1. Holiday reading: Physics Education - IOP Journal - Open access articles
The journal 'Physics Education' regularly has articles whose authors are happy for them to be available to all.  Recent that might interest are listed below.  There are 196 such articles.  These are the titles from among the first 40 that look interesting.

• Thermoelectricity: from the iron arc of Alessandro Volta to radioisotope thermoelectric generators 
• The force is strong. the strong and weak nuclear forces are often given only a cursory treatment. This paper presents some ideas for teaching students about the strong force using practical hands-on demonstrations
• Dynamics of the flip long jump
• The value of using different types of physics problems to help students become proficient problem-solvers
• Space-time is doomed! Introducing Planck scale physics in the classroom
• Content, interest and the role of engagement: experienced science teachers discuss
• Students' perceptual practices with real and virtual images
• A physical pendulum experiment with Lego, Phyphox and Tracker
• Accelerating a car from rest: friction, power and forces
• Artificial intelligence at school: please handle with care
• The physics of outdoor air conditioning and evaporative cooling
• ChatGPT and the frustrated Socrates
• Energy and mass misconceptions

2. Combining Physics Classes in 2024  Zoom Meeting today. 
Some teachers are being asked to combine their Year 11 and Year 12 physics students into one class.  This raises a number of planning issues. 
A Zoom meeting has been arranged for today, Monday, 11th December starting at 4:30pm.  If you would like to participate, please email Vicphysics. for a copy of the Zoom link.
The Zoom meeting can address matters such as: i) Scheduling topics, ii) Teaching styles, iii) Practical Activities, iv) Assessment tasks and v) meeting VCAA guidelines on 'at least 50 hours scheduled classroom instruction per unit'. 3.  Material for Assessment Tasks from Groups at the Units 3 and 4 Course Planning Day
As part of the day the groups each worked on an Assessment Tasks, Scheduling Content and Practical Activities.  The work of many groups has now been entered and is available on our website along with the material the groups were given to assist with the activity.
The material supplied to the groups included:

• Starting points generated at PHYSCON 2023 in the small group discussions.  These covered each of the four types of Assessment Tasks with examples from most Areas of Study.
• Performance Descriptors for each section of content knowledge for each of the Areas of Study.
• Performance Descriptors for some of the Key Science Skills of Communication, Arguments and Conclusions and Data Analysis.

The groups were allocated two of the four types.  They selected one, chose one of the starting points, identified which Content Knowledge and Science Skills related to that starting point, and then began generating questions to construct an Assessment Task.
The document so far has work on six starting points, with others to follow.  They are:

• Projectile motion
• Luna Park rides (additional notes)
• Travelling around a corner
• Comparing the design of two DC motors
• Comparing AC and DC generators
• Nature of light, particle wave duality.

The website also has several finished assessment tasks prepared by Committee members prior to the event.
Also the groups thoughts about Scheduling the Content and Practical Activities have been compiled and re available on the same webpage.  4. Events for Students

Physics Days at Luna Park in 2024
The dates for 2024 are Monday 4th March to Friday 8th March.
Luna Park has not yet opened its bookings and may not open them before the end of the school year, but schools can now seek approval from their school administrations.  The student fee will be $31.50 and a deposit of 30% is required to confirm the booking.
Aerobatic displays have been requested, but confirmation is not received until February.
The worksheets have not been updated since they were first written in 2004.  The terminology for forces has changed and there have been some content changes, so the worksheets will be updated in Term 4.

5. Events for Teachers 

a) Network Evening: Talk Live streamed. Weds 13th December

The Network Evening this Wednesday, 13th December will be livestreamed opening at 6:15pm with the talk starting at 6:30pma
Topic: What does the 2023 Nobel Prize mean for School Physics?
Speaker: Prof Jeffrey Davis, Swinburne University.  Prof Davis leads the ultrafast spectroscopy group.
Abstract: The 2023 Nobel prize for developing attosecond pulses of light and associated technologies offer contexts to enrich the teaching of quantum physics at the secondary level.
If you wish to join the live stream, please email Vicphysics.  For Flyer.


b) PHYSCON 2024: 23rd February, 2024. Registration is open

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8.   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) Top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year for 2023
The top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year for 2023 ranges from research in astronomy and medical physics to quantum science, atomic physics and more. It includes i) growing electrodes inside living tissue, ii) Neutrinos probe the proton’s structure, iii) Young’s double-slit interference in time, iv) X-rays image of a single atom, etc.
b) The cost of excellence: top scientists on the brutality of the academic system
Review of Fascination of Science: 60 Encounters with Pioneering Researchers of Our Time by Herlinde Koelbl
c) Six planet system is perfectly tuned
A rare system of six exoplanets, all smaller than Neptune but larger than Earth, has been found with orbits that are all resonant * with each other. The system was discovered by astronomers led by Rafael Luque of the University of Chicago, who suggest that the planets have remained undisturbed in this configuration since their formation a billion years ago.
* orbital resonance occurs when orbiting bodies exert regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually because their orbital periods are related by a ratio of small integers.
d) Is the Web eating itself? Large language models (LLMs) versus verifiability.
A report on a presentation by Heather Read, A/Professor of Communication at University of Technology, Sydney at the University of Massachusetts.  Dr Read indicates that information sources such as Wikipedia are verified and authenticated, but that AI system remove the particularities of these sources, eliminating local nuance and context, in ways which can be very dangerous, 'authoritative synthesis that comes from ChatGPT coincides with a moment of increasing distrust in institutions – and a rise of trust in automated processes that seem not to participate in truth battles because they are seemingly unpolitical.'
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