VicPhysics News: Term 1, No 1 2017
Dear ,
This is a bumper issue to start the year. VCAA has released the new specifications for end of year exam with changes to the style and format. Check out how other teachers did the Practical Investigation in Unit 2 last year. The Physics Teachers Conference is only three weeks away and the VCE lectures for students at Melb Uni start soon, plus loads of new resources
Table of Contents
1. VCAA's 'Advice for Teachers' and new 'Exam Specifications'.
2. Update on Resources from the Unit 3 Course Planning Days
3. Unit 2 Survey by Vicphysics: Practical Investigation
4. Physics Mentor Scheme for 2017
5. Classic Physics Papers: Links to original papers
6. Resources for Flipping Physics
7. Cheap High Speed Video Recording for Analysis in Physics Experiments
8. Vicphysics events in 2017
9. Free online PD on i) Assessment for Learning in STEM Teaching, ii) The Discovery of the Higgs Boson
10. Forthcoming events for Students and the General Public
a) Journeying to the centres of the Planets, 5:30pm, Monday, 6th Feb, Pullman Melbourne in Albert Park.
b) Cosmology: from the Big Bang to the formation of atoms, 6.30pm, Friday 10 February, Swinburne University
c) Physics Lectures for VCE Students: Physics of Motion, 6pm Thursday, 16th February, University of Melbourne
d) Physics Days at Luna Park: Bookings are open
11. Forthcoming events for Teachers
a) Physics Teachers' Conference, Thursday, 16th February, La Trobe University
b) Astronomy from the Ground Up!”, 28th - 30th April, Parkes Observatory
12. Physics News from the Web
a) Tiny device pumps out one electron at a time
b) Decoding the quantum horizon
c) Ultra-low-cost, hand-powered centrifuge is inspired by whirligig toy
The next meeting of the Vicphysics Teachers' Network will be at 5pm on Thursday, 2nd February at Melbourne Girls' College. All teachers are welcome to attend this or any other meeting. If you would like to attend, please contact Vicphysics at
Regards,
Frances Sidari, Jane Coyle, Barbara McKinnon and Dan O'Keeffe.
The executive of the VicPhysics Teachers' Network
1. VCAA's 'Advice for Teachers' and new 'Exam Specifications'.
a) 'Advice for teachers'
VCAA released its 'Advice for teachers' late last year. The 107 page booklet can be downloaded from http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/studies/physics/physicsindex.aspx#H2N10065
The table of contents is:
· Developing a program. 1
· Terminology in the study design. 5
· Scientific investigations. 7
· Measurement in science. 12
· Learning activities. 18
· Unit 1: What ideas explain the physical world? 18
· Unit 2: What do experiments reveal about the physical world? 27
· Unit 3: How do fields explain motion and electricity? 48
· Unit 4: How can two contradictory models explain both light and matter? 57
· Sample approach to developing an assessment task from Units 3 & 4. 67
· Performance descriptors. 72
· Appendix 1: Types of scientific inquiry. 79
· Appendix 2: Scientific inquiry methods. 80
· Appendix 3: Controlled experiments and hypothesis formulation. 82
· Appendix 4: Defining variables. 85
· Appendix 5: Scientific poster sections. 86
· Appendix 6: Suggestions for effective scientific poster communication. 88
· Appendix 7: Assessment task types. 89
· Appendix 8: Examples of problem-based learning approaches in physics. 91
· Appendix 9: Sample teaching plan. 93
· Appendix 10: Definition of verbs in VCE Physics Study Design. 101
· Appendix 11: Employability skills 102
b) New exam specifications
A sample exam paper is expected by the end of Term 1. In the mean time the new exam specifications are available at http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/exams/physics/physics-specs-w.pdf
In summary the duration and reading time are unchanged, but the structure and the total number of marks are significantly different. There will be a Section A of 20 multiple choice questions, each worth one mark for a total of 20 marks, while Section B will be the usual mixture of short answer and extended answer questions worth a total of 110 marks, giving a total of 130 marks for the 150 minute paper. It is presumed that both sections could include questions from any Area of Study in Units 3 & 4.
It is worth noting that this awarding of one mark for multiple choice questions in physics is a significant departure from recent practice. Traditionally, as for the recent questions in the Detailed Studies sections of past exams, each question was worth two marks on the basis of the amount of work and time the student needed to devote to the question, often requiring interpretation, analysis and calculation.
The shift to one mark for this type of question, which has been the case in the Section A of Biology and Chemistry exams for some time, may suggest a major shift in exam design to more basic simple recall type questions, but something of which Physics curriculum in Victoria has little experience.
Alternatively, the style and demand of each question may remain unchanged, but now only worth one mark, which would mean that in the exam, students will get more value from their time spent answering Section B questions than the questions in Section A, and so given the time pressures of the exam, should do Section A last.
The exam is expected to also assess the Unit 4 Area of Study 'Practical Investigation'. This seems to be the implication of the statement in the specifications: 'Examination questions may relate to one or more areas of study and may integrate research methodologies and ethical principles. The weighting of examination questions will reflect approximately the weighting of the outcomes in the study design. '
So, rather than there being separate questions on the principles of experimental investigations, it seems such questions will be embedded in other Areas of Study and relate to that content. The last part also suggests that of the 110 marks for Section B, about 21 marks will assess aspects of the skills associated with practical investigations.
The sample paper is expected to be released sometime towards to end of Term 1 and at that stage we will get a better idea of how to re-design our own assessment tasks and adapt our exam preparation.
2. Resources from the Unit 3 Course Planning Days An Update
The newsletters at the end of last year described the material from the Course Planning Days that is now on our website. One of the sessions on the day considered sample assessment tasks for Unit 3. The feedback from the groups has been used to update the following tasks.
· a report of a physics phenomenon for the Field AoS
· data analysis for the Motion AoS
· an explanation of the operation of a device for each of the Fields AoS and the Electrical energy AoS
· annotation of practical activities for Motion AoS
· solution to a scientific or technological problem
These can be accessed at the course planning webpage, http://www.vicphysics.org/courseplanning.html and the webpages for the respective Areas of Study.
3. Unit 2 Survey by Vicphysics: Practical Investigation
At the end of last year, a previous edition of this newsletter included analysis of the survey results on the Options questions. This item is on the questions on how the Practical Investigation was done.
The analysis of the full survey can be accessed at http://www.vicphysics.org/teachersurvey.html
42 teachers completed the survey.
Topic Selection:
· 28% provided a small set of topics from which the students could choose.
· For 55% of the respondents, the students were able to suggest topics of their own or choose from a list of possible topics.
· For 17% the students had to suggest their own topics.
How many students work individually and how many in pairs?
All students worked individually: 5 teachers
All students worked in pairs: 9 teachers
All students worked individually or in pairs: 17 teachers
All students worked in pairs or in groups of 3: 21 teachers
6 teachers had groups of four or more.
It can be argued that nearly all practical investigation topics really only require one or two students, perhaps the occasional complex topic may require three pairs of eyes and three pairs of hands, but it is hard to imagine a topic in which four students are productively engaged.
What topics did the students investigate?
Most respondents provided an extensive list of their students' topics. The list of over 140 topics can be accessed at the above website. There were many innovative topics in the list e.g.
· Investigating domino fall,
· Friction of a shopping trolley,
· Optimum weight ratio for a trebuchet,
· Does the mass of a marble change the ripples it produces when dropped into a tank of water?.
Most of the topics were on Motion, while a good number were on the Flight and Ball games Options. Five of the other options also got a mention.
Some of the topics related to Unit 1 content on Thermodynamics and Electricity, while a few respondents listed topics that were basic formal experiments, such as Newton's 2nd Law. Both these types of activities are inappropriate as topics for the Unit 2 Area of Study 'Practical Investigations'.
Also few respondents listed only one topic. If it was the case that the whole class did the same topic, then this situation is not in the spirit of practical investigations.
Weeks of Class Time for the Practical Investigation
Weeks / Percentage2 / 29%
3 / 43%
4 / 26%
When was the Practical Investigation done?
About a third did the practical investigation in the second half of Term 3, the rest did it in Term 4.
Use of a Poster for all or part of the assessment for the Practical Investigation
90% used a poster in the assessment with 43% using it as part of the assessment, 38% as the sole assessment component and while 10% did not specify whether the poster was the sole or part contributor to the assessment.
How will you do the Practical Investigation differently next time?
Some won't change anything, while some others will start earlier. Specific changes proposed were:
· assess in stages,
· more emphasis on the students' planning of the task,
· more topic choice for students,
· less similar topics,
· restrict to pairs,
· provide more feedback to students,
· prepare the Year 10's
For what aspects of the Practical Investigation would you like further ideas or resources?
Suggestions included:
· examples of rubrics
· exemplars of posters
· More ideas on possible PI topics, requiring basic equipment
· assessing group involvement
· Uncertainty calculation- there seems to be a few methods out there and I would like to know what approach is expected for the Units 3 & 4 exam.
· Lots of resources online for creating posters
· More ideas on what students can do, with a little bit of explanation of how it can be done (rather than just a one-line idea).
4. Physics Mentor Scheme for 2017
The Physics Mentor Scheme will operate again next year. It is designed for beginning physics teachers and also for teachers teaching at Year 12 for the first time. There will be a Beginning Physics Teachers In-Service on 4th April, but if you would like a mentor from the beginning of the year please contact Vicphysics at . The mentors can visit the school once a term to talk over matters and will be available for phone and email conversations.
5. Classic Physics Papers: Links to original papers
The many members of the UK physics teachers' forum, 'talkphysics' contribute a host of useful resources every time someone puts in a request or call for help. A recent call to locate sources of the famous papers of physics generated several sites. These are listed below, with a brief description of the more interesting articles.
i) Classical Scientific Papers - Physics . This is a 400 page volume of facsimile copies of original papers on:
· Radioactivity by Rutherford,
· The structure of the atom by J.J. Thomson, Rutherford, Geiger & Marsden, Moseley and Chadwick on,
· further developments on the PE Effect, particle accelerators and X-ray spectra by Cockcroft & Walton and Compton on, and
· experimental equipment by C.T.R. Wilson and Aston.
https://ia800306.us.archive.org/27/items/ClassicalScientificPapersPhysics/Wright-ClassicalScientificPapersPhysics_text.pdf
ii) A directory of over 60 papers is at https://www.plasma.uaic.ro/topala/articole/ . Articles include:
· The 1833 and 1834 papers by Faraday on 'Experimental Researches in Electricity'
· The 1895 paper by Rontgen 'On a new Kind of Rays'
· The 1913 paper by Neils Bohr titled 'On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules' and his 1921 paper on 'The Electronic Structure of Periodic Table'
· The 1927 paper by de Broglie on the Theory of Quanta
· The three 1901 papers by Planck 'On the law of Distribution of Energy in a normal Spectrum'
· The three papers by Rutherford on the scattering on a and b particles by matter, the structure of the atom and the nuclear constitution of the atom in 1911, 1914, 1920 resp.
· A translation of Schrodinger's 1935 paper 'The present situation in Quantum Mechanics', the cat paradox paper.
iii) Papers on Quantum Physics http://dieumsnh.qfb.umich.mx/archivoshistoricosmq/
Over 100 papers, many in their original language. Significant papers in English include:
Bohr:
· On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules
· On the Spectrum of Hydrogen
· On the Quantum Theory of Line-Spectra
· Atomic Structure
· The Structure of the Atom and the Physical and Chemical Properties of the Elements
· The Electronic Structure of Periodic Table
· Can quantum-mechanical description of physical reality be considered complete?
Einstein:
· On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies
· Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy-content?,
· Do gravitational fields play an essential part in the structure of the elementary particles of matter?
· Elementary derivation of the equivalence of mass and energy
· Knowledge of past and future in quantum mechanics, with Tolman and Podolsky
· Can quantum-mechanical description of physical reality be considered complete? with Podolsky and Rosen