I believe that you need three things to be a good science teacher. 1. An understanding of the place of science in the curriculum, 2. An understanding of how children learn and 3. A passion for science for the sake of science. This blog post is about number 3.
When I first started teaching I had come straight from my degree course and to be honest I was "scienced-out". Over the years that has changed a lot. As my degree level knowledge has wained my love of science for the sake of it has increased. So I gathered together my family (partner -48 and step-daughter -12) on saturday and headed to At-Bristol for the IoP-South West Branch Festival of Physics. We saw lectures about colour perception, Astronomy, Molecular Gastronomy and a workshop on the Hydraulics of helicopters.
All three of us had an engaging day; we learned something new from all of the lectures.
The day started with a lecture about colour. It took our key stage 3 knowledge on light a step further. My step-daughter who recently studied light in year 8 was able to happily access the ideas being talked about. The lecturer covered colour addition and subtraction and proved that what we teach at key stage 3 isn't quite the full story.
The lecture about the Universe was nothing that we don't teach at GCSE. However she included information about the astronomers that helped make the discoveries - I didn't realise so many were women! The presenter also talked about amateur astronomy, and showed us some amazing images she had taken, explaining the equipment she used.
The hydraulic workshop was excellent. The presenter works for a company that makes helicopters and despite the high technology involved was able to explain the ideas behind moving the angles of the propellers in terms of year 9 pressure. The teachers in the room (there were 5 of us) were all excited by his equipment and took a lot of photographs to recreate the equipment at school!
The last lecture was about molecular gastronomy. We were shown the RSC video of Heston Blumenthal eating tobacco jelly. Again linking to the curriculum. It was interesting to find out how much your own experiences affect the taste of the food you eat.
I am always impressed that my GCSE and Key Stage 3 science knowledge is enough for me to access a lot of the general interest science lectures and TV programmes. Of course I also have some knowledge of A-level Biology and Chemistry from 15 years ago, and my key stage 3/gcse knowledge is very strong due to 10 years of teaching it!
More than that though, by attending events like this I can relate the work of real scientists to what I teach. It is relevant that students understand about colour addition and subtraction in year 8 if they are to be involved in the digital arts. If cooks and chefs understand that people enjoy food more if it is served off a white plate that will help their business be more successful. I now have some information about how to be an amateur astronomer and may encourage one of my students to get involved in this. Knowing that helicopters use hydraulics may help to engage a disaffected student.
Well done to the IoP south west branch. I am already looking forward to next year!
Showing posts with label IoP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IoP. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Saturday, 23 June 2012
What is Refractive Index?
The first lecture during the South West Physics Teacher Conference was entitled "Warping Electromagnetic Space: The Quest for Invisibility" by Dr Alastair Hibbins from the University of Exeter.
Dr Hibbins is part of a team trying to build metamaterials that will hide objects or make them more visible. To do that he has to use elements on the surface of materials to alter the refractive index.
What is the refractive index?
When I teach this at secondary school I just teach that light slows down in a different medium, and this is what causes the wavelength to change. There is a complicated proof involving drawing a diagram with lots of lines and comparing angles using trigonometry that generates snells law.
The idea that waves just slow down has never sat well with me. I haven't considered what really causes the effect of refraction; I didn't study this at university.
Dr Hibbins described refraction as the change in phase speed of the wave cause by the electrons in the medium being forced to vibrate by the incoming electromagnetic wave. A vibrating electron generates another electromagnetic wave, which is out of phase to the incoming wave, these two superimpose and give a wave with a shorter wavelength.
This would explain why different frequencies have different refractive indexes.
Something else that I had not considered is that you can prove snell's law using momentum as well as differentiation and how I would normally demonstrate it via trigonometry.
Dr Hibbins is part of a team trying to build metamaterials that will hide objects or make them more visible. To do that he has to use elements on the surface of materials to alter the refractive index.
What is the refractive index?
When I teach this at secondary school I just teach that light slows down in a different medium, and this is what causes the wavelength to change. There is a complicated proof involving drawing a diagram with lots of lines and comparing angles using trigonometry that generates snells law.
The idea that waves just slow down has never sat well with me. I haven't considered what really causes the effect of refraction; I didn't study this at university.
Dr Hibbins described refraction as the change in phase speed of the wave cause by the electrons in the medium being forced to vibrate by the incoming electromagnetic wave. A vibrating electron generates another electromagnetic wave, which is out of phase to the incoming wave, these two superimpose and give a wave with a shorter wavelength.
This would explain why different frequencies have different refractive indexes.
Something else that I had not considered is that you can prove snell's law using momentum as well as differentiation and how I would normally demonstrate it via trigonometry.
Friday, 6 April 2012
Using journals to help improve my teaching
I am a member of the ASE, which means that I receive the journal School Science Review four times per year.
I am also a member of the IoP and have subscribed for £50 per year to get the journal Physics education that is printed 6 times per year. I was told by the nice lady on the phone that I could get access to the online version of Physics Education via the IoP website, but I knew that already and I had only once logged in to view Physics Education. A paper copy would be much more useful, and it has proven to be.
In January's edition of Physics Education I very much enjoyed the article "The electric vocabulary". In a previous school year I was told to write a research lesson where the students studied the history of electricity and magnetism. The lesson plan was that the students researched a particular person and produced a mind-map/poster about them using prompts that I had given. As a plenary to see how good the research had been I gave the whole class a quiz and they had to find the answers on the posters the others had created. (This lesson was over two hours long). The idea being that by working through the quiz they would see the progression of ideas. However, the article by James Sheilds gave a different slant to the progression of science ideas through the development of electricity. By focussing on the language I would be able to introduce other aspects of literacy to this type of lesson.
I also appreciate the article on "Teaching waves with Google Earth", which gives locations where phenomena such as diffraction has been seen. I plan to explore and see what I can find in the locality and beyond. This should help engagement with waves and allow my students to see the science in their every day lives.
I have written a blog post recently about sharing practice and I find School Science Review useful for finding out about projects that other science teachers and departments have been doing. The first article I used was one about a group of year 11 students learning about environmental science by making their own gardens. We tried to replicate this with a group of year 8s, which was fun.
The latest edition of SSR is themed on space education. I read with interest an article about a school who has based all their year 8 science on space to help improve enjoyment and engagement in science. The article was of interest to me. I have been involved in writing a home-made scheme of work and don't recognise the advantages in the way that the author of the article does, so it was interesting to read. Can I manage to get a department to write a scheme of work and take ownership of it?
I have copied articles for other members of staff, and as a result we have bought mini scale chemistry equipment, taken part in STEM activities and I have learned about implementing AfL. On top of all that that the book reviews are very useful.
The final Journal I subscribe to is Science in School. It is a pan-European journal that covers all science topics. It includes cutting edge science, teaching materials and resources that can be copied for use and interviews with real scientists. Often I find the resources are slightly on the edge of what I teach, but I also like this as I learn from what they write. The journal can be accessed by students as it is laid out more like a magazine, which makes it a potential teaching resource too.
I am not a member of RSC, so I don't get to read education in Chemistry. It is possible to subscribe, but I have decided not to spend the money. Hopefully I will get a copy at my new school, and if not then I may ask the school to pay for the subscription.
I hope that I can pay more attention to the journal articles and as a result they can impact on my teaching.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I am also a member of the IoP and have subscribed for £50 per year to get the journal Physics education that is printed 6 times per year. I was told by the nice lady on the phone that I could get access to the online version of Physics Education via the IoP website, but I knew that already and I had only once logged in to view Physics Education. A paper copy would be much more useful, and it has proven to be.
In January's edition of Physics Education I very much enjoyed the article "The electric vocabulary". In a previous school year I was told to write a research lesson where the students studied the history of electricity and magnetism. The lesson plan was that the students researched a particular person and produced a mind-map/poster about them using prompts that I had given. As a plenary to see how good the research had been I gave the whole class a quiz and they had to find the answers on the posters the others had created. (This lesson was over two hours long). The idea being that by working through the quiz they would see the progression of ideas. However, the article by James Sheilds gave a different slant to the progression of science ideas through the development of electricity. By focussing on the language I would be able to introduce other aspects of literacy to this type of lesson.
I also appreciate the article on "Teaching waves with Google Earth", which gives locations where phenomena such as diffraction has been seen. I plan to explore and see what I can find in the locality and beyond. This should help engagement with waves and allow my students to see the science in their every day lives.
I have written a blog post recently about sharing practice and I find School Science Review useful for finding out about projects that other science teachers and departments have been doing. The first article I used was one about a group of year 11 students learning about environmental science by making their own gardens. We tried to replicate this with a group of year 8s, which was fun.
The latest edition of SSR is themed on space education. I read with interest an article about a school who has based all their year 8 science on space to help improve enjoyment and engagement in science. The article was of interest to me. I have been involved in writing a home-made scheme of work and don't recognise the advantages in the way that the author of the article does, so it was interesting to read. Can I manage to get a department to write a scheme of work and take ownership of it?
I have copied articles for other members of staff, and as a result we have bought mini scale chemistry equipment, taken part in STEM activities and I have learned about implementing AfL. On top of all that that the book reviews are very useful.
The final Journal I subscribe to is Science in School. It is a pan-European journal that covers all science topics. It includes cutting edge science, teaching materials and resources that can be copied for use and interviews with real scientists. Often I find the resources are slightly on the edge of what I teach, but I also like this as I learn from what they write. The journal can be accessed by students as it is laid out more like a magazine, which makes it a potential teaching resource too.
I am not a member of RSC, so I don't get to read education in Chemistry. It is possible to subscribe, but I have decided not to spend the money. Hopefully I will get a copy at my new school, and if not then I may ask the school to pay for the subscription.
I hope that I can pay more attention to the journal articles and as a result they can impact on my teaching.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Physics education vs Science Education
I am a member of the Institute of Physics, have a physics degree and I mainly teach physics, however I consider myself a science teacher. I would say that my love of teaching is greater than my love of physics. Although I find that science principles and laws just work intriguing and that physics underpins everything interests me greatly. My students look at me strangely when I get excited by physics when principles "just work".
On Saturday I heard the President of the Institute of Physics ask for members to investigate the state of physics teaching in their local school. He indicated that he would like all members of the IoP support physics education.
During the talk we were shown facts about how there is an ever increasing number of students doing physics and a record number of physics trainee teachers, but these numbers are not enough. The upshot is that the IoP believe that there is still work needed to improve the headline figures like the number of schools with physics graduates working as teachers and ensuring all schools offer physics A-level as quite a few don't.
Sir Peter Knight would like to know:
How many students at your school sat As and A-level physics last year?
How many of the students sitting A-level physics are girls?
How do you encourage students to think about choosing A-level physics?
How many specialist physics teachers does your school have?
Once members have answered these question we are to email the answers to physicsforall@iop.org
The message behind these questions, or at least the one I heard, is that we need more physicists in the UK and the way to achieve this is to have more physicists teaching in school.
I think that it is absolutely vital that we have well trained, knowledgable teachers. However, I am not convinced that using physics graduates is the only way, and I am certainly not convinced that a good grounding in university physics makes for a good teacher.
As a teacher of science I see physics in the context of science. I want my students to see science in everyday lives. I don't teach physics because I passionately believe that everyone should love it and want to study it. Do I owe it to physics in the UK to shift my views?
When I consider the ASE presidential address and Robin Millar's points on "science for all" I am conflicted between teaching and encouraging the physics graduates of the future and teaching scientific literacy for the masses. Are the two possible and/or compatible? Maybe they should be, but I don't believe we have achieved it yet in the English education system.
Having said all of this I really appreciate all the work that the IoP are doing to support physics education. I never regret paying my £100 per year membership fee because I know they are doing good work. And since I started teaching in my school we have had 3 students apply to do physics at university, so maybe I am already doing what the IoP would like.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
On Saturday I heard the President of the Institute of Physics ask for members to investigate the state of physics teaching in their local school. He indicated that he would like all members of the IoP support physics education.
During the talk we were shown facts about how there is an ever increasing number of students doing physics and a record number of physics trainee teachers, but these numbers are not enough. The upshot is that the IoP believe that there is still work needed to improve the headline figures like the number of schools with physics graduates working as teachers and ensuring all schools offer physics A-level as quite a few don't.
Sir Peter Knight would like to know:
How many students at your school sat As and A-level physics last year?
How many of the students sitting A-level physics are girls?
How do you encourage students to think about choosing A-level physics?
How many specialist physics teachers does your school have?
Once members have answered these question we are to email the answers to physicsforall@iop.org
The message behind these questions, or at least the one I heard, is that we need more physicists in the UK and the way to achieve this is to have more physicists teaching in school.
I think that it is absolutely vital that we have well trained, knowledgable teachers. However, I am not convinced that using physics graduates is the only way, and I am certainly not convinced that a good grounding in university physics makes for a good teacher.
As a teacher of science I see physics in the context of science. I want my students to see science in everyday lives. I don't teach physics because I passionately believe that everyone should love it and want to study it. Do I owe it to physics in the UK to shift my views?
When I consider the ASE presidential address and Robin Millar's points on "science for all" I am conflicted between teaching and encouraging the physics graduates of the future and teaching scientific literacy for the masses. Are the two possible and/or compatible? Maybe they should be, but I don't believe we have achieved it yet in the English education system.
Having said all of this I really appreciate all the work that the IoP are doing to support physics education. I never regret paying my £100 per year membership fee because I know they are doing good work. And since I started teaching in my school we have had 3 students apply to do physics at university, so maybe I am already doing what the IoP would like.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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