1. 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.

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2. 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, 16th June.  5:30pm. Learn to program a quantum computer.  Prof Lloyd Hollenberg
• 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. 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 two (2) schools seeking a physics teacher:

• Mill Park Secondary College  (closes 6th June)
• Rosehill Secondary College (closes 6th June)

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.

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

• 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. 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:

• Thursday, 14th July at Warrnambool.  The speaker is Prof Frances Separovic AO and her topic is 'MRI of molecules: Where Biophysics meets Cell Chemistry'
• 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) 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.
The topics for 2022 are:

• Conical Piles Non-adhesive granular materials can be poured such that they form a cone-like pile. Investigate the parameters that affect the formation of the cone and the angle it makes with the ground.
• Saxon Bowl A bowl with a hole in its base will sink when placed in water. The Saxons used this device for timing purposes. Investigate the parameters that determine the time of sinking.
• Falling Tower: Identical discs are stacked one on top of another to form a freestanding tower. The bottom disc can be removed by applying a sudden horizontal force such that the rest of the tower will drop down onto the surface and the tower remains standing. Investigate the phenomenon and determine the conditions that allow the tower to remain standing.

These topics are engaging, accessible at different levels, don't require a lot of equipment and not restricted to the science classroom. They are an ideal challenge for keen students.  They can also be done as part of the Unit 2 Practical Investigation Area of Study.

The features of the competition are:

• it is team based,
• focused on experimental investigations and
• uses oral presentations.

Prizes: There is a prize for every student, with major prizes for top place getters and a trophy for the winning team.
Mentors: This year sees the involvement of university students, who will not only assist teachers on the judging panels, but will be available as mentors to the teams. Teachers will be able to request a mentor for each team when they register.  There are several students now available as mentors.
Venue: University of Melbourne
Registration: This year there is a fee: $20 per team for a Vicphysics subscriber, $40 per team for a non-subscriber.  Registrations are now open and will close on 29th July, see links to 'Teachers' below. 
Note: One teacher for every two teams needs to be nominated, who will be a member of the judging panels on the day.
Travel Subsidy will be available for regional schools.

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.
• For students, with guide questions, hints and links to useful resources.
• For University students, interested in being judges and mentors.

c)  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.

d) Swinburne Santos Science Experience; 6th - 8th July
A holiday program for Year 9 and 10 students who are excited about science.  They come on campus to learn and explore STEM through interactive, hands-on workshops and demonstrations.
Date:        Wednesday 6th, Thursday 7th & Friday 8th July
Time:        8.30am - 4.00pm
Venue:     Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn Campus
Cost:         $190 for three day program (funded places available)
Applications and more details: Click here.  To contact them: 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) 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

6. Events for Teachers
a) 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.
 

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) Glass: a transparent tool for a fairer planet
Glass-based technologies are shaping the modern world, from enabling green tech to delivering the Internet. This article describes how the 2022 International Year of Glass will celebrate the universality of this see-through super material.

b) Desktop air curtain could block viral spread in hospitals
To protect them from exposure to infections in such scenarios, a team at Nagoya University in Japan has developed a desktop air curtain system (DACS) that blocks emitted aerosol particles and prevents potential spread of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

The DACS contains a generator at the top that produces a steady airflow, which is then guided to a suction port at the bottom of the device, effectively creating a smooth curtain of air. As this integrated system contains both a discharge and a suction port, it can be installed at any location, and is portable enough to be placed on a desk. A high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter inside the suction port can provide air purification.

c) Riding the wave in quantum photonics: Mother and daughter co-found quantum start up
Mother-and-daughter duo Gaby Slavcheva and Mirella Koleva co-founded a start-up, Quantopticon, that develops software for simulating quantum photonic devices. Margaret Harris spoke to them about their plans for the company and upcoming challenges in quantum technologies.