1. Change to Vicphysics Subscriptions
Vicphysics has changed its subscription model. From now on, subscriptions will last for a year from the day payment is received. So if you start a new subscription this week, the renewal date will be in November 2022. Previously any new subscription expired on the same date of 28th February.
For current subscribers, your renewal date is still 28th February 2022. If you have taken out a subscription in recent weeks, we will investigate whether it is possible to change your renewal date.
2. Physics Days at Luna Park, Tues, 8th March to Fri, 11th March 2022
Next year Physics Days at Luna Park will be on the above dates from 10:00am until 2:00pm . You will shortly be able to make a booking. Bookings can be tentative, in that you can change the date once your timetable is known. However, please remember to advise Luna Park by the end of February of any date change.
The cost next year will be $29.50 per student with teachers free. Schools are invoiced after the event based on the number of your students who pass through the turnstiles.
An aerobatic display has been requested, but the Roulettes are not always available and confirmation is usually not until February.
Details about worksheets, costs, etc. are on our website.
3. Universe and More: A teacher developed website of games and videos. Recommended by AAPT
The newsletter of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) often highlights new resources. One such is Universe and More, a website developed by Matthew Blackman who teaches in New Jersey. It features six games he has written on electricity, motion and waves. The games are accessible and engaging and should be useful as introductory exercises. The other section, the Video Vault, is impressive. There are three filters you can use:
- Categories which list 15 different section of a typical secondary physics course from kinematics to modern physics,
- Topics which is a breakdown to concept level, e.g. speed, particle-wave duality,
- Creators where he lists the different makers, which include Veritasium, Physics Girl, Minute Physics, The Slo Mo Guys, TED Ed plus many more.
The nice feature is that there is a screen shot for each video and beneath it the categories and topics that relate to it.
4. Vicphysics matters
- 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.
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 are eight (8) schools seeking a physics teacher:
- Seymour College (closes 4th November)
- Mildura Senior College (closes 7th November)
- Brunswick Secondary College (closes 10th November)
- Wallan Secondary College (closes 11th November)
- Lara Secondary College (closes 14th November)
- Daylesford Secondary College (closes 14th November)
- Highvale Secondary College (closes 10th, 14th November) (2 positions)
- Diamond Valley College (closes 16th November)
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.
6. Events for Teachers
STAVCON, 26th November
There are asynchronous presentations available from 19th November and virtual workshops held on 26th November.
Workshops of interest to physics teachers are:
- Modelling Motion: Graphing to help students understand their experience of speed, acceleration and force. by John Cripps-Clark, Deakin University
- Detecting the Unseen: Australia's hunt for dark matter and gravitational waves. Jacqui Bondell, Swinburne University
- VCAA Update Secondary Years, Maria James, VCAA
- Using models to make meaningful connections between science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the context of energy and energy transfer., Dr Barbara McKinnon, President of Vicphysics, Kew High School
7. Physics News from the Web
Items selected from the bulletin of the Institute of Physics (UK).
a) Technetium-101: from impurity to multipurpose medical tool
Technetium-99m (Tc-99m), the single most-used isotope for nuclear diagnostic imaging procedures, for example, is typically produced from molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) using nuclear reactors. Scientists can’t produce a stockpile of Mo-99/Tc-99m due its relatively short physical half-life (the amount of time it takes an isotope to decay to half of its initial activity); instead, they must produce and distribute it continuously. Other issues, such as ageing nuclear reactor infrastructure and the increasing demand for radioisotopes, have contributed to several major interruptions in the Mo-99/Tc-99m supply chain over the years.
Simply put: there’s a need for new methods that can produce radioisotopes of technetium more efficiently and with less waste.
b) High-temperature superconducting joints make an all-superconducting NMR magnet
Researchers in Japan have built the first nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) magnet that incorporates high-temperature superconductors with truly superconducting joints between them. This breakthrough all-superconducting configuration enables the device to operate at relatively high magnetic fields in so-called persistent mode, making it suitable for applications such as maglev trains and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
c) Elements may have been forged on Earth, as well as in space
Creating elements lighter than iron might not require the extreme conditions found inside very massive stars. According to a group of physicists in Japan and Canada, it is possible that oxygen, nitrogen and all other elements with atomic numbers up to 25 have also been produced inside the Earth. Their eye-catching claim relies on the idea that fusion reactions occur in the Earth’s lower mantle, where they are catalyzed by neutrinos and excited electrons. Return to top
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