• Analyse a real-world problem
• Design possible solutions to your chosen problem
• Develop a rapid prototype for your solution
• Evaluate your prototype with your peers
• Have fun!  "

Vicphysics is organising a Study Skills webinar for VCE physics students.  It will be held on Tuesday, 29th April.  It will be an online event from 6pm to 7pm.

The cost is $10.00 inc GST per person, which will also include access to prepared material.

There will be three presenters: Rachael Gore, Sandor Kazi and Colin Hopkins, each speaking for 15 mins on one of the three topics below, followed by 15 mins of question time in breakout rooms for each topic.

• Effective Time Management:
  • Identify that the Study Design is finite
  • What you know - what you don’t know. Fill the gap.
  • Identifying your strengths as a learner
  • How many past papers should be attempted
  • How not to waste time when studying
• The Science of Learning:
  • Structure of the brain
  • Working memory
  • Long term memory, and how to move from one to the other
  • Forgetting curve
• Preparing for SACs and exams
  • How to use Exam reports
  • How to anticipate the types of questions
  • How to write better answers

The program will be of value to both Year 11 and Year 12 students. Here is a flyer to promote the event to your students.
Students can make individual bookings here.  Credit card is required.
Schools can make group bookings here.  Credit card and EFT are available.

Bookings close on Thursday, 24th April.
The Vicphysics website also has two web pages to assist students Advice on Revising Physics and Advice of Learning Physics.

c) Girls in Physics Breakfasts in 2025
These are the dates and speaker details for the remaining breakfasts.
The support of the Invergowrie Foundation has enabled Vicphysics to increase the subsidy for the student fee for the regional breakfasts. The fee this year is now $15.

• Wodonga, 8th May. Breath of Discovery: Nanotechnology a Disease Breathalyser with Renee Goreham, University of Newcastle Bookings open Closing date: 28th April
• Melbourne, 20th May, The AIP Women in Physics speaker is Dr Danielle Holmes (UNSW Sydney).  She works in quantum computing.  Bookings will open when details of her topic are available and flyers have been prepared.
• Australian Synchrotron, 5th June, Amelia Lui and Taïssa Danilovich, Monash University.  Topic and flyer to be available soon.
• Traralgon, Early June.
• Geelong, 14th August. i) How important are powders? ii) Rethinking Waste: Engineering a Circular Future with Negin Amini and Sirjana Adhikari, Deakin University Bookings open Closing date: 4th August

a) Lightning Strikes and Power Surges, Online 5:30pm, Thurs 27th March
A talk by the Forensic Engineering Society of Australia (FESA).  The speaker, Grant Gatland, will present on lightning strike and power surge events, the damage and differences caused by each type of event and some methods used to differentiate between them. This has importance to insurers when validating lightning strike or power surge claims compared to alternative loss mechanisms.

Grant, an electrical and electronics engineer, has many years of experience assisting insurance companies, loss adjusters and law firms with investigating complex technical loss events around the world. He has a depth of experience assessing damage to and also recovering a wide range of equipment, such as CNC, medical diagnostic equipment and semi-conductor plant and equipment, following fires, explosions, chemical spills, impact damage and water exposure incidents.

This is the Zoom link.

b) Just in Time PD each Thursday of Semester 1

a) Artur Ekert explains how Albert Einstein and John Bell inspired quantum cryptography
When physicists got their first insights into the quantum world more than a century ago, they found it puzzling to say the least. But gradually, and through clever theoretical and experimental work, a consistent quantum theory emerged.
Two physicists that who played crucial roles in this evolution were Albert Einstein and John Bell. In this podcast the theoretical crypto-physicist Artur Ekert explains how a quantum paradox identified by Einstein and colleagues in 1935 inspired a profound theoretical breakthrough by Bell three decades later.

b)  CO₂ laser enables long-range detection of radioactive material
Researchers have demonstrated that they can remotely detect radioactive material from 10 m away using short-pulse CO₂ lasers – a distance over ten times farther than achieved via previous methods.  The new method leverages the ionisation in the surrounding air, enabling detection from much greater distances.

c) How civil engineering is bringing quantum physics down to earth
Quantum-based gravity sensors promise a sensitive and robust way to locate buried objects, and they’ve recently taken their first steps out of the laboratory, 
The few metres of earth under our feet are a tangle of pipes and cables that provide water, electricity, broadband and waste disposal. However, once this infrastructure is buried, it’s often difficult to locate it again.

“We damage pipes and cables in the ground roughly 60,000 times a year, which costs the country about 2.4 billion pounds,” explains Nicole Metje, a civil engineer at the University of Birmingham in the UK. 

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