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1. Girls in Physics Breakfast for 2024
The Australian Institute of Physics Women in Physics lecturer for 2024 is officially announced today. Vicphysics has been active behind the scenes to confirm the speaker for a breakfast on 9th May in Central Melbourne.
Below are the events planned so far. Bookings are open and flyers are available for confirmed events.

Ballarat, 8th March. Speaker Prof Emma Ryan-Weber, Swinburne University, Topic: Where does stuff come from?
Mildura, 19th March. Speaker: Dr Gail Iles, RMIT, Topic: Human Spaceflight and Science in Space
Monash University, 22nd March. Speaker: A/Prof Kaye Morgan, Monash University, Topic: Playing with Light: X-ray imaging at the Synchrotron
Traralgon, 17th May, Speaker: Natalie Clements, Medical radiation physicist, Topic: Using physics to treat cancer.
Central Melbourne, 9th May. AIP Women in Physics Lecturer for 2024, Prof Susan Coppersmith, UNSW, Topic: From Grains of Sand to Quantum Computers
Wodonga, 30th May (TBC), Speaker Dr Renee Goreham, University of Newcastle, Topic: Nanobiotechnology: Building the Future of Medicine and Beyond
Bendigo, (Term 3). Speaker: Dr Nadia Zatsepin, La Trobe University, Topic: Making molecular movies with X-ray lasers.
Geelong, (Term 3). Speaker: TBC.

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.

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2. Short practical activities for home: Next Activity
Activity for this newsletter:
Take a roll of thread and tape the free end of the thread to the table. Place a sheet of paper under the roll. There are two tests: i) with the thread going over the top of the roll ii) with the thread going under the roll. Now for each test, pull the paper away horizontally, evenly but quickly. Where does the roll of thread go?

Check this Youtube video for the short introduction. The answer will be in the next newsletter.

Answers to the four activities in the last newsletter are: Table tennis ball: B, Loops in string: D, Hot and cold glasses: A, Emptying a bottle of water: C. Check the last newsletter for the activities, their videos and for information about the source of these activities.

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3. Events for Students

Physics Days at Luna Park in 2024 Updated worksheets and Risk registers.
The worksheets have been updated to reflect the terminology of the current study design, that is, use of 'normal force' instead of 'reaction force', force due to gravity instead of weight force, etc. Check the website to download them. Please select and adapt as you see fit for your students to use on the day. Many teachers print a section as A5 booklets.

Schools require teachers to prepare a risk assessment for such activities. These can be time consuming to prepare. If you have a prepared one and are happy for it to be a template, please send it to Vicphysics and we will put a compilation of those we receive on our website.

The dates are Monday, 4th March to Friday, 8th March, for bookings. The student fee will be $31.50 and a deposit of 30% is required to confirm the booking.
Aerobatic displays have been requested, but confirmation is not received until February.

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4. Events for Teachers

a) PHYSCON 2024: 23rd February, 2024. Registration is open

Victorian Physics Teachers' Conference Friday, 23rd February, 2024 at Swinburne University of Technology

Click here for the landing page with details of workshops, the program and the link to register. A copy of the program can also be downloaded here.

For PHYSCON 2024 we are scheduling four workshop sessions, each with 12 workshops on offer, in addition to innovative and inspiring keynotes from quantum specialist Dr Liam Hall and astronomer Dr Sara Webb.
One of the workshop presenters (A3) will be Joe Cossette from the US. Joe has just been named as 2023 Teacher of the Year by the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC), which is a partnership of the American Physics Society (APS) and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). This is his webpage. Another is Prof Alan Duffy from Swinburne (B9) on 'Exploring radiation and relativity with classroom muon detectors'.

We will be live streaming 36 of the 48 workshops as well as the keynote addresses, so that the experience is accessible to all physics teachers. Participants will also be able to attend important VCAA update sessions and presentations from the Chief Assessor of the VCE Physics examination.

Conference fees:

Type
In Person	$350
Online	$300

Discounts:

Individual Vicphysics Subscribers: $50
Student and Retiree Subscribers: $100
School Vicphysics subscribers: $10

Also note the webpage for PHYSCON 2023 with the conference proceedings and the results from the small group activity of assessment tasks has been moved from the 'Events' section to "Teachers', under 'Previous events'.

b) Out-of-Field PD for Science Teachers: Forces and Motion. Online
This Out-of-Field PD program continues in 2024. The first one is on Forces and Motion. It will be presented online in six two-hour sessions from 4:30pm to 6:30pm and conducted on Tuesdays from 20th Feb to 26th March. The cost is $265 with a discount available for teachers from schools with a low ICSEA rank. Check here for more details.

There will also be a repeat of last year's online PD on Special Relativity in Term 2.

There will also be repeats of the Electricity PD, done in person in the after-school format and also the two full day format in both metropolitan and regional locations.
Material is being developed for PD on Light and Sound, and Energy which are expected to be conducted in the 2nd half of the year.

c) Beginning Physics Teachers' In-Service. Thursday, 11th April
A date has been chosen for this in-service. The program will be similar to this year's. Registrations will open soon. The in-service is of value to first year out physics teachers, those returning to physics teaching after some absence and teachers of other science disciplines who have been asked by their school to take Physics.

d) Practical Activities for Senior Physics, Friday, 12th April
The plan is to set up an extensive number of physics experiments, demonstrations and other practical activities for Units 1 to 4 across 4 - 6 labs.
The program will be designed to ensure flexibility and access. Lab Techs will also be welcome to register.
On the day, there will be people to help and notes available, but it is expected that with a large number of pracs on display, not all will have a dedicated helper.
You are encouraged to offer to bring along some of your own pracs, but you will need to submit a proposal at least two weeks before the end of term, so that we are confident that bench space will be available and there is no doubling up.
Equipment suppliers will also be invited.
More details will be available soon.

d) Physics Today and AAPT Webinar: Engaging Students with Realistic Virtual Physics Labs
The AAPT's next webinar is on Thursday, 22nd Feb at 7:00pm ((US EST), or Friday, 23rd at 11:00am (Melbourne time). However you can register and receive a recording after the event.
Check the description at the link above. Part of it says 'The first half of this workshop presents a holistic interactive-engagement approach to learning and teaching physics. Students will "learn how to learn physics" by following processes that physicists employ to construct and apply new knowledge. .... The second half of this workshop will introduce virtual physics investigations that include everything a student needs to conduct a physics experiment, including 3D simulated laboratory equipment and data collection tools. ...'

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5. Seeking a Physics teacher? Seeking a new position?
There are four (4) schools seeking a physics teacher. For a couple applications closed on Sunday, but they may take late applications. The following Gov't Schools are seeking a physics teacher.

Melba Secondary College (closes 6th Feb)
Mornington Secondary College (closes 13th Feb)
Bundoora Secondary College (closes 14th Feb)
Grovedale College (closes 20th Feb)

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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6. 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.

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: A Vicphysics subscription gives you access to the Teachers section of the website. The subscription will last for a year from the day payment is received. Both individual and school subscriptions are available. Check the homepage for subscription link.

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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) Unifying gravity and quantum mechanics without the need for quantum gravity
Jonathan Oppenheim at University College London has developed a new theoretical framework that aims to unify quantum mechanics and classical gravity – without the need for a theory of quantum gravity. Oppenheim’s approach allows gravity to remain classical, while coupling it to the quantum world by a stochastic (random) mechanism.

b) Calling all physicists: why you’re vital for the green economy
“Over the next quarter of a century the world will determine its fate more profoundly than at any time since the first industrial revolution. We are at a fork in the road.” That’s the sobering warning from the University of Birmingham nuclear physicist Martin Freer in the foreword to the recent Physics Powering the Green Economy report from the Institute of Physics (IOP), which publishes Physics World.
Physics Powering the Green Economy is a timely reminder of how physicists are – and have been – responsible for many green innovations ranging from low-energy computing and solar cells to wind power and the batteries that are need to store energy drawn from new sources. If we want the green economy to develop, the report makes clear, it’s vital to have a healthy physics ecosystem supporting these developments.

c) Reed College: the only place in the US where students get to run a real nuclear reactor
Robert P Crease travels to Reed College in the US, which is unique for having the only nuclear reactor in the US run by undergraduate students.

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