1. Girls in Physics Breakfasts in Term 2
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
a) Wodonga, 7th May
Date: 7th May. Time: 8:30am. Venue: The Cube
Speaker: Dr Renee Goreham, University of Newcastle
Topic: Nanobiotechnology: Building the Future of Medicine and Beyond
Bookings open. Closing date: 28th April. Flyer is available
b) Melbourne 20th May and Live-streamed
Date: 20th May. Time: 8:00am. Venue: William Angliss Institute, 555 La Trobe St, Melb
Speaker: The AIP Women in Physics speaker Dr Danielle Holmes, UNSW Sydney.
Topic: Wonders of the Quantum World: from Stars to Quantum Computers
Bookings open Closing date: 9th May. Flyer is available
Live Streaming: Dr Holmes' presentation will be live-streamed. Check here for abstract, ideas on how to use the livestreaming and to register.
c) Synchrotron; 5th June and optional Synchrotron Tour
Date: 8th June. Time: 8:00am. Venue: Australian Synchrotron, 555 Blackburn Rd, Clayton
Speakers: Drs Amelia Liu and Taissa Danilovich, Monash University.
Topics: Shedding new light on glass; The dusty ends of Sun-like stars
Bookings Open. Closing date:26th May. This breakfast is generously supported by ANSTO.
See below for Breakfasts in Term 3.
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2. Documents from Beginning Physics Teachers' In-Service
A number of documents were prepared for the In-Service held during the school holidays.
They were:
- Planning resources for 2025 (a 40 page booklet which includes a list of practical activities for each Area of Study, course plans for Years 11 and 12 and some activities on conceptual understanding)
- Prac Activity worksheets (a 21 page booklet of information on the experiments at the various stations, either as actual worksheets or as weblinks to other sites. Also included is the equipment list with sources and costs as well as photos of equipment set up)
- Sources of advice and Teaching Strategies (Information on the range of resources provided by physics teacher organisations in the US and UK along with descriptions of a diverse range of teaching strategies with links included.)
And they are available on the webpage for the event.
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3. Compendium of items from the Vicphysics newsletter
This newsletter has been running for over 20 years with regular items on teaching resources. Several years ago these items were compiled into a single document and it has been progressively added to each year. The document now has 500 items and is 162 pages long. Each item entry has numerical code, the title and the original text and links. The items are in numerical order with new items added at the end.
Also early on, a companion document was prepared, which grouped the codes and titles by Area of Study and categories such as Teaching Strategies. For example, there are 23 for Fields and 9 for each of Electricity Generation and Relativity. This index is 13 pages.
Both these two documents are on the website at the bottom of the page.
To further assist teachers in accessing this resource, the list of items for each Area of Study is at the bottom of the webpage for that Area of Study.
4. Lenz's Law: Demonstration: A variation
A common demonstration of Lenz's Law is to drop a neodymium magnet, with its 
polarity vertical, down an aluminium tube, with the magnet reaching terminal velocity and taking some time to emerge at the bottom of the tube.
An alternative method is to use a magnetic sphere and a length of aluminium extrusion with a right-angle bend inclined at an angle. The reaching of terminal velocity is obvious as the ball rolls done the ramp. The key aspect is to place the sphere at the top of the ramp with its
magnetic field horizontal and at right angles to the slope.
However a surprising result is observed if the orientation of the magnetic field is parallel to the slope. To the right is the graph of speed vs time. Check this Youtube video. This demo is from this article by Rod Cross from the University of Sydney who is well known for his investigations of the physics of everyday objects. Check this list, which includes:
- Estimating average acceleration of a car or a sprint runner
- Static friction on the feet
- Transition from bouncing to rolling
- Work and Energy in a head on collision
5. Events for Students
a) Webinar: Study Skills for Physics Students 29th April, 6pm - 7pm
To students: Science can teach us how to learn. Hear about some strategies to turn information into understanding and revision into better exam performance. Three experienced physics teachers share their tips in an online webinar for VCE students.
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.
The three presenters are: 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.
b) Girls in Physics Breakfasts in Term 3
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.
- 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
- Traralgon, late August.
Bookings
Starting Times in 2025. This year the metropolitan events will start at 8:00am and the regional events will start at 8:30am.
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Each Thursday, two teachers will share their plans for the week, starting 10 days ahead. The PD is for teachers teaching Unit 3 for the first time or seeking a refresher course. The sessions are online and from the broadcast studio at John Monash Science School, so participants can see demonstrations and other practical activities. The presenters are Kathryn Grainger and Dr Penny Hale from John Monash Science School
The one hour sessions start at 3:45pm with the last 15 mins for questions from participants. There have been three sessions so far, but you can still join there as there are plenty more to come.
Registration Fee: $60 with discounts available. You can register at any time, but there is no reduced fee for coming in after the program has started.
Limitation: Due to the conditions placed on the use of the studio, this event is only for teachers from Government and Catholic schools.
c) Out of Field PD: Forces & Motion, Light & Sound
The Out of Field PD continues in 2025 starting in Term 2. The program starts 
with
Cost of each event: $265 per participant with a discount for teachers from Government schools ($55) and from schools with a low ICSEA rank. A second teacher from the school can register at no cost for the online Forces and Motion PD.
To Book an event: Click on the link above.
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6. Seeking a Physics teacher? Seeking a new position? 4 positions
There are two schools seeking a physics teacher.
The Job Ads page on Vicphysics website is updated every weekend. The webpage also has a link on how schools can register a position and lodge a payment for this service.
- Mount Rowan Secondary College (closes 30th April)
- Sandringham College (closes 29th April)
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.
In this edition there is only one entry, an acknowledgement of the contribution of Robert P Crease to Physics journalism. Robert P Crease is a science historian and philosopher, PhysicsWorld is celebrating his 25 years as a columnist. The article has a commemorative piece on those 25 years as well as links to some of his more thought-provoking and popular articles,
Robert P Crease: His most popular columns in Physics World
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i) Vicphysics Membership and Access to the Teachers' Resources on the website.
Vicphysics has changed its membership structure, benefits and fees. Previously, a subscription to the website resources was separate from being a member of Vicphysics. Access to website resources is now being included as one of a number of member benefits.
Membership benefits include:
- access to teacher resources section of the website
- discounts to attend conferences, in-services, etc,
- certification for attending each PD event,
- PL certificate for committee meetings supplied at the end of the calendar year and
- voting rights.
Membership fees are: Individual: $60, Retired: $40, Student (tertiary): $40, School: $120.
Vicphysics also offers a Resources Access Only option without the discounts and other benefits listed above. The fees for this option are the same as above.
Existing subscribers currently receive discounts, which will cease when their subscription expires. At that point, subscribers will need to choose between the two options above for continued access to the Teacher resources.
We are looking forward to increasing the membership base of Vicphysics and to fostering member input into our extensive range of activities from Physics teaching professional learning such as our recent SAC PD events or the Physics Teachers Conference to supporting activities for students, such as the Luna Park Physics Days or photo and poster competitions.
You can join us here!
ii) Vicphysics Forum: Tips and Questions for the Physics Teaching Community
The Vicphysics Teachers’ Network has set up an online Forum for teachers to raise issues, seek ideas, offer suggestions, etc.
Link here directly, or look out for it on our webpage where it can be found at the top right of our home page.
We hope it will be an opportunity for mutual professional development.
The forum is open to all teachers. If you are a subscriber, you can log in the usual way. If you are not a subscriber, you can register to use the forum at ‘My Account’. Given the purposes of this Forum, we ask that you use your real name when generating a topic or lodging a post.
We hope this Forum will become a valuable medium for exchanging ideas as we begin planning the new study design.
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