1. Brian McKittrick passed away last Wednesday
Brian McKittrick died last week from a head injury sustained in a fall.
Many physics teachers will know of Brian McKittrick through his prac and problem books.  His 'Physics Experiments and Student Investigations' has been the go - to book on prac activities since it was first published in 1991. Similarly, 'Problems in Physics', co-written with E D Gardiner, is a comprehensive resource.
Brian was a key figure in the introduction of Extended Practical Investigations (EPIs) into the Physics course. While on teacher exchange in the UK he taught the Nuffield Physics course, which featured such investigations. Back in Victoria he persuaded the Physics Course Managment Committee of the time to include the idea in the new course design and he developed the documentation for its acceptance by the Curriculum Authority.  The EPI has been a much-valued feature of the physics course ever since.
Brian was also the lead author for many years of a highly regarded practice exam.
After leaving teaching, Brian contributed to educational research at Monash University, co-writing papers on the teaching and learning of electricity and also developing the popular Conceptual Understanding Procedures material.

2. Practical Activities Fair for Senior Physics, Friday, 12th April
The event will offer an extensive number of physics experiments, demonstrations and other practical activities for Units 1 to 4 across 8 labs.
The program will be designed to ensure flexibility and access. Lab Techs will also be welcome to register.
There will be people in each lab to guide and offer assistance.  There will be notes available. Equipment suppliers will also be there.
Invite to contribute an activity: If you have designed a practical activity you would like to share, please complete the form on the website. You will not need to be beside your display during the day.
This event will be at Kew High School.
Invite to help with the day:  If you would like to share your experience with others, please emall Vicphysics.
Cost: $95 with discounts for Lab Techs and Vicphysics subscribers. Lunch is provided.
For more information and to register, please go to the Vicphysics website. 3. Beginning Physics Teachers' In-Service. Thursday, 11th April 
The in-service will be at Kew High School. The program includes a hands-on session of 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.
Cost: $60 with discounts for Vicphysics subscribers.  Lunch is provided.
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. 4. Special Relativity: On line PD Term 2
Theo Hughes will be repeating of last year's online PD on Special Relativity in Term 2.  It will be on Thursdays, 9th May to 13th June, from 4:30pm to 6:30pm.
The cost is $265 with discounts for Vicphysics subscribers
Check here for details. 5. PHYSCON 2024: Videos, Resources, Evaluation and Post Conference Registration
Videos of the keynote addresses and most of the workshops are available at the conference website to those who registered.
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 presentations include Maria James, VCAA on Assessment Tasks and Andrew Hansen, the Chief Assessor on the 2023 Physics Exam.
The resources provided by the presenters were initially only available during their presentation.  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.
6.  Short practical activities for home: Next Activity
Activity for this newsletter: Take a rubber band, stretch it and place it against your lips for about 20 seconds, then quickly release the tension on the rubber band and place it against your lips again. What do you notice? A. When stretching the rubber band, it becomes warm, then cools as it contracts, B. When stretching the rubber band, it becomes cold, then warms as it contracts, C. The rubber band gets cold as it is stretched and as it contracts, D. The rubber band gets warm as it is stretched and as it contracts.
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: C: The balloon with the flour flies higher.  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
Bookings are open and flyers are available for confirmed events.

• Mildura, 19th March. Speaker: Dr Gail Iles, RMIT, Topic: Aeroplanes and Rocket Science: Your ticket to Space. Bookings close today
• Monash University, 22nd March. Speaker: A/Prof Kaye Morgan, Monash University, Topic: Playing with Light: X-ray imaging at the Synchrotron.  Bookings close this Friday.
• 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: What do Theoretical Physicists do?
• 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.  Speakers:  Prof Bre-Anne Sainsbury, Prof Wendy Timms, Deakin University, Topics: a) The Gentle Art of Breaking Stuff, b) Locking Carbon in the Ground: How, When, Where?

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.
 

Live-Streaming of Breakfast Talk, 8:15am, 9th May
You and your students can view the talk by the Aust Inst of Physics Women in Physics Lecturer for 2024, Prof Susan Coppersmith, on the morning of Thursday, 9th May as she speaks at the Girls in Physics Breakfast in Central Melbourne.
They are many ways for you to use the talk from the simple to the grand. These include:

1. Record the presentation and show it to the students at another time.
2. Invite students to view the presentation live and so be able to contribute questions for the speaker.
3. Offer the students a light breakfast at the school before viewing the presentation.
4. Invite people who have a career in STEM or are studying STEM subjects at university to join the students for an informal light breakfast before viewing the presentation. Your school alumni are a good source.
5. Make the event more structured by including some careers-based activities or a small panel from among your guests.
6. Contact a nearby school and make it a combined event.

Check our website for advice and suggestions for the above options as well as to register for the Zoom link. Prof Coppersmith's topic is 'From Grains of Sand to Quantum Computers'.  The website also has further information on Prof Coppersmith and her talk.

The Girls in Physics Breakfasts Program has a limit on the number of students per school to maximise the number of schools able to attend. Live-streaming enables more students to be involved.  Last year Kew High School organised their own in-house breakfast with their alumni as the principal source of guests.  It is their planning and experience of that event that is the basis of the advice on the website.

8. Events for Teachers 

a) Out-of-Field PD for Science Teachers: Forces and Motion, Electricity: Both In-person
The Out-of-Field PD program continues in 2024.
The next one is on Forces and Motion, it is in person and at Wangaratta on 2nd and 9th May.  The cost is $220 and there is CRT coverage for Government schools.

There is also one on Electricity, done in person in the after-school format at John Monash Science School, on Thursdays, 16th May to 20th June from 4:30pm to 6:30pm.

Check here for details for both events.

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.

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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)  When Bose wrote to Einstein: the power of diverse thinking
In 1924 an Indian physicist called Satyendra Nath Bose wrote to Albert Einstein saying he had solved a problem in quantum physics that had stumped the great man. The author admitted he was a “complete stranger” but said he was sending Einstein an accompanying article for his “perusal and opinion”. Just five pages long, the article claimed to address a flaw in quantum theory that Einstein had struggled unsuccessfully with for several years.
b) Radio astronomy: from amateur roots to worldwide groups
Having emerged from amateur beginnings in the backyards of radio engineers, radio astronomy is now the focus of elite, international global consortia. This article outlines how the subject has developed and why it needs to strike a fine balance between its science and engineering roots
c) US Odysseus mission becomes first private craft to successfully land on the Moon
A private US firm has successfully made a soft landing on the Moon. The Odysseus mission touched down at 6:24 p.m. ET on Thursday on the Moon’s Malapert A region, a small crater about 300 km from the lunar south pole. Roughly the size of a red telephone box, the craft becomes the first US mission to make a soft landing on the Moon since Apollo 17 took astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt to the lunar surface in December 1972.
 

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