Begbroke Nano Teachers’ Day

Tour of the Laboratories http://www.begbroke.ox.ac.uk/SiteMap.php Dr Frank Dillon kindly let us have a look at his laboratory and talked to us about nanotubes and his work with them. He joined the Nanomaterials Group in the Department of Materials, Oxford University in July 2008. He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of […]

Girls in Physics

It’s Different for Girls How can parents support the take-up of A-level physics by girls? A briefing sheet Research published by the Institute of Physics shows that a shocking 46% of schools in England sent no girls on to study A-level physics in 2011. Physics graduates earn salaries well above the average and the subject […]

Begbroke Nano Teachers’ Day

Solar cells http://cnx.org/contents/dd0537a2-fb5d-439d-8feb-bf2e50656dae@1 Semiconductor solar cells In physics lessons we tend to just look at semiconductor solar cells. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell A solar cell (also called a photovoltaic cell) is an electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. It is a form of photoelectric cell, defined as a device […]

Begbroke Nano Teachers’ Day

Making gold and silver nanoparticles I was truly amazed when we were shown the range of colours that silver nanoparticles can produce depending on their size. http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2010/jm/c0jm01990a/unauth#divAbstract We were shown pictures of the different colours. I found the above image from the above web link. Each colour is caused by different size silver nanoparticles suspended […]

Begbroke Nano Teachers’ Day

These activities aimed at finding ways of experiencing the nano world and gaining confidence in using numbers to explain what we can’t see. We have nanodetectors built into our bodies. Our noses are particularly good. We can smell something such as dilute perfume without actually seeing it. To prove this we were given some scented […]

Begbroke Nano Teachers’ Day

Carbon and making a model Buckyball Introduction Studying material science allows new products to be made with greater efficiency and lower costs. The choice of material for a new product depends on the function of the new product and how its properties will enhance the product. A famous example is reinforced concrete. Concrete itself is […]

Begbroke Nano Teachers’ Day

An introduction to nanoscience and nanotechnology What is a nanoparticle? A nanoparticle is a particle between 1 and 100 nanometres in size. In nanotechnology, a particle is defined as a small object that behaves as a whole unit with respect to its transport and properties. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoparticle Nanoparticles have been around a long time having first […]

Begbroke Nano Teachers’ Day

Begbroke Science Park The day’s activities took place at Begbroke Science Park and they were brilliantly coordinated by Dr Vanessa Cheel and Dr Christiane Norenberg. If you are an interested teacher they are running the course again in 2015: 5 March 2015 & 15 July 2015 I can thoroughly recommend this course whatever your specialism […]

Teachers Day at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory 2014

The Role of Physics in Nuclear Medicine Dr Laura Harkness-Brennan University of Liverpool http://ns.ph.liv.ac.uk/imaging-group/group-members/laura-harkness.php Medical Imaging Creating images of inside the body Used in a non-invasive way to diagnose structural and biological problems There are various established techniques used in hospitals • Radiography • MRI • Ultrasound • Nuclear imaging • Physics, engineering, biology, chemistry, […]

Teachers Day at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory 2014

Tour of ISIS http://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISIS_neutron_source Scott Lawrie, who is involved in research using ISIS, kindly, took us around. The reason for the microphone was because the noise made it. This is what he had to say about his job at ISIS: I work for the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) on the ISIS […]