1. 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-mined 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.

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2. Talk, Dinner and Catching Up. 6:00pm, Weds 7th Sept, Auburn Hotel
The Vicphysics Teachers’ Network invites physics teachers and others interested in physics education to gather in an informal setting for a series of dinners with a guest speaker. The guest speakers will address diverse topics touching on curriculum, pedagogy and the discipline itself.  Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in discussion and network with colleagues over dinner. 

The first occasion will be Wednesday, 7th Sept at the Auburn Hotel at 85 Auburn Rd, Hawthorn starting at 6:00pm.

The speaker will be Dr Victoria Millar from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne.

Topic: What is the role of physics education and how does that determine the elements of a physics curriculum?

This is particularly opportune with a revised study design to be implemented in 2023.

Dr Millar is a senior lecturer in the Graduate School of Education and has been at the University since 2011. Prior to that she taught Physics in schools in Victoria. Her research interests are in physics and science education, particularly science participation, curriculum and interdisciplinarity.

The cost is $40 ($35 for Vicphysics subscribers) and covers a main course and drinks.

For more details and to book click here.

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3. Initial Conditions: Physics History Podcasts
The American Institute of Physics is producing a series of podcasts that provide the context in which physical discoveries happened. They plan to uncover the unexpected stories behind the physics we know. Through these stories, they hope to challenge the conventional history of what it means to be a physicist. They plan to release a new podcast each week.

The first one in the series was mentioned in our last newsletter under 'Physics on the Web'.  It was about Eunice Foote, the forgotten Climate Science Pioneer. 

This week it is about Climate Science in the early 20th Century and the work of Arrhenius, Callendar and Keeling.

The podcasts go for about 40 mins.  The other useful feature is a list of further reading, with each item in the list accompanied by a short description of its content so that you can assess its usefulness to you.

Some of the future editions are on, with their indicated release dates:
The Newton You didn't Know (15th Sept), Ptolemy's Almagest (22nd Sept), Indigenous Science (29th Sept), Black Holes (6th Oct) 4. Review of the Design of the Physics Exam: A Survey. 
As part of the introduction of the revised Physics Study Design, VCAA is undertaking a review of the design of the Physics exam paper.  As part of the review, VCAA is seeking the views of physics teachers through an online survey.  The closing date is Monday 22nd August. The link will also be available to teachers on the VCAA Bulletin and will also be included in the Notice to Schools.
There are 11 questions, 5 of which are multiple choice. There is scope for additional comment. 5.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 eight (8) schools are seeking a physics teacher:
In recent weeks three schools have placed ads on the Vicphysics website.  One position is now closed, the other two close this week. They are:

• PLC (Head of Physics) (closes 11th Aug) 
• Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School (closes 11th Aug)

The Vicphysics webpage above has a link to the Government schools jobs website. The following Gov't Schools are seeking a physics teacher:

• Officer Secondary College (closes 16th Aug)
• Cohuna Secondary College (closes 16th Aug)
• Viewbank College (closes 15th Aug)
• John Monash Science School (closes 11th Aug)
• Brunswick Secondary College (closes 10th Aug)
• Glen Eira College (closes 8th Aug)

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. 7. Events for Students
a) Online Physics Revision Lecture, Sunday, 11th September

The lecture will be presented by Sandor Kazi of Melbourne Girls' College and Paul Cuthbert of University High School.  The format will be the same as last year's lecture. The lecture will be presented as a Zoom webinar for which the students will need to book.  The cost stays at $25 per student.  Teachers making a group booking will need to provide the students' name and email addresses. Each student will be sent the Zoom link before the lecture. Teachers can also include themselves in the booking.  For more details and to book when the cost is finalised is here.

The structure of the program is that Sandor and Paul will each take it in turn to present a 45 min talk on an Area of Study with a 15 minute gap in between.  The program starts at 9:00am and runs until 1:45pm.

There will be course summaries available.  During the webinar there will be a panel behind the scenes answering the students' questions in the chat room.  The chat room comments will also be saved and forwarded to all participants.

b)  Girls in Physics Breakfasts in 2022

There is one event open for bookings. The venues in other parts of the state that we have used in the past are not taking bookings due to the continuing impact of COVID on their staffing etc.

• 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 the event, such as promotional flyer, speakers' bio and abstract of her talk.  There is also link 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.

c) 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, 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.

d)  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.

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

8. Events for Teachers

a)  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.

b) 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.

9.   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) Top Tips for Safe Diving
This note reports on research on the risks associated with diving from the 8m board.  The group dropping 3D printed models of a near life-sized human torso, connected to a force sensor, into a tank of water, they conclude that – without any training – you’re likely to injure your spine and neck if you dive head-first from a height of more than 8 metres into water. Plunge in hands-first from above 12 metres and you’ll probably knacker your collarbone, while you’re likely to damage your knees if you just jump in feet-first from above 15 metres. This is their research paper  Slamming dynamics of diving and its implications for diving-related injuries 

b) Champion semiconductor could replace silicon, say researchers
Cubic boron arsenide is one of the best semiconductors known to science and could even dethrone silicon as the principal component of modern electronics. This finding is based on experiments showing that small, pure regions of the material display a thermal conductivity and charge carrier mobility that far outperforms those of existing widely-used semiconductors, including silicon. The results validate theoretical predictions and suggest that cubic boron arsenide could revolutionize the field of electronics – at least in principle.

c) A water- activated disposable battery
A new water-activated disposable battery devised by Gustav Nyström and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa).  It consists of a rectangular strip of paper with an ink of graphite flakes on one side acting as the cathode and a zinc powder printed on the other as the anode. As they explain in their paper in Scientific Reports, both sides are covered with another layer of graphite flakes and carbon black, which connects the anode and cathode to two wires at one end of the paper.

What’s clever is that the paper has salt (sodium chloride) dispersed throughout it. So if you add a bit of water, the salts dissolve, releasing ions that activate the battery. The authors combined two of these cells into one battery and used it to power an alarm clock with a liquid-crystal display.

Tests show that just two drops of water can activate the battery within 20 seconds, providing a healthy 1.2 volts. That value falls away sharply as the paper dries but adding two more drops will perk it back up to 0.5 V for an additional hour., source of these notes