1. Vicphysics Survey of Physics Teachers on Qualifications, Teaching Experience and Professional Development Needs
Vicphysics seeks to lobby Governments and curriculum authorities on matters such as the demand for physics teachers, combined classes etc.  This survey can give us a profile of the physics teaching profession.  The survey focusses on qualifications, responsibilities in schools and the content areas in which teachers would like to enhance their understanding as well as years of teaching experience and issues such as combined classes.
Can you please complete it online here. A strong response is needed to guide the work of Vicphysics.
This survey was also distributed at PHYSCON on Friday. 

2. Physics Days at Luna Park and Synchrotron Tours
Many country schools bus their students to Luna Park. In the past to enhance their day in Melbourne, some arranged an activity after Luna Park closed at 2pm.  One of these was a Synchrotron Tour.  
This year the Australian Synchrotron is offering a free one-hour tour on Monday, 4th and Weds, 6th starting about 3pm, which gives enough time to drive the bus to Clayton.  Vicphysics had decided to cover the cost for tours on the other three days, so a tour is available on each day.
Tour groups are limited to a max of 25.
If you would like your students to be part of a tour group, please email Synchrotron bookings with your day and student numbers. 3. PHYSCON 2024: Videos, Resources, Evaluation and Post Conference Registration
PHYSCON 2024 was held last Friday.  Videos of the keynote addresses and most of the workshops are available at the conference website to those who registered.  They are being progressively trimmed.
If you were not able to attend, you can still get access to the presentations by registering now.
The cost is $135 with discounts for Vicphysics subscribers. Please click here to go to the PHYSCON webpage and click on Register. 
The resources provided by the presenters were initially only available during their presentation.  They are being transferred to a Google drive and will be available from tomorrow morning.  To access them, the participants should open the platform, click on the session and scroll down to resources to access the link.

Evaluation Form: If you were a participant, please complete this form.  It is important to give feedback to each of the presenters and your comments on the conference help plan the next one. 4. Chief Assessor's Report on the Nov 2023 Physics Exam paper
The report is now available on the VCAA website.  Go down the page and click on '2017 - 2023' to see previous exam papers and exam reports.
Vicphysics solutions for 2023 paper: They now include the percentage correct for each Section B question and the percentages for each multiple-choice alternative along with a comment on the more common incorrect answer.  The Solutions also include at the end, additional questions for revision based on the stems of many of the exam questions.  These solutions can be accessed here.
5. Astronomical Data in the Classroom
One of the keynote addresses was on Bringing the Universe into the Classroom, by Dr Sara Webb from Swinburne University. Sara mentioned a few resources in her talk, see them below.  Added to these are some extra ones from an article by Luisa Rebull from CalTech in the Feb 2024 edition of Physics Today. (Vol 77 No 2)

• Zooniverse: A citizen science program that covers more than astronomy, tutorials are available for users. The current project is called 'RedShift Wrangler: Help us use the light from distant galaxies to look back in time to the early universe! Task 1 is to identify spectral features, Task 2 is to check spectral fits.  They also have classroom activities.
• NASA Citizen Science:  There are 40 different projects with titles such as Dark Energy Explorers and Planet Hunters.
• Hubble Learning Resources  This is a link to the activities page of the NASA Hubble site.
• Hands-On Universe. is an 'educational program that enables students to investigate the Universe while applying tools and concepts from science, maths, and technology. Using the Internet, HOU participants around the world request observations from an automated telescope, download images from a large image archive, and analyse them with the aid of user-friendly image processing software.' Under 'Activities' there are links to remote telescopes and units on Gravitation as well as specific projects on Jupiter, Saturn and Io using orbital data to find planetary masses.
• Vera C Rubin Observatory Education Group. This observatory is yet to be operational, but it has several on-line lessons using nominal data.  They currently have six programs with titles such as 'Expanding Universe' and 'Exploding Stars'.
• Other sources.  This is a list compiled by Luisa Rebull, which has dozens of other sites grouped under radio, Infra-red, optical, X-ray and multi-wavelength.  She also has a few Youtube videos on accessing astronomical data. including Treasures of NASA data.
• Other useful resources suggested by Luisa are: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day and Astrobites, which takes an article per day and re-writes it for upper-level secondary students.

6.  Short practical activities for home: Next Activity
Activity for this newsletter: Take a straw and blow bubbles into a glass of milk. How many edges do the bubbles have? Max of 3, 4, 5 - 7 or 8 or more?
Check this Youtube video for the short introduction. The answer will be in the next newsletter.

Answer to the activity in the last newsletter is: D: The height of the water jets increases from the mouth to slightly behind the middle of the straw, from there to the finger it decreases again.  Also check the entry, titled Physics of Advent, at the bottom of this webpage, on our website for information about the source of these activities.
7. Events for Students

Girls in Physics Breakfast for 2024
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: Aeroplanes and Rocket Science: Your ticket to 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, 15th August.  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.

Physics Days at Luna Park in 2024 .
The bookings for the five days are strong.  Bookings must close a week before.
Please note that Luna Park requires the 30% deposit to be paid by 14 days before the visit.
There will be no aerobatic displays this year, but realistic flight simulators from the RAAF will be there on all days in The Pavilion behind the Ferris Wheel.
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.
The dates are Monday, 4th March to Friday, 8th March, for bookings.  The student fee will be $31.50. 
* Synchrotron Tours: See Item 2 above.

8. Events for Teachers 

a) Out-of-Field PD for Science Teachers: Forces and Motion.  In-person 
This Out-of-Field PD program continues in 2024. The first one is on Forces and Motion, presented in two formats.  The online version in six two-hour sessions from 4:30pm to 6:30pm started last week. 
The second format is in person at Wangaratta on 2nd and 9th May. For this the cost is $220 and there is CRT coverage for Government schools.
Check here for more details.

There will also be a repeat of last year's online PD on Special Relativity in Term 2, dates are yet to be confirmed.

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 
The in-service will be at Kew High School. The program includes a hands-on session practical activities, presentations by Colin Hopkins and Andrew Hansen, the chief assessor, and a panel of experienced teachers sharing their ideas on developing SAC tasks.  
Registration is open here.
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.
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.
This event will also be at Kew High School. Details will be available shortly.

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11.   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) Atlantic current circulation could shut down, say climate scientists
The collapse of the main ocean current that keeps Europe warmer than other regions at similar latitudes is a real possibility, say researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands – though they remain unsure when it might happen. The researchers based their conclusions on a modern complex physics-based climate model that incorporates the gradual melting of ice sheets, and they say that the collapse, when it occurs, could have far-reaching consequences not only for Europe, but for the southern hemisphere, where temperatures could rise without the current’s heat-distributing effects.
b) Seeing the wood for the trees: could forests be used as neutrino detectors?
Trees could shed light on some of the most cataclysmic events in the universe, according to a particle physicist at the University of Kansas in the US. Steven Prohira thinks these woody objects could function as radio antennae to spot neutrinos, with forests forming large detector arrays. Prohira argues that such detectors could be cheaper and easier to deploy than arrays of artificial antennae.
c) The art of networking: how to thrive at conferences, ...
After so many years stuck behind screens, have we lost the art of networking? James McKenzie reminds us why it’s important to get out there and meet people face to face. 
"Networking events are back – at least they are in my day-to-day business activities. Sure, I picked up lots of great online networking skills during the COVID pandemic. But it’s fun – and often essential – to return to the old-school methods of talking to people face to face, going to conferences and attending trade shows."

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