1. PhysCon 2023: Victorian Physics Teachers' Conference: 24th February, 2023.  Call for Presenters
Vicphysics Teachers' Network will be presenting PhysCon 2023 with the support of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Swinburne University of Technology.  PhysCon 2023 will be held at their Hawthorn Campus in Burwood Rd on Friday, 24th February.

The conference program will include:

• Live-streamed keynote addresses,
• 3 sessions with workshops in person and online,
• Access to exhibitors
• Round table activities on course planning of Units 3 & 4 for 2024,
• Networking lunch,
• Laboratory tours of cutting edge facilities and visits to the Virtual Reality theatre,
• Saturday Excursion Tasters and Peter MacCallum Medical Physics In-Service.

If you would like to present a workshop, please click here to register preferably by Friday, 16th September. 
Presenters have the conference fee waived.

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2. VCAA Webinar. Planning for Units 1 and 2 in 2023.
VCAA is conducting a webinar on Wednesday, 24th August from 4pm until 5pm

The webinar will focus on supporting teachers of VCE Units 1 and 2 Physics to develop programs and assessments that meet the requirements of the reaccredited study design (Units 1 and 2: 2023–2027; Units 3 and 4: 2024–2027).

To register click here.  You can also submit questions prior to the event.

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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 five (5) schools are seeking a physics teacher: The Vicphysics webpage above has a link to the Government schools jobs website. The following Gov't Schools are seeking a physics teacher:

• Wantirna College (closes 30th Aug)
• Surf Coast Secondary College (closes 29th Aug)
• Elevation Secondary College (closes 27th Aug)
• Alkira Secondary College (closes 25th Aug)
• Mullauna Secondary College (closes 23rd 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. 5. 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) Physics Gymnasium: Lectures for students - University of Melbourne
The last of the lectures is next week.

• 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.

c)  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) 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.

e) 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.

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) 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.

b)  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-minded 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.

c)  Supporting out-of-field teachers of Physical Science: Forces and Motion in Hamilton
Vicphysics is preparing intensive PD for out-of-field year 7 - 10 science teachers. The first module will cover the teaching of forces and motion.  It runs after school for two hours per week for six weeks  The program is currently running at Kew High School and will be repeated in Term 4 at Monivae College in Hamilton from 19th October to 23rd November.

• Do you have colleagues in your Science Faculty who find the teaching of the physics aspects of Year 7 - 10 challenging?  then this course will be of value to them.

The course will be presented by Dr Barbara McKinnon, an experienced science teacher, regular conference presenter and Vicphysics President.  The cost is $240, with a discount available for schools with a low ICSEA rank.
For more details including registration, click here.

Other courses are being prepared on other Years 7 - 10 topics: light rays and waves, electric forces and electricity and sources of electricity.  These will be progressively offered over 2023 in metropolitan Melbourne and regional centres.

d)  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.

e) 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) Ultrasound sticker provides continuous imaging of internal organs
A wearable ultrasound device can provide 48 hours of continuous imaging of internal organs while patients go about their daily lives. The device – developed by a team headed up at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – consists of a rigid piezoelectric ultrasound array that sticks to the skin via a soft bio-adhesive hydrogel–elastomer hybrid. Describing their findings in Science, the researchers demonstrate that the patch can image the heart, gastrointestinal tract, diaphragm and lungs during activities such as jogging or drinking fluids.

b) Using Newton's laws to weed out bogus car-crash claims
Fraudsters routinely try to make money by pretending they have been injured in traffic accidents. But simple Newtonian physics can reveal which claims are genuine and which are bogus.