*|MC:SUBJECT|*

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3.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 is four (2) schools seeking a physics teacher:

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.

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4. Vicphysics matters

i) 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. The link is on the top line of our website’s home page: https://www.vicphysics.org/

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 login in the usual way. If you are not a subscriber you can register to just 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 a lodging a post.

Currently there are six categories for the topics:

I’m looking for help with ...: For that hard to assign question
Curriculum matters: To post questions about designing a course, interpreting dot points, ordering the Areas of Study, and depth of coverage.
Teaching strategies: To post questions about tackling misconceptions, engaging students, finding resources, etc.
Practical Activities: To post about all things practical: what activities can be considered a prac, sharing equipment, generating topics for practical investigations and developing rubrics.
Assessing students: To post questions and tips on monitoring students’ learning and giving efficient feedback as well as designing assessment tasks that vary in style and cover a range of skills.
Exams and Revision: To post tips and questions about techniques for revising the subject, managing practice papers, the use of two page summary and reading time.

Generating a Topic

Click on the category in which you want to place your topic.
Enter a short title for your topic (max 80 characters)
In the next box write your topic.
Be sure to include some topic tags to help those searching for topics.
Click the box at the bottom if you want to receive an email when someone replies.
Finally click 'Submit'.

We hope this Forum will become a valuable medium for the exchange of ideas as we begin planning for the new study design.

ii) Subscriptions: Subscriptions will last for a year from the day payment is received. Both individual and school subscriptions are available.

iii) Tutor Listing Service: The website has a Tutor Listing Service. There are now four tutors listed. If you tutor and wish to add your name to the list, please check the website.

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5. Events for Students
a) Girls in Physics Breakfasts in 2022

After a break of two years, the Girls in Physics Breakfasts are back. There are now three events open for bookings, other will follow later this term. They are:

Friday, 22nd July at Bendigo. The speaker is Dr Dianne Ruka and her topic is 'STEM from Science/Maths to Technology and Engineering'
Thursday, 28th July in Central Melbourne. The speaker is A/Prof Katarina Miljkovic, the AIP Women in Physics lecturer for 2022 and her topic is 'Impacts! Rocks from space colliding with Planets'
Friday, 19th August at Mildura. The speaker is Dr Judy Hart and her topic is 'Developing new materials for Renewable Energy'

Click here for more details of each event, such as promotional flyers, speakers' bios and abstracts of their talks. There are also links for make a booking.

Cost: $15 per student if booking with a credit card through Trybooking and $25 if using bank transfer with an invoice . There is a discount for low ICSEA schools.

b) Physics Gymnasium: Lectures for students - University of Melbourne
Formally known as the VCE lectures, while they do explore the current VCE curriculum, these lectures are open to students of all ages with a keen interest in Physics, as well as teachers and parents.

Thursday, 4th August. 5:30pm. Gravity, Dr David Simpson
Thursday, 18th August, 5:30pm. The photon: a wave or a particle? or both? Prof Harry Quiney
Thursday, 1st September, 5:30pm. The Future of Optics with Prof Ann Roberts

Check here for more details and to book. Recordings of previous lectures are now available.
These are Covid-safe events. The lectures will be delivered to a live audience in the School of Physics. The lectures will also be live streamed. The Zoom link will be sent two days before the lecture.

c) Victorian Young Physicists' Tournament for students in Year 10 and 11

VYPT is back this year with a number of changes. For those not familiar with VYPT. It is a competition for students in Years 10 and 11. During Terms 2 and 3, in teams of 3, the students experimentally investigate a common set of three topics, then on Saturday, 10th September in a series of one-on-one 30 minute contests with other teams, they describe their method, explain their findings, and question and challenge the presentations of others.
For further details, there are four relevant webpages on the Vicphysics website:

For general information,
For teachers to register teams, along with advice on planning, including a promotional flyer and a link to the video of Physics Teachers' Conference workshop with a discussion among a panel of teachers who have participated before. Registrations close 29th July.
For students, with guide questions, hints and links to useful resources.
For University students, interested in being judges and mentors.

d) Other Vicphysics Competitions

Poster Competition for Unit 2 Practical Investigation The Poster Competition is designed to award quality student work and to provide exemplars of quality investigations. Check this webpage.
Physics Photo Contest For details click here
Physics Video Contest For details click here.

e) Free AstroTours for Year 10 – 12 students

Swinburne's Hawthorn campus is offering free Astro Tours to school groups of students in Years 10 - 12. The tours are hosted by a professional astronomer, students learn about astronomy using innovative virtual reality technologies developed by Swinburne's Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing.

Students will have the opportunity to ask questions, and discover the universe through movies, animations and simulations — all produced by the in-house team of astronomers, visualisation researchers, animators, artists and programmers. Teachers are also invited to customise the AstroTour to suit the interests of their students.

The session runs for 50 minutes and the venue can take 55 students. Click here for more details and to book.
There are also tours for the general public during the school holidays ($10 per person).

f) 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 Super Early Bird online price of 20 pounds gives you on demand to all talks for 12 months.

For more details of the speakers and to book click here.

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

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6. Events for Teachers
a) July Lectures in Physics: Fridays in July at the University of Melbourne

The theme of this year's series of lectures is 'Quantum Worlds: from the cosmos to future computing'.

Friday, 15th July at 6:30pm: Quantum computers - approaching fast with Prof Lloyd Hollenberg. Click here to book and for details of the abstract, the speaker's bio and the venue.

Friday, 22nd July at 6:30pm: Quantum Chemistry: quantum effects in our everyday lives with Prof Katya Pas. Click here to book and for details of the abstract, the speaker's bio and the venue.

Friday, 29th July at 6:30pm: Thermonuclear quantum mechanics: the elusive promise of fusion with Prof David Jamieson. This lecture is dedicated to the memory of Professor Tony Klein. Click here to book and for details of the abstract, the speaker's bio and the venue.

b) EduTECH Conference and Expo, 10th - 11th August, Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre.
The event has over 300 speakers across 12 different conferences including: i) School leaders, ii) Teachers, iii) Digital Technologies, iv) ICT, v) Vocational Training as well as Apple, Microsoft and Google conferences. There is also a large number of exhibitors. Passes cost $300.

For details of the various conferences and speakers, please click here.

c) 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.

d) New Scientist Physics talks: Online and On demand
The magazine New Scientist is organising a series of talks on physics, titled The Big Thinkers. They can be viewed live, but can also be viewed any time for 12 months. The next two topics are:

The Origin of the Universe by Will Kinney, University of Buffalo, Thurs, 14th July
Space, Time and Motion, Sean Carroll, Caltech, Thurs 20th October

Individual tickets are available for 15 pounds. Series tickets are available for 80 pound and include these earlier lectures:

A brief history of time keeping with Chad Orzel, author of 'How to teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog'
Physics at the End of the Universe with Katie Mack
What we don't know about Gravity with Claudia de Rham
Reality+: from The Matrix to the Multiverse with David Chalmers

e) Supporting out-of-field teachers of Physical Science
Vicphysics is preparing intensive PD for out-of-field year 7 - 10 science teachers. The first module will cover the teaching of forces and motion and will run after school for two hours per week from Thursday, 21st July to Thursday, 25th August. The times will be 4:30pm to 6:30pm. The venue is Kew High School.

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 Jane Coyle, an experienced science teacher and regular conference presenter. The cost is $240, with a discount available for schools with a low ICSEA rank.
For more details including registration, click here.

Other courses are being prepared on other Years 7 - 10 topics: light rays and waves, electric forces and electricity and sources of electricity; and one for VCE Physics teachers on special relativity. These will be progressively offered over 2022 and 2023 in metropolitan Melbourne and a regional centre.

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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.