Physics Update Course Summer 2013

The Aurora on Earth and Other Planets Tom Conlon Mr Conlon is a PhD student within the Radio and Space plasma physics group in the department of Physics and Astronomy The University of Leicester. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy) An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused […]

Physics Update Course Summer 2013

Exoplanets Dr Sarah Casewell Observational astronomer Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/physics/people/academic-staff/slc25 Dr Casewell’s research interests are in white and brown dwarfs. She has published research on topics as diverse as: the first T dwarfs in the Pleiades, the white dwarf initial mass-final mass relation and new L dwarfs in Blanco 1, […]

Physics Update Course Summer 2013

Discover the COSMOS particle physics activity Lynne Long, Professor Peter Watkins and Dr John Wilson University of Birmingham Z Mass with MINERVA talk This is an activity you can do yourself and it is very similar to some of the analysis activities that take place at CERN. My year 13 students do the first part […]

Physics Update Course Summer 2013

DtC Summer School in Volos Greece, Summer 2013 (I have to confess I didn’t go on this but I’ve added it because it might be of interest to some of you for future years) The DtC summer school was held in Volos, Greece (30/07/2013-04/08/2013)., validated by the equivalent National Agency and it was published in […]

Physics Update Course Summer 2013

Nanotechnology Tiny Structures, Big Ideas and Grey Goo Professor Chris Binns Head of the condensed matter physics and professor of Nanoscale Physics (Nanoclusters Group) at the University of Leicester http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/physics/research/cmp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology The Nanoworld contains all structures with a size up to 100nm. In the above picture there is an image of a 13 atom cluster […]

Physics Update Course Summer 2013

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 […]

Message from the blogger

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 […]

A Level physics day for teachers

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 […]

A Level Physics day for teachers

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 […]

A Level Physics day for teachers

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