1. Resources from the PD on SACs

A PD on SACs was recently held.  It covered the Unit 3 Areas of Study and Unit 4 AoS 1 and was in all the four formats: Explaining, Analysing, Applying and Comparing.  Material for and from the PD has been uploaded to PD on SACs in June webpage .
The material includes:

• Questions for the groups on the Motion in 2D and Fields Areas of Study which participants had already done and questions on Electricity Generation and Unit 4 AoS 1 which most participants were yet to do or design.
• A short Powerpoint (5 slides) on the key pointers for each format,
• Spreadsheet of Performance Descriptors for the Area of Study and the skills of Communication, Data Analysis and Arguments and Conclusions, along with information on constructing a rubric for an assessment task from the worksheets in the spreadsheet.
• Check lists for each format. Vicphysics has prepared these to assist teachers in thinking of the aspects of each type of assessment task.  The check lists are not intended to be exhaustive, nor authoritative, but more a guide to the aspects worth considering when designing an assessment task or evaluating commercial tasks or those of other teachers.

Contributed SACs.  Participants have contributed assessment tasks.  Copyright watermarks have been added and they have been uploaded to a google drive to which teachers can request access by email, in the same way that Luna Park Solutions are made available.

Currently there are now 13 SACs on the google drive along with the material described above. 
To get access to this google drive, please email Vicphysics from a school or education-linked email address.

There were moderators for each of the four formats across the Areas of Study.  Notes from their experience across Units 3 and 4 are being prepared and will be added to the website before the end of term.

2.  Out-of-Field PD for Science Teachers: Forces and Motion (Shepparton), Light and Sound (Hamilton)
The next two PD events will be done in person and in the two full day format.

• Forces and Motion will be in Shepparton on Fridays, 9th and 16th August
• Light and Sound will be in Hamilton on Tuesdays, 13th and 20th August

Check here for details for these events and to book.

Cost: $220 per participant, with discounts available for teachers from Government schools and for teachers from schools with a low ICSEA rank. CRT coverage is available for teachers from Government schools.
  3. Events for Students 

a Girls in Physics Breakfast for 2024
Bookings are open and flyers are available.

• Bendigo, 1st August.  Speaker: Dr Nadia Zatsepin, La Trobe University, Topic: Making molecular movies with X-ray lasers.
• Geelong, 15th August.  Speakers:  Prof Bre-Anne Sainsbury, Prof Wendy Timms, Deakin University, Topics: a) The Gentle Art of Breaking Stuff, b) Locking Carbon in the Ground: How, When, Where?

The cost this year is $25 per student inc GST with the first teacher free.  A discount is available.
Please check the website for more details.  Bookings can now be made for the ones with confirmed dates.  The others will open for bookings as venue and speaker details are confirmed.

b. Virtual Space School 2024, 15th - 17th July and on Catch up.
This is a series of seven talks.  It is a partnership between St Paul's School (UK) and University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL). All talks are delivered by academics and experts who actively work in the field of Space Science. They will be roughly 45-50 mins in length with 10-15 minutes of questions after the talk ends.

Topics include: Rockets and Missions, Space Electronics, Human Spaceflight, Space Weather, Exoplanet Astronomy and Planetary Science.

Just one sign up is required to access all of the talks. They can be viewed live or on catch up at a later date.
The times for Melbourne are:

• Jul 15, 2024 09:00 pm,
• Jul 16, 2024 12:45 pm, 6:00pm, 8:15pm, 11:00pm
• Jul 17, 2024 06:00 pm, 7:15pm

Students can register here, where details of the presenters are also available. There is no cost.

c. VCE Physics Revision Lecture, Sunday, 15th September, On-line and at Swinburne University of Technology
This year's Revision Lecture will be held on Sunday, 15th September from 10:00am until 2:50pm.
It will be offered as a hybrid event, on-line and in person at the Hawthorn campus.
The presenter will be Colin Hopkins.  The on-line chat room will have experienced teachers available to answer questions.
Lunch will be provided by Swinburne University for the students.
Swinburne University will also provide campus tours and their Astro tour at lunchtime. These can be booked at Registration.
The cost is $27.50 inc GST and participants will get access to revision material.
Students can book at this webpage on the Students of the Vicphysics website, where there is additional information.

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4. Events for Teachers 
July Lectures in Physics, 6pm, Fridays at University of Melbourne.  Theme: Physics and Sustainable Development.

In this lecture series, 'we ask what role physics has in meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development goals. Coinciding with the first year of the UN International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development, these lectures will explore the intersection between physics and sustainable development: from climate action to affordable and clean energy, education to gender equality and beyond'.

• Friday, 28th June: Oceans in Motion: How Oceans Affect Our Changing Climate with Dr. Navid Constantinou, ANU.  Abstract: The ocean’s boundless mystery and ever-changing beauty inspires and seduces artists, poets, and dreamers, becoming an eternal muse for creative expression. Despite this, most of the ocean remains a mystery to scientists. We’ll go together on a journey to appreciate how the ocean’s motion gives rise to mesmerising patterns: a complex network of ocean currents and turbulent eddies that move heat, carbon, and salt all around the globe. We’ll dive in and get an understanding of how the ocean’s complicated and inspiring motions shape and regulate the global climate, revealing the ocean’s role in our changing climate.
• Friday, 5th July: Adventures in Transportation: Designing How We Move, from Scooters to Self with Dr. Julian O'Shea, Youtuber.  Abstract: Are self-driving cars the future? What can Taylor Swift teach us about transport design? What happened to all those oBikes that ended up in the Yarra? This talk is an exploration about transport in the urban context, the past, present and future of cities and how the way we move impacts our lives. This talk shares stories from Julian O'Shea's work and research in transport, urbanism and video storytelling
• Friday, 12th July: Physics and Renewable Energy: Geothermal in the Latrobe Valley with Prof Rachel Webster.  Abstract: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is an urgent need, especially for Victoria to reach its legislated emissions target of net zero by 2050. While she usually looks up at the stars in her astrophysics research, two decades ago Prof. Webster started asking: what if the answer is beneath our feet? Just 150km from Melbourne, in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, the layers of brown coal create the perfect environment to heat up the aquifer and provide one of the world’s best sources of emission-free sustainable geothermal power. In this talk Prof. Webster will explore the science of geothermal energy which could be harnessed as an alternative to natural gas, giving an insider's tour of the current project to create the ‘Smart Geothermal Industrial Loop’ (SGIL).
• Friday, 19th July: Sustainability, Science and Australian Universities in the 21st Century. Join a panel of esteemed scientific, policy and climate leaders for a discussion on the role of Australian universities and scientists in the interdisciplinary challenge of reaching the UN’s sustainable development goals.

Each lecture runs from 6-7pm (doors open 5:45pm) and will be followed by refreshments and the opportunity to mingle with the rest of the audience and ask the speaker further questions. 
Check the website above to book. 
Venue: Glyn Davis Theatre, Melbourne School of Design, Building 133, University of Melbourne

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7.   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) Birds save up to 25% of their energy when they follow a leader
A painstaking study of sensor-laden European starlings has confirmed what scientists have long suspected: birds use significantly less energy when they fly behind a leader.

b) Graphene at 20: why the ‘wonder material’ is finally coming good
Strong, light and with amazing electronic properties, graphene has always been touted as the “wonder material”. But two decades after it was first isolated, graphene is finally delivering on its promise.
A roadmap in the IOP Publishing journal 2D Materials (11 022002), declared that the market for graphene applications could be worth $5.5bn by 2027.

c) Dark-field X-ray imaging reveals potential of nanoparticle-delivered gene therapy
One proposed treatment for cystic fibrosis is gene therapy, in which a viral vector delivers a healthy copy of the CFTR gene into airway cells to produce functional CFTR protein. To transport this vector to target cells and keep it there long enough to interact with them – key challenges for all gene therapies – researchers have coupled the vector to magnetic nanoparticles, which should allow controlled delivery to the airways using an external magnetic field.

Researchers at the University of Adelaide are now tackling another pressing challenge for successful gene therapy – visualizing the magnetic nanoparticles within live airways and manipulating them in vivo. To achieve this, they explored the use of dark-field X-ray imaging to enhance nanoparticle contrast and understand how magnetic nanoparticles move within the airway of a live rat, reporting their findings in Physics in Medicine & Biology.

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