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2006 Phys. Educ. 41 93
(http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9120/41/2/M01)
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NEWS
YOUR NEWS WANTED
The news section gives updates on what has been happening in physics education worldwide. Items included
show how events in one country could be relevant to good practice elsewhere in the world. Contributions
are welcome from all of our readers. They should be about 200–300 words long and can include pictures. Please
send your news items for the May issue of Physics Education to ped@iop.org before 21 March 2006.
ASE
Dramatic demonstrations steal
the show at ASE ’06 conference
The UK’s Association for Science
Education (ASE) annual confer-
ence took place at Reading, near
London, on 4–6 January. As has
become traditional, the Physics
Education editorial board (and a
friend) presented a demonstration
lecture featuring ideas that have
either appeared in these pages or
will do in a forthcoming issue.
With an hour to fill the six stars of
the show had slightly less than
10 minutes each, and packed some Figure 2. David Richardson and
sparkling gems into their slots. Figure 1. Kerry Parker shows Ken Zetie get involved in an
Kerry Parker kicked off with off her magical alphabet. electromagnetic tug of war.
some demonstrations based on
sight and colour. The first big
‘wow!’ from the audience came
with a small device Kerry had
picked up in the sale at Harrods
(as one does). The taxi hailer has
a strip of LEDs that flash in such
as manner that when the device is
rotated you see letters appear in
the air. In figure 1 you can see the
letter T in red. This isn’t written
on the board in the background Figures 3 and 4. Bernard takes aim...and Clare holds on tight.
but is ‘floating’in mid air and cap-
tured by the clever photographic lems), and he also demonstrated narrowly missed Ken Zetie.
wizardry of David Smith. his balls of steel – two big steel Thankfully his arrows never trav-
Following Kerry was David ball bearings that burn through elled far enough to be of concern
Richardson of Clifton College, paper when hit together. but Bernard also had a toy UFO
Bristol, with a collection of ideas Bernard Taylor vowed to make that travelled quite a distance and
from his many touring lectures. sure we all left the room intact from which he’d obtained meas-
One of the more challenging when he produced his atlatl and urements of the downdraft.
experiments was an electrocution crossbow but almost broke his Clare Thomson came next with
device (not for discipline prob- vow when his dog-ball thrower some simple but effective ideas,
March 2006 P H Y S I C S E D U C AT I O N 93
NEWS
my favourite being the glass of circular motion. Ken also had a packed full of people looking at a
water trick – except that Clare very nifty demo of P and S waves 2 m aluminium rod, which appears
used a metre-long tube! Seeing that was taken back to another to be doing nothing but is filling
several litres of water apparently school and developed further the entire space with a high-
held in place by a cardboard beer within days of the lecture. pitched ringing sound, was a fan-
mat raised another ‘wow!’ from Unfortunately the finale con- tastic experience – you really have
the audience, enhanced by seeing tained very little to see – but David to hear it to believe it.
all that water cascade into a bucket Smith still managed to make jaws For me this was a tremendously
as the beer mat was removed. drop. There wasn’t really a wow enjoyable experience. Usually I’m
factor here; it was more utter taking part, but being able to sit
Wowing the audience amazement. If you haven’t tried back and enjoy the demonstrations
The penultimate demonstrator was Paul Gluck’s Singing Rod demon- made this one of the highlights of
Ken Zetie and he had a really sim- stration then see Phys. Educ. 40 my year. If you’re at the 2007 ASE
ple idea, which again raised a (5) 417–8. David Smith has obvi- conference make sure you don’t
‘wow!’ from the audience. He ously practised this demonstration miss us.
used a piece of drainpipe on an until he has it down to a fine art.
overhead projector to demonstrate To be sitting in a large lecture hall Gary Williams
SCIENCE ON STAGE
Greek scientists serve up a treat
Science on Stage provides the perfect platform for science teachers to exchange methods and ideas.
The Science on Stage programme and will continue to take place in ESRF and ILL. It is an integral
offers European science teachers 29 participating European coun- part of the NUCLEUS programme
the chance to exchange success- tries throughout 2005, 2006 and for science education, sponsored
ful and innovative teaching meth- 2007. These activities will raise by the European Commission.
ods and materials. The goal is to awareness of best practices in sci- Science on Stage is also supported
strengthen the awareness and ence teaching and identify excep- by the European Physical Society
interest of young people in science tional teaching projects and and the European Association for
and technology by increasing the outstanding educators. Astronomy Education.
attractiveness of science lessons Science on Stage is organized The main Greek event of the
through the promotion of exciting by the seven intergovernmental Science on Stage programme was
ideas. Competitions, workshops European research organizations an exhibition and a contest about
and events, organized by national in the EIROForum partnership: laboratory constructions and edu-
steering committees, have already CERN, EFDA, EMBL, ESA, ESO, cational materials. Called Science
94 P H Y S I C S E D U C AT I O N March 2006
NEWS
for Humanity, the contest was
open to teams of students and
teachers from Greek high schools.
In the initial phase of the contest,
the steering committee selected
70 projects for the main event,
which took place in the premises
of the National Research Founda-
tion of Athens on 30 September
and 1 October 2005.
During the two-day event, all
the selected projects were shown
to students, teachers and the gen- ‘The art of making wine’ was a hit at Science on Stage in Greece.
eral public. The event was widely
publicized, and 2000 people atten- National Steering Committee. given about the history of wine-
ded. In addition, several public ‘The art of making wine’ was a making and the science behind it.
lectures were given, culminating highly successful all-day event In addition, 30 students wrote and
with the presentation ‘Science organized and hosted by the performed a play and read out
education initiatives of EMBL and Laboratory Center of Physical poems about wine.
EIROForum’given by Alexandra Sciences of Aigaleo and held on
Manaia, science education officer 10 October. The 800 participants, Eugenia Tsitopoulou-
of ELLS/EMBL, an official rep- including 600 students, prepared Christodoulides head of the
resentative of EIROForum. The must by pressing grapes, produced Laboratory Center of Physical
main event was organized by the tsipouro by distillation and enjoyed Sciences of Aigaleo, Athens,
Laboratory Centre of Physical hand-made traditional sweets and coordinator of the Greek
Sciences of Aigaleo and the Greek made of must. Talks were also National Steering Committee
MEETING
Astronomy event will discuss education
This year’s National Astronomy editor Gary Williams standing on package and the National Schools’
Meeting (NAM2006) will be held a desk swinging a basket of (false) Observatory software).
at the University of Leicester. Again eggs at a terrified assistant! The astronomy education and
there will be a session on astron- Attendance at the education outreach session is being organ-
omy and space in the classroom. session of NAM2006 is open to ized by Dr Paul Roche of Cardiff
Following a review of space and teachers and school students at no University – contact Paul on paul.
astronomy education and outreach cost, and will be held on Friday roche@astro.cf.ac.uk for further
in the UK by Prof. Martin Barstow, 7 April from 11 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. information. There will be display
and developments with Internet- The session will be followed by a space available for posters, and
based access to telescopes via the buffet lunch sponsored by the plenty of opportunities to meet fel-
National Schools’ Observatory Particle Physics and Astronomy low educators and astronomers
and the Faulkes Telescope Project, Research Council and the Faulkes from around the UK.
the UK is extremely well placed Telescope Project. There will be For further information on the
in this field. More than 20 school- free resources for educators and NAM 2006 meeting, visit the
teachers attended last year’s meet- demonstrations of the Faulkes website at www.nam2006.le.ac.
ing in Birmingham, witnessing a Telescope North in Maui and of uk/index.shtml.
variety of presentations that cul- educational software (including
minated with Physics Education the new Starry Night Education Paul Roche
March 2006 P H Y S I C S E D U C AT I O N 95
NEWS
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand works hard to
improve the profile of physics
Working in education it is always
difficult to be sure of the things
that will have a lasting impact on
people. Like similar organizations
in many other countries, the New
Zealand Institute of Physics put
together a range of events and ini-
tiatives to celebrate the World Year
of Physics. Most of them can be
found through the website devel-
oped for the year: www.eequalsm-
csquared.auckland.ac.nz. We had
visiting speakers, videos, a col-
laboration with writers and the Getting to know each other with New Zealand-style team building.
website itself.
The Royal Society’s school
video competition built on the
very successful transit of Venus
competition in 2004, which gained
huge media attention when three
groups of school students (plus
their teachers) toured the UK
enjoying the historical sites in
England linked to the transit. This
year’s competition, ‘E = mc2’,
required students to produce a
five-minute video about an impor- Prize-winners visit New Zealand’s imitation stone henge.
tant physicist or New Zealand sci-
entist, or an aspect of physics. outdoor activities and trips to a file of physics much in New
Only two schools could win the wildlife reserve and to Stonehenge Zealand, but we have added an
big prizes – trips to England/ Aotearoa – a huge imitation of a extra spark of interest to a signif-
France and Switzerland/Italy – but stone henge, recently built to icant number of people. As a
12 videos were chosen to be fea- Southern hemisphere alignments teacher in Auckland I was proud
tured on the website. The 10 teams by an enthusiastic astronomical to be part of a video team that
that shared second place were society (www.astronomynz.org. made the list of finalists, and we
rewarded with a long weekend in nz/stonehenge/stonehenge.htm). were also honoured to host Simon
the Wiararapa, a beautiful wine- The Royal Society and the Singh’s excellent Big Bang talk.
growing region on the North Freemasons, who also sponsored We also have a great website with
Island of New Zealand. the competition, ensured that all some wonderful videos (look out
The weekend was dubbed ‘the the participants had a great time for the Web Watch in the May
first New Zealand Spacecamp’. and made many new friends. issue of Physics Education).
The 30 students and teachers In 2006, looking back, I’m not
enjoyed team-building games, sure that we really raised the pro- Kerry Parker
96 P H Y S I C S E D U C AT I O N March 2006
NEWS
TECHNOLOGY
BETT show moves with the times
It has been a couple of years since between the many systems. The would strongly advise newcom-
I last visited the educational tech- use of the Web, radio or memory ers to the electronic-whiteboard
nology (BETT) show. In previous sticks to transport the data were world to choose carefully.
years the trend has been to offer some of the offerings available. The BETT show is often the
services rather than products. This All the manufacturers have tried poor partner compared with the
year the trend seems to have been to move with the times. Association for Science Education
reversed, with many more manu- Software to support science (ASE). Colleagues often complain
facturers having stands to show teaching was in abundance, but that the focus is wrong and that
their latest releases. Information the big push was for the new there is little to see. Certainly what
and Communications Technology GCSEs due to start in September is on offer is diverse and not
(ICT) was, as expected, a major 2006. All the book publishers are focused on science, but there was
influence, with all the major play- gearing up for the big changes just a lot to see and enough to keep a
ers having stands. However, for around the corner, and many had visitor interested. The hall was
the scientist there was still much sample copies of their products to packed, there were a large num-
to keep our interest and tempt us look at. Web-based assessment ber of exhibitors and if you could
to part with our money. and support CDs were also on dis- put up with the packed tube train
The BBC stand revealed its new play. Judging by the number of taking you to Olympia, then the
learning environment: BBC jam freebies – pens, yoyos, chocolate show was really worth it. BETT
(jam.bbc.co.uk). Using multime- and other assorted minor goodies is always worth a look as you may
dia, via broadband, to support the – this could be a good year for the come across a gem among the
work carried out in the classroom, major publishing houses. smaller exhibitors and make con-
this will be a major initiative for Electronic whiteboards were tacts to help you with any prob-
the BBC’s education service. everywhere. As a long-time user lems you may encounter. I will
Datalogging apparatus was sup- I could not envisage teaching certainly be back next year.
ported by a number of manufac- physics without one and when I BETT 2007 will take place on
turers – Data harvest, Pasco, Philip bought my first one the choice was 10–13 January 2007 at Olympia,
Harris and Sciencescope all limited. Now everyone is selling London. See www.bettshow.co.uk
demonstrated their new products. them. There are a number of ini- for more details.
As the technology moves rapidly tiatives providing money for
on it becomes harder to choose schools to purchase these and I John Kinchin
AWARDS
SHAP hands out
2005 awards
Congratulations to Greg Hughes.
Greg, who teaches Salters Horners
Advanced Physics (SHAP) at
Sutton Coldfield Grammar School
for Girls, is the latest recipient of
the annual SHAP Teacher Award.
Greg is an outstanding teacher
who gives tremendous support to
students and colleagues, arranges Student award winners (from left to right): Robert Sinclair,
visits and lectures, and enlivens Mark Ponsford, Hannah Walsh, Ben Challenor and Jack Hickish.
March 2006 P H Y S I C S E D U C AT I O N 97
NEWS
his school with ‘physics tip of the Community College, Devon, ex- company gave prizes to the five stu-
week’ posters. plored the motion of a compound dents gaining equal-first and equal-
Under his leadership the num- pendulum and its use in determin- second marks in the SHAPA-level.
bers of students choosing physics ing the local acceleration due to Those with the overall top marks
at AS and A-level have risen, and gravity. His work, using relatively were Charles Plumtre and Robert
many of these go on to study simple apparatus, was meticulous Sinclair (both from Rugby School).
physics-related subjects. His nom- in the extreme and he showed the Equal second were Jack Hickish
ination was supported by many fascination underlying an appar- (Twynham School, Dorset), Mark
warm tributes, including one from ently mundane topic. Jack Hickish, Ponsford (Rugby) and Hannah
a student: ‘Thank you for provi- from Twynham School, Dorset, Walsh (Wycombe High School).
ding five years of entertaining and took as his starting point the poss- The rest of the top-ten students
educational physics lessons. I ible production of x-rays by a cath- were Ben Challenor (Ivybridge
really have enjoyed physics as it’s ode-ray TV tube. He explored the College, Devon), Richard Hollanby
one of the few lessons I’ve actu- acceleration and deflection of cath- (Haywards Heath College), Zoe
ally understood all through school.’ ode rays, including an ingenious Leake (Bancroft’s School, Essex),
Greg’s award is sponsored by mapping of the magnetic field of Jinghua Lee (John Leggott College,
Corus and the Horners company, the coils. Both of the students Scunthorpe) and John Wickerson
who also sponsor annual prizes impressed the judges with their (St Benedict’s School, Bury St
for SHAP student projects. This experimental design and their Edmunds). Congratulations to all
year’s prizes were awarded to two mature grasp of physics. of them and to all those who gained
students who carried out impres- Greg, Ben and Jack were pre- A- and AS-level qualifications with
sive and detailed work on topics sented with their awards at the SHAP in 2005.
that might initially seem simple. Salters prize-giving in December.
Ben Challenor of Ivybridge At the same ceremony the Salters Elizabeth Swinbank
ANNIVERSARY
Brunel steps into the limelight
Move over Einstein – it’s Brunel
Year! The engineer who did so
much to change the face of
Victorian Britain was born on
9 April 1806. By the time of his
death, 53 years later, transport had
been revolutionized by the tun-
nels, bridges, railways and ships
that he had designed – many of
which survive to this day. In 2002
he was voted the second greatest
Briton (losing out to Winston Many events this year will celebrate Brunel’s engineering genius.
Churchill) in a BBC competition.
Many of the events to mark the time Museum: www.nmm.ac.uk/ on Brunel Bicentenary Year):
200th anniversary of Brunel’s birth server/show/ConWebDoc.20228 www.nceplus.co.uk and Brunel
are advertised on the Brunel 200 and the Design Museum: www. University: www.brunel.ac.uk/
website at www.brunel200.com. designmuseum.org/httpd/html/talk 2006, which is celebrating 40 years
The University of Bristol also has s_frames.html are both staging of its own existence.
a useful page (www.bris.ac.uk/ days of talks. Other useful sites
brunel200). The National Mari- include New Civil Engineer (click David Smith
98 P H Y S I C S E D U C AT I O N March 2006
NEWS
SCIENCE MADE SIMPLE
Science show communicates
physics concepts without words
This was one of the aims of sparking their curiosity and mak-
Science Made Simple’s new show ing them look more closely at the
‘Visualise - the beauty of science’. world around them. The show is
The show combines live experi- intended to motivate students and
ments with projected images and provide inspiration that teachers
music to create an awe-inspiring can build on.’
and word-less experience. Science Made Simple is also
The spectacular science show, keen to reach a wider audience.
which made its debut at the This innovative format without
Millennium Centre in Cardiff last language makes it more accessi-
December, proved such a success ble for audience members who do
that Science Made Simple has not speak English and for those
been invited to take the show to with special needs. The project is
the SASOL Scifest in South Africa. being evaluated by educational
The show is full of visually consultancy Think Differently,
stunning physics demonstrations, and the resulting feedback will be
including sound waves made of used to improve the show. There
flames, giant smoke rings, liquids are also plans to develop teacher
that defy gravity, and some amaz- support materials and raise fund-
ing video effects. ‘I think it was ing for a UK tour.
absolutely brilliant,’ commented The show was launched in cele-
one youngster, ‘…you get to see bration of Einstein Year and the
the things in front of you, whereas Cardiff 2005 centenary, thanks to
in the cinema you watch it all on Science Made Simple’s word-less development funding from the
screen, not actually happening.’ new show enthralls the audience. Institute of Physics and the
The Cardiff University spin-out National Endowment for Science,
company scoured the world for all around them. Technology and the Arts, and
the most beautiful and spectacu- ‘It does not teach in a traditional launch sponsorship from Pfizer.
lar demonstrations to encourage sense, but encourages audiences For more information visit
people to enjoy the beauty of to make their own discoveries and www.sciencemadesimple.co.uk.
science and make their own con- explorations,’ said project man-
nections with the things they see ager Debbie Syrop, ‘hopefully Deborah Syrop
LITERATURE
Science Newswise: a guide for teachers
Lift any newspaper and there will this material, particularly as a way advantage of this rich resource?
almost certainly be at least one sci- of showing their pupils the rele- Science Newswise is a guide to
ence-related story in it. Science is vance of science in daily life. But, the use of newspapers in the sci-
attracting more column inches (or beyond simply referring to such ence laboratory or classroom. It
should we say column centimetres) news items or reading them with illustrates how news articles can
by the year. Many teachers exploit our pupils, how best can we take be employed to teach about key
March 2006 P H Y S I C S E D U C AT I O N 99
NEWS
aspects of the subject, its content, should use newspapers (and news
its methods of inquiry and its links media more generally) as a
with everyday life. resource and focus for teaching,
The guide also explores how until now there has existed little
science is presented in the media, guidance as to how this might be
an important issue since this is the done. The publication is particu-
main source of science informa- larly timely given current devel-
tion for most people after they opments in England and Wales in
leave school. Based on this, they respect of science at Key Stage 4
will gain impressions, form opin- and in Northern Ireland in respect
ions, and even, perhaps, make of science at Key Stage 3.
decisions as individuals and as cit- We have a limited number of
izens. Finally, Science Newswise Science Newswise guides free copies of Science Newswise.
describes how teachers of science teachers on how to use stories UK residents need to send a self-
and teachers of English can co- from the media in the classroom. addressed padded envelope, 270 ×
operate in cross-curricular proj- 360 mm, stamped to £4.52 to Ruth
ects relating to science in the news. Education, Queen’s University, Jarman, School of Education,
Science Newswise is the out- Belfast. The School of Education Queen’s University, 69 University
come of a major research and Street, Belfast BT7 1HL. Non-UK
believes the booklet fills a signif-
development project funded by icant gap in support material for residents should e-mail r.jarman@
The Wellcome Trust and under- the science curriculum. qub.ac.uk for further information.
taken by Ruth Jarman and Billy Despite exhortations from many
McClune from the School of quarters that science teachers Ruth Jarman
Your opportunity to contribute
to the international physics-
teaching community
We would be delighted to receive your submissions,
or ideas for inclusion in the journal. To submit your
article visit www.iop.org/journals/physed, or send
it to ped@iop.org.
www.iop.org /journals/physed
100 P H Y S I C S E D U C AT I O N March 2006
