1.  Girls in Physics Breakfasts in 2023
The Girls in Physics Breakfasts program starts this term.  Below are the dates and venues that are open for bookings with the speakers and their topics.  There has been a change of dates for Wodonga and Bendigo
The speaker for the breakfast to be held at Monash University some time in Term 3 is likely to be the AIP Women in Physics Lecturer for 2023.  The dates of her national tour are yet to be confirmed.

• 25th May, Central Melbourne. Speaker: Prof Rachel Webster, Melbourne University, Topic: Black Holes - a Window to another Universe
• 31st May, Mildura. Speaker: Speaker: Distinguished Professor Emeritus Frances Separovic AO, Melbourne University, Topic: MRI of Molecules: where Biophysics meets Cell Chemistry.
• 2nd August, Geelong. Speaker: A/Prof Elizabeth Hinde, Melbourne University, Topic: Glow in the dark – Using fluorescence to observe DNA in a living cell
• 11th August, Wodonga. Speaker: Emma Dyce, Medical radiation physicist, Topic: Treating skin cancer with radiotherapy
• 16th August, Traralgon. Speaker: Prof Rachel Webster, Melbourne University, Topic: Geothermal energy in Gippsland
• 25th August, Ballarat. Speaker: Dr Taissa Danilovich, Monash University, Topic: Molecules in Space
• 1st September, Bendigo. Speaker: Dr Amanda Karakas, Monash University Topic: Stars as chemical element factories

The cost this year is $20 per student, the first teacher attends for free.  There is a discount to $5 for low ICSEA schools, you need to contact Vicphysics to request the discount.
For more details and to book go to the Vicphysics website.
Flyers to promote the Term 2 events to your students are on the website. Flyers for Term 3 events will be up in coming weeks.

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2. Einstein First: Introducing Einstein's ideas in middle school
The Einstein-First Project is an initiative based in WA. It introduces the fundamental concepts of modern physics to primary and middle school students and works to improve STEM involvement in the classroom. 
 
Einstein-First began by developing innovative methods for teaching school age children the concepts of Einsteinian physics – curved space, warped time, photons, black holes and quantum entanglement. The project led to an international research collaboration and a new partnership with education authorities and Western Australian primary and secondary schools.  It is developing and implementing an Einsteinian science curriculum from Years 3 to 10.

Their website not only has research papers and presentations, but resources for teachers.  These are in two sections 'Open', which has largely promotional material and 'Secure' which has the classroom material, for which you need a password, but this is readily obtained by emailing them through their 'Contact' link.  There is also pdf flyer available.

They are having workshops for students to be held in Canberra on Tuesday, 13th June from 11:00am to 3:30pm, followed by a launch.  Email them here for more details of this event. 3. The International Handbook of Physics Education Research: Teaching Physics: Free downloads
This handbook has just been published.  The whole book can be viewed online and individual chapters can be downloaded.

The language is academic, but there are many topics relevant to our classrooms, from using smart phones to digital data analysis to virtual learning to assessment of conceptual understanding.  So there should be something to interest everybody.

The chapter headings are:
i) Educational Technologies in Physics Education:

1. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Physics Education
2. The role and impact of Virtual Laboratories in Physics Teaching and Learning: A synthesis of literature
3. Smartphones as an educational intervention in Physics Education Research (PER): Framing an analysis for Determinants and Perspectives
4. Experimental Environments in PER: A Critical and Comparative Evaluation of the international Literature - Trends
5. A Review of the Literature for Designing and Developing a Framework for Adaptive Gamification in Physics Education
6. Using Sensors and Digital Data Collection/Analysis Technologies in K-12 Physics Education under the STEM Perspective
7. Visual and Argumentative Aspects in Greek School Textbooks and in Teachers' Practices: Glances at the concept of Periodicity

ii) Physics Learning Environments:
        8. Holistic Learning Environments (such as Modeling Instruction and Project-based learning)
        9. Setting Specific Learning Environments (inc Peer instruction, cooperative problem solving)
        10. Characterising Lab Environments using Activity Theory
        11. Virtual Learning Environments
        12. Informal Learning in Physics 

iii) Physics Teacher Education
        13. Physics Teacher Education for early Science Learners
        14. Pre-Service Physics Teacher Education
        15. Physics Teacher Professional Learning (Strategies and examples)
        16. Research on the Development of Faculty, Graduate Assistants and Undergraduate Learning Assistants

iv) Assessment of Student Learning in Physics
        17. The Relationship between Alternative Assessment and Physics Learning from the Perspective of Different Functions of Assessment.
        18. Assessment Practice in interactive class: Explicating Theories and Applications
        19. Assessment of Conceptual Understanding in Physics (Methods, Validity, Reliability)
        20. Instruments for Diagnosing Students' Conceptions of Optical Phenomena (Interviews, Drawing Diagrams, Writing descriptions, multiple choice)

4. How to teach and talk about Climate Change. PD In person and online, 10am - 12:30pm, 28th April.
Deakin University is hosting a workshop by Professor Travis Rector (University of Alaska, Anchorage).  It will be held on Friday 28 April 2023 from 10:00am to 12:30pm. As this is during the school day, Vicphysics has suggested that the event be recorded and made available to those who register after the event. So if the topic is of interest to you, but the time is inconvenient, please let the organisers know.
  5. Resources from the Beginning Physics Teachers' In-Service
An In-Service was held last Thursday with 21 participants with 15 presenters and demonstrators.  A key part of the program was hands-on activities on a diverse range of physics experiments. The material for this session included prac notes, information on the equipment's prices and sources, and photos of set ups. This document and other resources on course planning can be accessed here.  This webpage also has the presentations and resources from previous in-services. 6. Applets on Vicphysics website
Some more sources of applets have been added to our website.  There are now 10 sources listed, each with a description of the range of applets on offer.
At the top of the list is a link to a NZ Institute of Physics website that has a list of titles of sources but without any annotations.  However there are 27 sources listed.  Many of them are in the Vicphysics list, while some of ours are not in the NZ list.

Sources that have stood the test of time are PhET, Walter Fendt and oPhysics.

7. Events for Teachers 

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10.   Physics News from the Web
Items selected from the bulletin of the Institute of Physics (UK).
Each item below includes the introductory paragraphs and a web link to the rest of the article.

a) Breaking barriers and opening up physics – Bell Burnell's contribution

Imagine winning a $3m prize and then giving all the money away. That’s exactly what the astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell did in 2018, when she won the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her 1967 discovery of pulsars and her “inspiring scientific leadership over the last five decades”.

Indeed, Bell Burnell donated further prize money in 2021, when she was awarded the world’s oldest scientific prize, the Royal Society Copley Medal. In both cases she used these gifts to set up the Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund,. It aims to help PhD students from groups that are under-represented in physics and is supported and administered by the Institute of Physics.

b) Journey to the stars: the personal stories of women in astronomy
Before you get to the personal stories of current astronomers that make up the bulk of this book, there is an important introductory chapter entitled “Beginnings”. 
Beginnings” also presents a brief history of women in astronomy, providing valuable context for how much women have had to struggle to be part of the field. A timeline of the lives and work of female scientists from as early as the 1600s – when they couldn’t even give their own accounts of their labours – shows a common theme emerging, with each vignette containing essentially the same story.
it serves as a clear foundation for the book, demonstrating the history of barriers faced in the field and the women striving to break through them. Regardless of the location or situation, people have always looked up to the sky and questioned their place in the universe and this is why these fringe cases are so plentiful.

c) Physics of Playground Swings
A recent research article looking at mathematical models of how you pump a playground swing has got a lot of coverage in the science press.  This is the original paper by Hirata et al. Other links of a more general nature are: How do you go up in a swing? a Science Alert article and a newspaper article

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