never mind the optics

I’ve just watched the latest Periodic Videos film where Prof. Martyn Poliakoff explains, in simplified terms, what went on when Canadian scientists “tricked” helium into behaving like hydrogen in a reaction.

The story has been out for a few weeks now, you can read reports of it here or here.

I’m just about to cover the short fundamental forces & particle physics topics with my Advanced Higher Physics class and I’ll show this to them, even if I am already worried about the questions it may raise.

In my previous post, I mentioned the prevailing risk-averse culture in science education.  I’m not afraid to share that I have some questions of my own about this simplified video.

• Why is the muon closer to the nucleus than the remaining electron?  I know that muons are significantly heavier than electrons, mostly thanks to Rabi‘s quote “A heavy electron. Who ordered that?”  The muon has the same charge as the electron, so I guess it’s not simply an electrostatic reason.  Is it due to equating the electrostatic and centripetal forces on the muon or is there more to it?
• Should we even be thinking of the muon and electron as particles?
• Muons have a short half life of around 2 microseconds.  Half life is in the muon timeframe and dilated according to Special Relativity.  This is for free muons though.  What happens to an electrostatically-bound muon? Does this make a difference?  I’m only asking because there is a difference between free and bound neutrons.

These questions flag up my insecurity about particle physics.  This is one area I will need to get my head round ahead of the new Higher Physics, whenever it is launched.

It’s been a while since I posted anything on this site.  Much of my spare time was taken up with the National Mod coming to town.

I thought I would get back in the saddle with a post about a really positive CPD experience I had this weekend.  I drove down to Fortrose for a Saturday event organised by the ASE and IoP.  There was a good mix of workshops on offer and it was great to see so many primary staff joining the physics regulars for the day.

The first session I attended was run by Gregor from SSERC.  He brought a load of laptops with him and we had a chance to try using a useful piece of software called Tracker.  This is a great example of someone developing something for their students, finding out just how great it is and sharing it worldwide with others.  Tracker can do loads of things: analyse projectile motion, rotational motion and do spectral analysis. Best of all, it uses Java, so it works on Windows, OS X and linux.

The second session of the day began with a hands-on example of generating real data with Stuart Farmer, who handed on to Tania Johnston of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.  Tania shared the Observatory’s latest Deep Space resources for schools.  I worked through a group activity that bore a resemblance to galaxy battleships.

The idea is to work through a series of galaxy photographs and classify them into spiral, elliptical or unknown, then plot their location within the cluster on a quadrant.  By bringing the work of 4 groups together, the pattern of galaxy distribution, i.e. where do elliptical & spiral galaxies tend to appear in clusters, can be determined (I won’t spoil it for you).  There is another activity based on planet formation and exoplanets but I didn’t get an opportunity to try that one…

…the Play-Do looks fun though!  I really liked the observatory’s activities. They have have embedded a series of numeracy tasks into the packs so that they are not just about meeting space-oriented O&Es.

In the afternoon, I went to the Optoelectronics College workshop on illumination and communication with Martyn Crawshaw from Millburn Academy.  On completion of the workshop, I received a specially-designed kit worth £500 to help introduce S1/2 pupils at my to optoelectronics.

One of my AH Physics pupils has already spotted the LED board and plans to incorporate it into his investigation on determining Planck’s constant.

The last session of the day involved building a wet day alternative to the IoP rocket launcher.  Everyone was supplied with plastic piping and connectors to build a twin launcher to propel dragsters.  This would be a great activity for a corridor or school hall if the weather does not allow the use of the compressed air rocket launcher.

I’ve been on the receiving end of some horrific ASG CPD days recently – long, tedious sessions from which I have gained little.  I refer to days like that as herd CPD.  The science event on Saturday was a welcome change. The CPD available was relevant to me and was seriously hands-on.  This seems to agree with my learning style – sometimes the people who plan CPD events forget that teachers have learning styles too.

I was interviewed by David Noble last month.  David is currently researching his doctoral thesis by interviewing educators to determine how they use the social web to support learning, teaching and professional development.  You can read more about his work and the participants on the Edonis Ning site.

I was quite nervous because our telephone conversation was broadcast live online using iPadio and I knew some people were listening.  If you missed it, David has published the audio here or you can download it below.

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I’ve been working with a small group of physics teachers enlisted by LTS to help shape the resources required to support the new Higher Physics qualification being developed by SQA.  So far we’ve been discussing and prioritising the CPD issues raised at the SQA meetings held around the country in December.

There is a lot to think about as the proposed new content will be unfamiliar to many teachers.  I for one have a very limited understanding of astrophysics and just enough knowledge of particle physics to get me through the small section in the current advanced higher course.  This means we need to think about resources for teachers as well as pupils.

One thought is that we may go for a solution that mirrors the new National Qualifications site for History, with multimedia resources alongside more conventional text-based support.

Another interesting aspect is the introduction of a practical half-unit called Researching Physics.  This will take the form of an investigation around a theme, with an interesting example that looks at ultra-violet radiation and skin cancer.  (The science of earthquakes has been suggested as an alternative topic.)

The meetings were held at SSERC and this has allowed us to try out ideas for the researching physics topic and consider new approaches to content with which we are already familiar.  SSERC’s Gregor Steele did a great job in developing activities to challenging our thinking.  Here are some photos I took during the practical sessions.

Investigating the effectiveness of different suncream “factors” at blocking uv.
	Measuring the irradiance of a uv light source.
Demonstrating particle physics experiments using a Teltron tube
	Using a coil and magnet as a vibration sensor.
Recording the induced voltage using Audacity

We also looked at the ways in which changing mass might affect the motion of a toy  (lots of things going on here – weight, centre of mass, friction and simple harmonic motion all playing a role in determining the motion of the wooden woodpecker)

and learned how to use tracker.jar to analyse projectile motion.

So far, it looks like my role is likely to involve the creation of digital resources for the new higher.  It could be a busy summer…

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On Saturday, I had the privilege to share a share a platform with Nick Hood at the Scottish Science Education Conference at the Dunblane Hydro.  Our session went by the name “Using New Media in Science Education – Not Just for Twits”.  The aim was to share some of the online practice taking place both inside and outside the country’s science classrooms.

We spoke about blogging and walked the participants through the process of setting up a free blog.  Nick explained RSS and demonstrated why every teacher should use a RSS reader.  We also covered podcasting and use of a wiki.  For anyone interested in the links we used on the day, find a summary on my wiki.

During the session, we mentioned the lack of blogging Chemistry teachers. Word has reached us that Dr. Taylor has met our challenge head-on and started his own blog.  Great job, Dr. T.!

A great new project kicked off at EDUtalk this week.  John Johnston and David Noble have set the ambitious target of posting a piece of audio every day throughout 2010 as part of their EDUtalk365 project.  I think that their idea of educators sharing ideas on the changes sweeping through education is brilliant and the nature of the contributions makes it possible for busy people to dip in and out of the published audio as and when they have the time.  I have posted previously on the ease with which audio resources can be accessed while driving, walking the dog, washing the dishes, etc. and I think that David and John are on to a winner here.

To help them on their way towards 365 days of audio, I recorded a short piece on how I have been using Wordle in the classroom as an aid to literacy across learning.  You can listen to my contribution here. Better still, subscribe to their Posterous blog or add it to your iTunes podcasts so you’ll never miss an episode during 2010!

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Education staff in the Highlands have just participated in a mammoth CPD event called the Highland Learning Festival.  Hosted by Dingwall Academy, the event was billed as a Highland Curriculum for Excellence Showcase.

Sessions on the first day were booked up well in advance, with 1000 teachers and auxiliaries spending Tuesday at the festival.  I had planned to go along on the second day as the programme had more ICT and secondary sessions of interest to me.  However, that changed when I became a late addition to Wednesday’s schedule with a double slot to speak about the work I have been doing with blogging and iTunes in my classroom.

The numbers for my sessions were low on paper but two or three times as many people turned up each time.  I spoke briefly about running a blog before explaining how SMART Notebook software can be used to produce a videos that can be downloaded as podcasts with iTunes.  Then we looked at the ways in which everyday handheld devices such as mobile phones and iPods can be used for mobile learning.  I was genuinely surprised by the level of  interest shown and the number of questions I was asked during and after each session.

I was delighted when I managed to squeeze into Ollie Bray & Derek Robertson‘s games-based learning session at 12.30 in between my own slots.  I’d met Derek before, he was one of the tutors from my PGCE course, but I had never met Ollie despite having exchanged tweets and interviewed him on Skype for a podcast.

The single disappointment for me was the way that the event finished so quickly in the afternoon.  My last slot was over by 2.30 and by then many of the exhibitors were packing up.  If the rumours are true and the event is run again next year, then I think I would try to spend more than just one day there to ensure I could take something from the event for my professional development.

As always, I was economic with slides but I have embedded them anyway. There’s also an audio recording of the morning session attached to this post.

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As I mentioned in my previous post, I took the telescope out last night for the first time.  I was specifically interested in finding out whether or not one of my Advanced Higher Physics pupils would be able to the the telescope for her proposed investigation on Jupiter’s 4 largest moons and Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion.

I found a good spot, well away from lights.  If you have Google Earth download this file for the exact location.  I was amazed at just how many stars were visible once I was out of the glare of the town lights.

My finder scope alignment was not as good as I had thought and some small adjustments were necessary to find Jupiter in the eyepiece of the main scope.  I could not believe how bright Jupiter appeared though the scope and was even more impressed when I realised that the four Galilean moons were also present in my field of view.

Adjusting the telescope to track Jupiter gave me some problems due to the vibrations at each adjustment.  The vibrations also gave issues when I tried to capture video using my mobile phone.  I’m going to take the telescope to the local moonwatch events (pdf) at the end of the month to get some advice on how to set up the telescope to minimise vibration.

I tweeted about the experience this morning and mentioned seeing a meteor.  Drew Thomson reminded me that the annual Orionid shower had started a couple of nights ago, with peak activity next Wednesday (21st October), so it’s possible I also caught an early Orionid while I was out.  The cool thing about the Orionids is that they are caused by the Earth passing through the debris left by Halley’s Comet, so you are actually watching little fragments of the comet each time you observe a meteor – much easier than waiting for another 52 years!

Although they are nothing like the photos posted earlier today by Catherine Baker, I thought I would share my attempt at capturing my telescope view of Jupiter with a mobile phone.  I’m afraid it only picked up the planet itself, no moons.

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It’s not often that I am able to take part in the fantastic CPD opportunities that “the powers that be” in the deep south organise for teachers. Fortunately, it’s the October holidays up here so I was able to spend Tuesday afternoon in a flashmeeting listening to Greg Whitby speak with a group of teachers at LTS.

So who is Greg Whitby?

• He is the Executive Director of Schools and leads a system of approximately 80 Catholic schools serving the Catholic community of greater Western Sydney.
• In 2007, he was named the most innovative educator in Australia by the Bulletin Magazine in its annual SMART 100 awards.
• He was awarded an ACEL Presidential Citation for his contribution to Australian education.

Billed as Gregmeet, the event was a chance for the Scottish education community to hear his thoughts on where learning & teaching has to be in the 21st century.

His main points were;

• lack of relevance has resulted in most young people disengaging from education
• realising that the idea of personalised learning represents learners having a deeper & continuous learning rather than an individual education programme
• de-privatising of teacher practice: teachers can’t (and shouldn’t) work in isolation
• the power of technology to release us from the education timetable that is essentially set in stone at the time of our conception

Greg got his final point across with an equation

who learns what with who where & when

= anywhere, anytime, anything, any device  - time table

and suggested that the Scottish education establishment is moving in this direction with the rolling out of Glow across the 32 local authorities.

His point is valid.  Why is it that we still create a situation where learning can only take place in a classroom, with a teacher, during the day? In moving to an informal, anytime learning environment, pupils can learn when they are ready to do so.  Greg calls this “just in time” learning.

I found myself agreeing with his view that the laptop has lost its original impact in the classroom.  So often, technology in the home is far ahead of the facilities we can provide in schools.  Greg advocates switching to more flexible technology in the form of mobile phones, pointing out their accessibility, flexibility and cost advantages.  While this is a move that is actively resisted in many schools, Greg’s message is that we must learn from research and this shows that handheld devices bring enormous educational benefits.

Greg didn’t use slides but there is a video of the event’s flashmeeting here. Alternatively, I have attached the audio to this post so you can listen using the flash player below.

image of Greg by torres21

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Physics teachers from across the Highlands got together for a CPD day last Saturday.  The event was hosted by Nick Forwood, our local Physics Teacher Network coordinator, at Fortrose Academy.

After a keynote from Tom Balanowski, the SQA Principal Assessor for Advanced Higher Physics, we were able to choose up to three workshops from the list on the right, plus an additional option of learning how to configure the free telescope for schools supplied by The Society for Popular Astronomy.

I presented a session on using blogs, wikis and iTunes in the Physics classroom.  It was a demonstration of the resources I have built into my classroom blog, with an update on how using iTunes to push homework exercises and videos homework solutions out to pupils’ home computers had been received.

I also took the chance to show off some of the work that had been produced during the Building Glow Communities event for Science teachers earlier in the week.  I was surprised to find that questions were asked about my use of Voicethread and Animoto in the classroom.  People who are working on developing their CfE outcomes were interested in the opportunities these tools presented in terms of genuine pupil-focused creativity, digital evidence of their experiences and the chance to produce something other than powerpoint slides.

I was delighted to share my experience of using these sites with them and gave examples of how I had used them in my classroom.  The enthusiasm with which they were considering non-traditional activities shows that Curriculum for Excellence really is going to change the way our pupils experience science in the years ahead.