This summer’s IOP physics update course for teachers was kindly hosted by the Physics and Astronomy department of Leicester University. http://www.iop.org/education/teacher/cpd/update/page_41695.html http://www.le.ac.uk/ http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/physics http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/physics/outreach I would like to thank Dr Tracey Dickens, Outreach Officer for Physics and Astronomy at Leicester University, Ms Manchi Chung project coordinator (teacher support) at the Institute of Physics and the […]

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I set up this blog at the start of 2012. The aim was for me to write up events that were carried out by staff and students within the science department of Rooks Heath College. This has included courses that I personally have attended that have been put on by the Institute of Physics and […]

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Active learning http://www.york.ac.uk/education/research/cirse/older/epse/ http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/58277/ – Geoff Petty (2nd ed, 2009) Evidence-based Teaching http://www.york.ac.uk/education/research/cirse/older/epse/resources/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Training_Laboratories http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/polovina/learnpyramid/about.htm Randall Knight’s book Five Easy Lessons (2004) http://educ.queensu.ca/ar/t4ql/5lessons.html Girls in Physics In 2011, physics was the fourth most popular subject for A-level among boys in English schools but for girls the subject languished in 19th place.  The institute of Physics […]

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Practical work – Graphs and their interpretation Robert Birke Teaching and learning coach Stimulating Physics Network robert.birke@iop.org As a physics teacher I very rarely have the time to do whole experiments. I just get time to check the equipment is working so it was quite refreshing to have a go at some experiments under the […]

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CERN@school Bringing CERN into the classroom For information see http://cernatschool.org

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Making molecules real Prof Neil A. Downie Air Products Plc / University of Surrey/ Royal Academy of Engineering http://www.saturdayscience.org/ At the start of his lecture Professor Downie demonstrated some of the experiments from his book. You can see him demonstrate some of these experiments such as the carrot cannon on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kecNGkZWD_4   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultimate-Book-Saturday-Science-ebook/dp/B007BOB8EU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375052670&sr=1-1 The […]

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Research carried out at King’s College London Different scales in the Universe: Two different scales at once From the very small to the very big http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_imaging    http://www.kcl.ac.uk/biohealth/research/divisions/randall/research/sections/structural/index.aspx The Structural Biology Section of Kings focuses on determining protein structures by X-ray crystallography and NMR, supported by other biophysical techniques and computer-aided molecular modelling. Current research […]

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Update on Cosmic Inflation and Dark Stuff Malcolm Fairbairn, KCL Physics malcolm.fairbairn@kcl.ac.uk Research Dr Fairbairn’s  research is concerned with the interaction between cosmology, particle physics and astrophysics. In particular he is interested in dark matter, dark energy, cosmological inflation and particle astrophysics. Cosmic inflation, not to be confused with ……..        Historical note: […]

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This course took place on the 28th June 2013 and was a collaboration between the Stimulating Physics Network, Institute of Physics, King’s College London and the London Science Learning centre. http://www.stimulatingphysics.org/ The Institute of Physics and the Science Learning Centres have formed a partnership to establish and run a support network for teachers and pupils […]

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Year 12 Rooks Heath Physics students at Thorpe Park You might think that physics is all about boring things like electricity but it is important for fun things like animations and thrill rides such as those at Thorpe Park. The students were lucky to spend the day experiencing the rides and took part in a […]

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