure increasing with temperature. Thomas has had to slow down and take things easy having lost his voice (but thankfully he recovered in time to join us to record this podcast) and Robin has made the time within his fast-and-furious schedule at his new school to speak with Ben Rogers, author of Big Ideas in Physics and How to Teach Them, about Physics in Primary Science and more specifically the topic of Space.
Dear listener, what advice would you give to a non-specialist primary school teacher about to teach space? Is it “That all kids love space and dinosaurs” or would you go into the common science misconceptions that are picked-up at a young age and how to go about building models and stories into teaching pedagogy to help students understand abstract concepts? Whatever your preference Ben and Robin have some great ideas on both these areas. Including how to make Primary science tactile by using globes and getting students moving by learning technical terms through British Sign Language. (Link to BSL scientific keywords can be found below).
Finally a huge thank you to all our dear listeners that have sent in their favourite Youtube videos. If you haven’t had a chance to contact us then there is still time to send in a link that you think other teachers would enjoy and benefit from using. Contact forms can be found on every page of the web site –the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email us contact@thephysicsteachingpodcast.dot.com or on X – @physicstp or on Instagram – @physics_teaching_podcast or on BlueSky @physicstp.bsky.social.
Links* Ben Rogers – Big Ideas in Physics and How to Teach Them: Physics 11-18 * Primary Science In a Nutshell Website (Book version coming out soon). * Day and Night Demonstration * Phases of the Moon Demonstration * British Sign Language for Curriculum Terms * Marvin and Milo
Marvin and MiloJoin 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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
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.
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Welcome back for another year of Physics Teaching ramblings. It has been a momentous Summer with Thomas cycling off into the mountains for his sabbatical, Robin becoming ever more important in his new school and the arrival on board of the new co-host Rosie McTavish. Robin and Thomas visited Rosie at McTavish Towers to deliver her vacuum cannon and think about the year ahead. We forgot to take a photo though. We have new theme music – it is called Physics Is Our Business by Miracles of Modern Science
The new season starts without Robin who is up to his eyeballs in management stuff – though he has recorded an interview that will be the backbone of Episode 2. Rosie and Thomas reminisce about their summers and Thomas asks the dear listeners if they have any favourite “must see” youtube videos they would like us to share. Then on to the meat of the podcast – taking the podcast back to its roots: supporting the heroic non-specialists who take on this magnificent subject.
If someone is teaching a required GCSE practical or PAG and need advice, what would you say to them in that 10 minute chat at break? This episode we selected good old Ramps and Trolleys. What can you do, what should you record and how can you use the data?
Thomas thinks it will be large groups so is keen to give specific roles for the experiment and Rosie likes to measure the speed of the trolley once it has left the ramp. We both love light gates and think they are worth the time to learn how to use them for the excellent data they can provide. Good questions to ask are if you double the height do you double the speed (no) or halve the time to descend the ramp (yes) – these can give more of a focus to the lesson rather than just gathering data.
Inevitably we want to draw a graph and Rosie reminds Thomas about scale selectors – little strips that allow the students to line up with the bottom of their graph paper and work out which scale is best.
Do share your favourite youtube videos – there is a contact form on every page of the web site – the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email us contact at thephysicsteachingpodcast dot com or on X – @physicstp or BlueSky @physicstp.bsky.social.
Scale SelectorsMore scale selectorsLinksYoutube on straws in to a pumpkin aka Deadly Straw bullets – thanks to Gian Ascone.
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
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.
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Thomas tells Rosie about some special episodes coming next term.
As the summer holiday is finally on the horizon, Robin is off sailing and Thomas cycles his way into his sabbatical, crossing Northern Spain from Santiago de Compostela to A Coruña, and stops to take a breather and share with Rosie some of the exciting new episodes lined up for September.
Listen in as Thomas asks some titans of the Physics teaching world “What does the Ogden Trust mean to you?” and gives us a taste of episodes to come in September.
Links* The Ogden Trust * Our Episode about The Ogden Trust – What the Ogden Trust Can Do For You * Roman Light House – Tower of Hercules * The Ogden Trust – A brief History * ‘What the Ogden Trust can do for you’ episode * Lewis Matheson – Physics Online (@legopysicsguy) * Carol Kenrick – The really helpful Science Education Blog (@Helpful Science) * Jed Marshall – Marshall Physics * Everton McClymont * Jessica Rowson * James De Winter * Edward Ogden * Melanie Windbridge * Becky Parker (@ProfBeckyParker) * PGL – School adventure and camping trips
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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Robin and Rosie are joined by former physics teacher Thomas to talk tech… After making the case for peer tutoring (low-cost, high impact according to the EEF), we turn our attention to EdTech for the 3rd time.
Dr David Boyce returns for the last in our series of chats about seismic technological shifts driven by EdTech. I hope you have checked the two previous episodes on 3d-printing and AI. Today, David makes the case for graphic tablets as an alternative to blackboards, whiteboards and smartboards. This has real resonance with the team – and hopefully will give you another option to consider when you are planning tech for the classroom. David’s point that the limited functionality makes it more appealing is a tantalising one.
David’s ReMarkable – using FIFA (Formula, Insert Values, Fine Tune, Answer)Rosie says hello via WacomLinks* EEF – Peer tutoring * ReMarkable / ReMarkable 2 * Wacom * SLOP Episode * GCSE Long Answers Episode * Simply Piano * MyEdSpace
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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The second in our trilogy of breakthrough technologies in Physics teaching, Dr David Boyce takes us on a journey through AI, its possibilities and how he has used it.
Sharp eyed listeners will note that the title of this podcast does not match the episode art. This is becuase AI renamed the episode for us…
Don’t forget that the vacuum cannon is back on sale!
The Apocrophal James Joule and his wife (possibly)Will Smith Eating Spaghetti (2023/2024)Links* Will Smigh Eating Spaghetti (youtube) * Rosie’s AI for music to pictures? * Bing AI for creating images aka “Image Creator from Microsoft Designer” * Claude AI * Chat GPT
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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 – 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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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:
View this post on Instagram A post shared by The King's School Peterborough (@kingsschoolpeterborough)
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 – 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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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We talk with Jackie Flaherty about how the Ogden SKPT programme approaches Atomic Physics. Ths course is broken down as follows and we use this as a structure for the podcast:
- Challenges as an intro
- Models of the atom – diagnostics and liaising with colleagues from Chemistry, size and scale
- Half life – models and limitations, how to develop understanding, multiple representations,
- Applications – importance of secure understanding of subject matter knowledge – SATIS style problem solving
- Background radiation and physics in the news– science capital teaching approach, scientific literacy
- History and stories
- Nuclear fission – opinion boards, debate, models and process
At the end of the episode we finally inform the dear listener that we will be mothballing the podcast at the end of this academic year. Thomas is off to avoid falling off his bike whilst cycling slowly up mountains and Robin is getting distracted trying to find his dark side as he scrabbles up the tiers of management. We don’t think it is a full stop for the podcast, but a pause until we are both back in the game. We intend to do some work with the Ogden Trust before we go.
The Ogden Trust aims to increase the uptake of physics post-16 by supporting physics education and engagement for all young people (4-18), particularly those in under-represented groups. The Trust supports schools, teachers, projects and programmes that are committed to enhancing physics teaching and learning.
The Ogden Trust
The Ogden Trust mission statement almost exactly sums up our thinking when we started the podcast. They existed long before we began and will continue long after. We will do what we can to promote them in our remaining episodes in the hope that late arrivals to the podcast will have somewhere else to turn other than a couple of nuggets!
Links* 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 – 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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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 setupMatching coils with Hall ProbeJoin 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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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!
Linkshttps://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 – 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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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.
LinksCLEAPSS – why join?
PDF L93 Ionising Radiations and Radioactive Substances – CLEAPSS
XKCD – comparing radioactive doses
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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!
LinksAlbert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship
Richard Brock’s Stories from Physics: Weird Units and Wonderful Measures
The xkcd Radiation Dose Chart
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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.
heat-transfer-activitiesDownloadHeat-transfer-worksheetDownloadHeat-transfer-worksheet-w-ANSWERSDownloadLinks* Lead absorbtion practical simulation in Excel * ChatGPT * Google AI * Claude AI
Inverse square Law CarouselThomas 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 rotationVernier 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 magnetLight – don’t forget risk assessment of the hot bulb vs black paperSound – stop the beam and just measure amplitudeSound setupJoin 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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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 randomlyThis 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
- Heathland School, Hounslow
- Accuracy & Precision
- Thermistors with a multimeter
- The Ogden Trust
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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:
-
- 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 – 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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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After a break that was longer than we had planned due to bike accidents and ridiculous workloads, we are back and raring to go. Although physics teachers raring to go is the problem we discuss this week* with Friend of the Podcast, Senior Lecturer and physics teacher retention guru, Mark Whalley.
Thomas drops the bombshell that he is taking an extended sabbatical from teaching**. Before he fell off his bike (again) and broke three ribs (again) we had planned to speak to Mark about this and it was a pleasure to finally catch up.
Mark has run projects for the IOP around retention (see the link below to “Keep Teaching”) and we ask him the question: what is in a school’s power to prevent Physics Teachers from leaving the profession?
As a school leader what can you do? Well Mark has a few tips
- Respect teachers’ professionalism: minimise the menial admin istrative tasks they have to carry out.
- Avoid CPD that is none of those things. Allow physics teachers time to explore their professional practice. It is more challenging for them in isolation.
- Recognise the extra burden on physics teachers in small departments (often only 1!) and allow extra time for them to support physics teaching in the school (e.g. for non-specialist colleagues).
- Timetable sympathetically. Nothing annoys scarce physics teachers more than spending large chunks of their time teaching other subjects.
Robin suggests the radical step of breaking the universal pay agreement for shortage subjects… what do you think? Would a pay scale for shortage subjects work, or be more trouble than it’s worth? Share your thoughts on X (Twitter).
With the management challenges facing schools, this issue is lower on the list of SLT priorities than it should be, but perhaps we can change a few things to raise the issue. Mark’s helped us to suggest a few low cost things that perhaps we CAN do.
*I know – we haven’t lost ANY of our slickness…
** He wants to fall off his bike in more exotic locations.
Links* KEEP Teaching episode with Mark * EEF Keep Teaching Project * STEM Learning: Missing Physics Teachers * Physics teacher shortage Infographic (Gatsby Foundation) * Effect of retention bonuses on physics teacher attrition * 2020 Policy briefing on science teacher retention from the Royal Society
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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:
- Description – of what you observe and what is happening
- Explanation in terms of mechanisms and processes; changes that occur due to forces, differences in temperature, chemical reactions etc.
- 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* Our previous episode: The ” New” Model of Energy * Teaching Secondary Physics Text Book (amazon or Millgate House) * “Swinging Ball of Death” – Big Pendulum * 9 Blogs from IoP about the New Energy Curriculu * IoP Spark Questions about Energy (also available for download as a pdf)
Teaching Secondary Physics 3rd Edition
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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
- Gary Adams’ google drive folder of questions by question type.
- Flora App – https://flora.appfinca.com/
- Our episode on Literacy and Long Answers
- AQA
- Edexcel
- OCR
- Eduqas
- Physics and Maths Tutor
- Save my Exams
- Plickers
https://t.co/CxXS8CvUbM if other A-level physics teachers will find these useful. I have these collections of AQA exam questions organised by theme rather than topic. #alevels2023 @Hookean1
— Gary Adams (@Grooze9) March 29, 2023
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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
- UCAS – changes to the reference for 2024 entry
- A tongue in cheek guide to how NOT to keep a lab book
- Explore physics modelling in Python
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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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-LawDownloadLinks* Jessica Rowson at the Ogden Trust and St Mary’s Twickenham * BEST on Forces and Motion * IOP Spark Forces CPD * How to draw force arrows… * force arrows and free body diagrams
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), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.
Music* Season 5: 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.
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Mastery, retrieval practice, automaticity, call it what you will, practice makes... better!
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!)
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.
Thomas and Robin return after an extended break to talk A-level expectations, girls in physics and strategies for inclusion.
New year, new groups and tips to get underway. All this and an interview with the force of nature that is Professor Averil MacDonald. It can only be a brand new season of TPTP.
Well, we made it. What. A. Year. Robin and Thomas hook up with Patrick Kaplo to hear about how he has been getting on in the North Eastern USA and, as usual, get somewhat distracted. Thomas nobly tries to steer the whimsical chat towards physics teaching with limited success.
Patrick had to cancel his extraordinary trebuchet competition because of the pandemic (see video below) and has also been suffering under incredible heat. This leads to him crushing another of Thomas' stereotypes about the USA and for Thomas to explain how he used his Physics teaching knowledge to save some money by investing in an inverter.
Thomas thanks David Cotton (@newmanphysics on twitter) for a gift he sent of a vintage textbook of practicals and a tiny triple LED light demonstrator.
We drift in to chatting about how relevant our Physics specs are to everyday life. Thomas asserts that he only used his knowledge of a vernier scale but Patrick quicly points out all the other ways. Robin is adamant (look away now CLEAPPS) that a basic knowledge of electricity is enough to do DIY electricity*.
We then talk about the difficult year and Thomas reflects on his failures with Year 7 - making the same mistakes he made in his first years of teaching. We talk about what we are going to take forward from the pandemic and really hope that CPD will be better! No more drawing a "perfect teacher" or "perfect student"...
Patrick and Robin both have a new start next year and Thomas is expecting a huge uptick in students at A-Level. We talk through the changes we'll face. If you teach a huge class of A-Level students PLEASE get in touch and come on the podcast to tell us your strategies. Patrick has itchy feet and wants to avoid James de Winter's "velvet lined rut".
Finally some thank yous. Thank you to everyone who has listened, we couldn't do it without your support and kind words. Thank you to all the guests; so many wonderful people who have freely given their time. Thank you to Robin for being the brains of the operation, bringing some credibility and always doing the show notes (and nearly always on time). This is my least favourite task but I have muddled through ~ Thomas
+And thank you Thomas for all the heavy lifting ~ Robin
Thomas has received a shiny new Travelling Microscope with a 0.01 mm precision vernier scale. There is only one thing he wants to talk about. First Thomas talks briefly avbout his 205 mile (329km) ride for Education Support (the only UK charity dedicated to the mental health and wellbeing of education staff in schools, colleges and universities). He's raised over £1,300 so far, and the donation page is still open. We then thank Tim Browett for getting in touch. Tim is going to be our guest for Ways to teach... Space, so if you have any ideas please share them with us in the usual ways (@physicstp on twitter and a contact form on the web site). Then on to the vernier scale, which was invented in 1631 by Pierre Vernier and is a simple way of taking high precision measurements. Thomas describes how he introduces it in class by making a large 1 cm scale vernier that can measure mm. This was the way Thomas taught himself to use it when he was doing A-Level and he thinks nothing beats the experience of working it out with a large scale where you can see things happening in front of you.
100 official episodes! Who would have expected it? We hook up on a beautiful day in Essex to talk about why we love Physics and go off on a series of tangents.
The aim is to talk through ones people suggest that are actually usable in lessons. As usual we get excited and make a few mistakes. Thomas is pretty sure that aeroplanes are made of aluminium, not steel and there were a few mentioned (Ant Man, Hulk) that we forgot to cover.
Thomas and Robin are joined by Paul Cook, senior lead technician at Ark Burlington Danes Academy and lead technician for the Ark Academy network. Paul gives us his top tips on how to get the most out of your relationship with your technician.
A short chat about teaching light with simple tools like light boxes (shoe boxes with a colour filter), lenses and mirrors.
Thomas and Robin discuss a few strategies you might use to help you assess your exam groups in physics, as well as grappling with pervasive mass-weight confusion.
Thomas was interested in how the brain makes its own beat, and put together this little sound test. You'll need headphones to appreciate it properly, but it is interesting to listen to on speakers as well.
Loosely focused on KS3 (but when have we ever stuck to the brief), this episode looks at ways to teach sound with David Cotton, the most enthusiastic proponent of the topic.
We are delighted to be joined by Mark Robinson (@mark_robo) who has had some deep thoughts about how to write and mark questions. So much so that he has taught a computer to do it for him and you can use it too!
We are delighted to be joined by the inspirational David Cotton to talk about supporting trainees who have missed out so much during the pandemic.
Thomas and Robin are joined by Patrick Kaplo from Wyndham, New Hampshire to follow up on a question he asked way back at the beginning of the Covid crisis, namely "How will this change our practice?"
We are delighted to be joined once more by Friend of the Podcast and Physics Teacher Support Polymath Carole Kenrick (@HelpfulScience) to talk about Literacy for Physics.
We are so privileged this week to be joined by Christina Astin. She wears so many hats she would keep a division of milliners employed, but she kindly talks us through some of her most recent and most important work.
Will introduces us to Nearpod which is a beautifully designed teaching aid that has lots of excellent features to help you with AFL during lockdown.
Thomas and Robin return to talk survival as we lock down again. With many teachers now doing hybrid teaching, we discuss strategies for keeping sane.
We talk through the dear listener's favourite holiday season activities; things that make you smile then think.
Thomas and Robin have a couple of goes at sharing the ideas our dear listener has given us about teaching about magnetic fields and magnetism. We were particularly thinking about non-specialists who are likely to be covering this with the younger kids.
What are ranking questions and why do they matter? James de Winter pops by to tell us. What do we do about resource curation? Could you be the answer?
How great to reach out across the pond and catch up again with Patrick Kaplo (an early hero of the podcast who teaches in Windham, NH). He has been hunkering down and adapting to new paradigms, and it is refreshing to hear that the problems we are all dealing with are pretty similar, no matter where you are in the world.
Thomas and Robin meet outside, at an appropriate social distance, to remember Tim Hardingham and introduce an interview with the PhET Head of Development Ariel Paul (@DrArielPaul). Surely all physics teachers have heard of this outstanding free source of simulations and demos provided by the University of Colorado Boulder.
Robin and Thomas are joined by Rajani Nair (@NairPhysics), (who before answering our tweet had not heard of the podcast) and who shares her ideas about teaching Specific Heat Capacity at A-Level. She also has a wonderful memorable practical which involves throwing eggs. We are then joined by James de Winter in a (hopefully) regular slot "Dispatches with de Winter" where he talks about the book 5 Easy Lessons.
The Nobel Prize is still the ultimate accolade and viewed with envy by the fields that don't have a Nobel Prize (in your face, maths!). This week we start by congratulating the three winners of the 2020 physics prize: Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez, before talking to FoTP, Carole Kenrick about Domains and Zines.
Thank you so much for making such a great job of teaching with the Covid restrictions! Given the circumstances, schools have done an extraordinary job, and this episode shows how teachers will always find a silver lining. We get a raft of ideas from folk turning the situation to their advantage; for example using visualisers to zero in on the crucial points of practicals, using OneNote to 'write' equations for you... we could go on.
Way back at the beginning of series one we were thrilled to hear from an international school teacher named Matt who had just landed in Lima. Fast forward two years and we have finally managed to organise a chat with the fabulous Matt Bowman.
Season 3 continues to deliver physics royalty as James de Winter joins us. James is the physics tutor on the Cambridge PGCE course and has seen generations of physics teachers through their training. Having met a fair sample I can say that all of them hold James in the sort of reverence that Luke reserved for Obi Wan.
Robin and Thomas reflect on a first week back under the new covid guidelines and find time to talk through a simple required practical - timing a trolley rolling down a ramp.
Thomas and Robin look forward to a new - albeit different - school year with some reflections on "the new normal" and an interview with physics-teaching Royalty.
Thomas doesn't know which week it is; thinking there is one more week of term he drags Robin to his garage to test some vacuum cannon upgrades. Thomas and Robin also look backwards and forwards though the podcast's second season. A Tight Collar Thomas has been experimenting with the collars that are used to join vacuum cannon spec pipes. After initial excitement (described in the podcast) Thomas does some further testing (described in an addendum) and finds that they don’t seal perfectly when pushed on dry and that the hole in the middle is slightly smaller than a table tenis ball (which probably doesn’t matter). The collars can be cut in to slices to make round flanges with three benefits: - Greater surface area for the tape to grip - The potential for “reloading” the tape off-line whilst another shot is prepared (one of the issues with the cannon is the pfaff of taping it up in the lesson - Easier reloading when you forget the ball! The slices can also be used as a mechanical support for the “gold standard” flange – if you have managed to persuade tech. to make you them. Thank you. It’s Been… Emotional There are so many people to thank. We would not do this without you dear listener. The emails we get cheer us up and keep us going. We have had so many guests; thank you to you for giving up your time and being so flexible. (Special mention here to Miss Neutrino who happily rerecorded the podcast after Thomas didn’t press the right button). Thanks to Patrick Kaplo, who has become a good friend and who we were very disappointed not to meet face to face this Spring. Finally, thanks to our families, who think we are bonkers but wave us off to our respective cupboard and garage each week.
What will the well-dressed physics lab be wearing this year? Jonathan Shaw secured £53,000 of funding to kit out his physics department and asked Thomas and Robin to throw this over to the physics-teaching hive mind, and you did not disappoint! We had some fantastic suggestions, and some surprises.
Peter is one of those special people who is a finisher. Dissatisfied with the resources available to him in his trainee year, Peter set about creating his own resources. Not only that, he shared them through his web site, sciencedoctor.school.blog. His one problem with all this #sharingiscaring? The endless requests for the answers. If you use the resources and there are no answers, then please send them to him. Thomas says he will put a link to Peter's site on the resources aggregator we host, https://resources.physicsteachingpodcast.com. Peter also suggests ways of spending Jonathan Shaw's £50,000 on Physics equipment - his ideal would be to spend £10,000 on one big ticket item. Thomas is skeptical, Robin delighted. Finally, Peter's Practical in Memoriam is a beautiful way of making one of the less inspiring practicals (density) more appealing.
Rachel tells us what she's learned about getting yourself online. Empowering stuff and some great advice from Rachel about how to make a resource that will be of lasting value in your classroom.
Jo is a career-changer from a medical background who kindly agreed to join us to chat about her experience of teaching physics.
Friend of the podcast Dave Farmer returns to talk about a subject to strike fear into any physics teacher's heart: uncertainty! We peel away some layers of complexity to reveal... more layers of complexity! Having worked with a lot of exam boards' A-level specs over the last few years, Dave recommends reading the mark schemes and looking for examples of what your particular exam board recommends. Whether we are talking scale resolution, combining uncertainties or ascertaining the gradient of a graph with error bars, we couldn't agree on any of them. But don't despair, there's a lot of uncertainty about uncertainty, so just work out what your exam board require and after that, let your students develop their ideas.
We also emphasise that all of these methods are estimations and approximations: rigorous statistical consideration of uncertainty is a scientific career in itself, so inevitably A-level is just going to scratch the surface.
Finally we celebrate a physics teaching hero: take a bow Dr Peter Edmunds the Science Doctor who has shared an immense catalogue of resource for physics at all stages. Stuck for some resources? You'll find something on Peter's excellent site - link below. Why not fill your boots and then buy Pete a coffee?
Wall-to-wall gimmicky demos on this week's podcast as we welcome John Hudson. Although we call them gimmicky, nothing could be farther from the truth: John introduces us to some great experiments and demos that are crammed full of physics to inspire and talk about.
What can we usefully get students doing at home to explore their physics and what (cheap) kit might we be able to provide them with come September?
We are delighted to talk to Mark Whalley, IOP Education Manager, former headteacher, and of course, a physics teacher. Robin caught up with him to chat about KEEP Teaching, a project funded by the EEF, run by the IOP, and evaluated by UCL that is looking to find out what will keep early-career physics teachers in the classroom.
The "new normal" has once again shrunk the globe, as Thomas and Robin reach out to Alberta, Canada to talk to the inspirational Laura Pankratz of the Perimeter Institute. Just as well we talked to her when we did because apparently we've discovered a black hole next door...
The "new normal" is just another way of saying "weird" as far as we're concerned. In this episode, we range around the emergency assessment routines that OFQUAL have put into place, reflecting on the humanity and fairness that they have managed to salvage from what is a stressful and potentially difficult end to our GCSE and A-level students' studies. It is interesting to contrast with CPAC, as this time of year also sees us tidying up and finishing of this traditional aspect of A-level assessment. Thomas talks about his experience as an exam board moderator, and we discuss whether this model of accountability has somehow lost its way.
Alexia has a Physics degree from Imperial (which made Robin happy) and a PGCE from the London Institute of Education (which made Thomas happy). She has many strings to her bow. In addition to being a physics teacher, Alexia is a LaTeX guru, has a fascinaton with neutrinos and tweets as @MissNeutrino. Alexia tells us about her NQT year and how she is faring in her first year as a Teacher.
Thomas and Robin have heard some strange tales of what is going on in different schools. Virtual learning walks sounds like unnecessary stress at this strange time and what about detentions for the kids if they don't turn up on-line?
They have had some success with Teams and discuss how they are trying to set work for the children that is practical rather than more worksheets. Thomas is missing equipment for teaching and Robin is missing his colleagues.
On we go in this strange time...
Patrick, Thomas and Robin try out zoom. Patrick tells us hhis successes and failures and gives Thomas the top tip of zoom breakout rooms. Thomas is clueless about what to do with Year 7 and asks for advice. Thomas then chats with Emma Brown in Shanghai who has to teach classes of 70+ online. She has some good advice about using video and ways of checking the kids are engaged. Finally Thomas and Robin report back about how they got on and Thomas gives an update on his collaboration with Helen Reynolds making a resource site for Physics teachers.
So much has happened in such a short time, Thomas and Robin decide to talk to some experts about how to support their students remotely. YouTube is a great resource, but also Physics teachers all over the World are cooperating and sharing. The podcast scrapes the surface of this but we get some good advice along the way.
Fabio Di Salvo joins us to talk about Chat Physics, Physics chat on Twitter. Robin asks for advice about the photoelectric effect.
Active Instruction
Maths in Physics, What's the Point?
- Ben, Big Ideas and beginnings
- Reading, Research and Reversing Through Time
