1. Units 1 and 2 Course Planning Day: 21st November.  Monash Tech School and Online
The Vicphysics Teachers’ Network is holding a one-day hybrid in-service to assist teachers with their planning of Units 1 and 2 of new VCE Physics Study Design, which commences in 2023.
Date:  Monday, 21st November
Venue: Monash Tech School, Clayton Campus, Monash University and online.

The program will include:

• Putting the Unit 1 energy theme to work: elaboration, classroom strategies and resources to effectively combine old and new content  with Dr Barbara McKinnon.
• Small Group Discussion on planning Unit 1 with a focus on the teaching order of the Areas of Study, amount of class time for each and possible trimming of the content to fit the semester
• Managing Multiple Options with Jane Coyle including assessment and the new dot points on ‘Communicating physics’
• Content briefing on new content and approaches. Topic and presenter to be announced later
• Assessment Tasks and logbooks A presentation by Maria James, VCAA Science Manager, followed by small group discussion on what to consider when choosing your assessment tasks for 2023.

All these sessions will be available on-line.
Cost: On site at Monash Tech School: $65 for subscribers, $75 for others, Lunch is provided. On-line: $40 for subscribers, $50 for others.
To Register: Go to Vicphysics website

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2.  Vicphysics Website: Preparing for 2023
Over the holidays the webpages for the Unit 1 Areas of Study have been updated to reflect the course starting next year. There is still some finetuning to do.
A request: These webpages need more examples of assessment tasks.  If you have any tasks you would like to share, can you please send them to Vicphysics.  Contributions will be gratefully acknowledged on the website, if you wish.
Work on the Unit 2 Areas of Study, including all the options will start at the end of October.

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3. PHYSCON 2023: Victorian Physics Teachers' Conference: 24th February, 2023.
Vicphysics Teachers' Network will be presenting PHYSCON 2023 with the support of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Swinburne University of Technology.  PHYSCON 2023 will be held at their Hawthorn Campus in Burwood Rd on Friday, 24th February.

The conference will be a hybrid conference offering both face to face and on-line sessions.  The Conference website will go live next week when registrations will also open.

The conference program will include:

• Live-streamed keynote addresses,
• 3 sessions with workshops in person and online,
• Access to exhibitors
• Round table activities on course planning of Units 3 & 4 for 2024,
• Networking lunch,
• In-depth review of the 2022 VCE Physics exam, with Andrew Hansen, the Chief Assessor
• VCAA presentation by Maria James, Science Curriculum Manager,
• Laboratory tours of cutting-edge facilities and visits to the Virtual Reality theatre,
• Saturday Excursion Tasters and Peter MacCallum Medical Physics In-Service.

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4. DART: An opportunity for problems
Last week NASA crash landed the DART spacecraft (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) into a small asteroid called Dimorphos in attempt to change its orbit.  The impact is an excellent source of data for contemporary problems for students to tackle. The image at the side was taken by the spacecraft 10 seconds before impact.
 
The impact can be considered a 'sticky' collision, which makes it easier to analyse.  The students can determine the speed of the combined mass after collision and the loss of kinetic energy.  The collision was also almost head on.  The impact is expected to reduce the period by at least 10 minutes. 
 
The impact was also expected to eject considerable material.  It is suggested that this ejection may also impart a recoil force of Dimorphos.  The students can also speculate on the subsequent motion of Dimorphos as it continues to orbit around Didymos.
 
This link is to a Word document with several problems on the collision and on gravitational fields, along with relevant data for Dimorphos, Didymos and the spacecraft.

This NASA website for DART has educational resources on the 'Science behind NASA's first attempt at redirecting an asteroid' and on 'Math Rocks on Asteroid dynamics'.  This JPL website has general information about DART and at the bottom of the page there are links to other educational material across a range of age groups.

The spacecraft navigated itself to the target. Once the craft was in sight of the binary system, it had determine which object was Dimorphos, then align for a head on collision.  It also released a CubeSat before impact to capture images of the impact and the cloud of ejected matter.  It will then monitor the binary system for four years with particular focus on the impact crater.

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4. Vicphysics Competitions: Entries due

• Poster Competition for Unit 2 Practical Investigation   The Poster Competition is designed to award quality student work and to provide exemplars of quality investigations. Entries due 2nd Friday of Term 4. Check this webpage.
• Physics Photo Contest Entries due 1st Friday of Term 4. For details click here
• Physics Video Contest Entries due 1stFriday of Term 4. For details click here.

5. 'Initial Conditions' Podcasts on history of physics
The journal 'Physics Today' is producing a weekly series of podcasts on the history of physics.  This week's episode is on the legacy of 'Ptolemy's Almagest'.  Initially written around 150 CE, it was used for several hundred years after that. The earliest printed translations date from the 1500's, which were done by Arab astronomers. These astronomers were using Almagest but needed to update it as the precession of the spinning earth had slowly moved the dates of the equinoxes through the calendar. The period is 25,772 years or 50.4 arc seconds per century.  Indeed Hipparchus 129 CE had observed the shift when comparing his observations of star positions with those of the Babylonian civilization of 1800 BCE.

This and earlier podcasts can be found here.  So far there are eleven in the series. 6. Seeking a Physics teacher? Seeking a new position?
The Vicphysics Teachers' Network has a Job Ads page to assist schools in finding a physics teacher.
There are ten (10) schools are seeking a physics teacher: The Vicphysics webpage above has a link to the Government schools jobs website. The following Gov't Schools are seeking a physics teacher:

• Sale College (closes 10th Oct)
• Euroa Secondary College (closes 16th Oct)
• Tarneit Senior College (closes 5th Oct)
• Sunbury College (closes 4th Oct)
• Dandenong High School (closes 3rd Oct)
• Keysborough Secondary College (closes 5th Oct)
• Mordialloc College (2 positions) (closes 3rd Oct, 4th Oct)
• Upper Yarra Secondary College (closes 6th Oct)
• Rosehill Secondary College (closes 5th Oct)
• Scoresby Secondary College (closes 11th Oct)

The webpage is updated every weekend.  The webpage also has a link on how schools can register a position and lodge a payment for this service. 8. Events for Students

a) New Scientist Festival of Ideas and Discoveries.  Weekend 8th and 9th October.  Online and On Demand
New Scientist is organising an event with over 50 speakers across four stages over two days.  The event can be viewed live (held during the day UK time) or viewed on demand for 12 months afterwards.
The four stages are: Universe, Mind and Body, Our Planet and Future, each with five 40 min presentations each day.
The online price of £27 gives you on demand access to all talks for 12 months.
For more details of the speakers and to book click here.

b) Prof Brian Cox. Horizons: A 21st Century Space Odyssey, 7:30pm, 15th October
For details of his show, click here.
Venue: Plenary Hall, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Cost: Full time students $56
To Book: click here
 

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9. Events for Teachers
a) Walter Boas Medal Talk: Are we living in the Matrix? What quantum experiments reveal about the world and our powers in it, and what the future may hold. 6:30pm, Monday, 3rd October, University of Melbourne.
Speaker: Howard Wiseman, Griffith University
Venue: Hercus Theatre, University of Melbourne, Parkville
Bio: Howard Wiseman is an Australian theoretical quantum physicist. He is best known for his work in quantum control (manipulating matter and information at the quantum scale) and quantum foundations (trying to understand what is really going when we do this). He is least known for his work in Arthurian history and literature. Howard has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the American Physical society, and the Optical Society of America. He has won the Bragg Medal (AIP), the Pawsey Medal (AAS), the Malcolm McIntosh Medal (PM’s Science Prizes), and most recently the Boas Medal (AIP) for his physics research. He has been Director of the Centre for Quantum Dynamics at Griffith University since 2007.
Abstract: In the original Matrix movie, the bulk of the human population lives not in the real world but inside a computer simulation called the Matrix. They are unable to detect this situation, except for the fact that certain agents can transcend the normal rules of physics. In this talk, I will explain how this is eerily similar to the world we live in. Certain people (quantum physicists) can transcend the normal rules by using entangled particles to do things that "should be" impossible. This makes the world very puzzling place, even for quantum physicists.  These “super-powers” are also central to the burgeoning field of quantum information technology. To end, I will try to explain very recent work by myself and co-workers that ties all of this together in order to show that the world is even more puzzling than we had thought. Much like the latest Matrix movie.

b) Beyond Bohr: A Quantum Approach to the Atom. Perimeter Institute. Online Workshops
Newsletters at the end of last term featured a new impressive resource from the Perimeter Institute (PI), called Beyond Bohr: A Quantum Approach to the Atom.

This inquiry-based educational resource equips high school physics and chemistry teachers with activities that take students beyond the Bohr model to a deeper quantum description. The resource leads students through the development of the quantum model of the atom with activities that explore wave-particle duality, discrete energy levels, orbital shapes, electron spin, and IR spectroscopy.
Throughout the resource, students are challenged to examine the limitations of the Bohr model of the atom and to construct a more robust model.  The resource is designed to excite learning in STEM, with an emphasis on critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, and communication. 
Free download is available here. 

There is also a poster that compares the Bohr model and the quantum model.  It can be downloaded from here

PI is offering online workshops on the resource.  One of the workshops is during the day Melbourne time, 10:00am Friday, 14th October.  However they have filled quickly, but there is a waiting list.  There is good news: 
1. They plan to repeat the workshop and
2. They accepted an invitation from Vicphysics to present a one hour workshop at our conference next year on 24th February.

c)  Special Relativity course for Teachers
As part of its program of PD support for Out-of-Field teachers, Vicphysics is running a course on Special Relativity during Term 4 this year, it will consist of 6 two hour sessions delivered weekly on Thursdays from 20th Oct to 24th November starting at 4:30pm.  They will be delivered on line.  The intensive module steps you through the key concepts and skills to successfully teach the relevant content in VCE Physics.

Why participate:

• Deepen your understanding of key concepts in special relativity
• Engage in key simulations and activities that you can directly deploy in your classroom
• Unpack typical student misconceptions and learn best practice pedagogy for combating them
• Improve your ability to differentiate curriculum and assessment student achievement
• Access materials to support your classroom practice prepared by experienced teachers and science education academics associated with the Vicphysics Teachers' Network
• Become part of a network like-minded teachers who are striving to improve their practice

Cost $240 per participant.  A discount is available for teachers from low ICSEA schools.
The module will be presented by Theo Hughes, assisted by Colin Hopkins.
For more details and to book click here.  Note: The Vicphysics website is now using Stripe as the gateway to our bank account.  Stripe does not accept Internet Explorer, so if paying by credit card, use another browser to access the website.

d)  Supporting out-of-field teachers of Physical Science: Forces and Motion in Hamilton and Bendigo
Vicphysics is preparing intensive PD for out-of-field year 7 - 10 science teachers. The first module covers the teaching of forces and motion.  It runs after school for two hours per week for six weeks  The first program at Kew High School has finished and will be repeated in Term 4 at Monivae College in Hamilton from 26th October to 30th November and in Bendigo at the Bendigo Senior Secondary College from 27th October to 1st Deecmber.

• Do you have colleagues in your Science Faculty who find the teaching of the physics aspects of Year 7 - 10 challenging?  then this course will be of value to them.

The course will be presented by Dr Barbara McKinnon, an experienced science teacher, regular conference presenter and Vicphysics President.  The cost is $240, with a discount available for schools with a low ICSEA rank.
For more details including registration, click here.  Some reviews from the recently completed program at Kew High School are:

• Really engaging sessions with lots of opportunities to get involved and try new activities ourselves. Makes me excited to teach physics! 
• This has been an excellent PD to take part it in. It has addressed multiple misconceptions and I feel significantly more confident in teaching about forces. 
• Was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, despite the fact of having to engage with work related content for two hours after work each Thursday, it was something I looked forward to in the week! 

Other courses are being prepared on other Years 7 - 10 topics: light rays and waves, electric forces and electricity and sources of electricity.  These will be progressively offered over 2023 in metropolitan Melbourne and regional centres.

e)  Lab Techs' Workshops on Years 7 - 10 Physics, 1st Dec, Camberwell Grammar School
The program of workshops for Lab Techs returns.  It will be on Thursday, 1st December and held again at Camberwell Grammar School.  The program includes:

• Learning new skills
• Setting up demonstrations
• Quick Tests on Equipment to see it is working or not plus a few hints on fixing stuff with Harvey Edwards from Principles and Practice
• Electronic data methods with Doug Bail from Ciderhouse, and
• Laboratory management hints

The cost is $70 and includes lunch.
For more information and to book click here.

f) International Conference for Physics Education (ICPE 2022) 5th - 9th December
This year's conference will be an online conference based in Australia, Singapore and Indonesia, which mean it will be held in our time zone. 

It is an event for physics teachers both secondary and tertiary, teacher educators and teaching researchers.  As an online conference, the registration fee is quite low, $60 and $50 early bird.  Currently the program features many speakers including Dr Derek Muller with details of workshops to come.  

The conference proceedings will be available prior to the event so that you can decide which lectures and workshops to attend that fit around your working day.  Local academics are on the planning committee so there will be sessions relevant to Australian Physics Curricula.

For more details and to register, click here.

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) MICROSCOPE satellite puts Einstein’s general relativity to record-breaking test
The equality of inertial and gravitational mass central to Einstein’s general theory of relativity has been confirmed at unprecedented sensitivities by the MICROSCOPE satellite. Having gathered several thousand orbits’ worth of accelerometer data from two masses in free fall around the Earth, the French mission has found no violation of the equivalence principle at the level of a few parts in a thousand trillion. 

b) No one in physics dares say so, but the race to invent new particles is pointless
In private, many physicists admit they do not believe the particles they are paid to search for exist – they do it because their colleagues are doing it. The author of this article in The Guardian, Sabine Hossenfelder , is a physicist at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies in Germany, where she leads the Superfluid Dark Matter group. She has a very popular Youtube channel which has a new video each Saturday.

c) Winds of change: could hi-tech sailing vessels turn global shipping green?
With financial backing from the Swedish Transport Administration, Oceanbird forms part of the country’s Wind Powered Car Carrier project. It aims to build a sailing vessel that can transport 7000 vehicles across the Atlantic with 90% fewer emissions than a conventional ship running on “heavy” crude oil. Oceanbird certainly looks different, with four giant, 80 m-high sails that seem more like sleek aircraft wings.