VCE Physics – Revised Study Design for 2023 – 2027

VCAA has released the revised VCE Physics Study Design.
It is available on their website . The document is located at the bottom of the page.

The new Units 1 and 2 will be introduced in 2023, while Units 3 and 4 will be introduced in 2024.

Maria James spoke at the 2022 Physics Teachers’ Conference on the revised study design. If you did not register for the conference, you can still do so and get access to the videos of all presentations.

Following the conference Maria prepared this additional material to address the questions raised during her presentation.
Additional Notes on Revised Study Design 47 kB pdf: The three pages article provides examples of assessment tasks and addresses questions raised about indicative grades, statistical moderation and SACs.

In coming months Vicphysics will be producing materials to help unpack the revised study design and to assist teachers in planning courses for 2023 and 2024. This document on connections between assessment tasks across the study design is an initial effort.
Connections between Assessment Tasks 17 kB docx.

Newsletters from the Vicphysics Teachers’ Network

A regular email newsletter sent to teachers several times a term.

The newsletter has regular features such as Events for Teachers, Events for Students, Teaching positions, Physics from the Web as well as new teaching resources from around the world.

If you wish to receive the email newsletter “Vicphysics News” or to advise us of a change of email address please contact the Vicphysics Teachers’ Network.

The most recent newsletters are:
2022 Term 3
No 7: Beyond Bohr: PI resource, Call for Presenters
No 6: Call for Presenters, Article on Newton’s laws
No 5: Networking Dinner, Articles, Out-of-Field PD on SR, Exam survey
No 4: Job Ads, Out-of-Field PD on SR, Articles
No 3: July lectures, Exam survey
No 2: Revision lecture, Public lecture, NHT paper and solutions
No 1: NHT paper, Out-of-Field PD, VYPT, Melb Uni lectures
2022 Term 2
No 6: July Lectures in Physics, Careers in Engineering, Farm Hall in 1945
No 5b: PD for Out-of-Field Yrs 7 – 10 Physical Science Teachers
No 5: Vicphysics Forum, Tournament mentors, Free Astrotours
No 4: PD for Out-of-Field teachers on Physical Science, Girls in Physics Breakfast report
No 3: Prac Activities Workshop, Student Lectures, Events for students
No 2: Playful Learning, Online PD, Events for students
No 1: Girls in Physics Breakfasts, VYPT, Poster Competition
2022 Term 1
No 7: Where to With Physics? – A careers website, Girls in Physics Breakfasts
No 6: Grade distributions for the 2021 Physics Exam
No 5: Conference follow up, Past paper Q’ns prepared by Colin Hopkins, Student Numbers, Investigation using simple equipment, Resources from Perimeter Institute
No 4: Study Design released, Chief Assessor’s report, Teacher survey
No 3: Physics Teachers’ Conference, World Engineering Day
No 2: Conference Forum, Conf Details, Beginning Physics Teachers’ In-Service
No 1: Physics Conference, Aerobatic displays
2021 Term 4
No 6: Conference Registration opens, Open access articles, Videos on car crashes and astronomy
No 5: Physics Conf Program, Exam solutions, Wellbeing, Roller coasters
No 4: Subscription change, Luna Park
No 3: Conf update, Resources from Perimeter Institute and AAPT
No 2: Nobel Prize in Physics
No 1: Call for Conf Presenters, Revision lecture follow up, Climate change resources
2021 Term 3
No 7: Revision Lecture, Physics of roller coasters, PD for out of field teachers
No 6: Prac Investigations in the Lock Down
No 5: NH exam paper and solutions, Call for STAVCON presenters, Teaching Excellence Program
No 4: Thermodynamics and links to Quantum mechanics, PD for teachers and lab Techs
No 3: Prac Workshop for 7 – 10 Teachers, Response to draft Study Design, Talk, Dinner and Catching Up
No 2:Workshops for Lab Techs, SKA
No 1: Proposed Study Design, Scholarship for PhD in Physics Ed, Tutor Listing Service
2021 Term 2
No 8: Consultation Forum, Earth’s energy balance, Jim Al-Khalili
No 7: Consultation Forum; Talk, Dinner and catching Up;
No 6: Videos for teaching and studying Physics, Another context for half-life questions
No 5: Using Maths in Physics, International Day of Light, Lightest Uranium isotope – A context for questions.
No 4: More Teachers’ websites, Online revision courses from Quantum Victoria
No 3: Teachers’ websites, Assessing Learning – a survey
No 2: Assessing Learning, More teaching Resources, Climate change and the Earth’s axis.
No 1: Resources from Beginning Physics ISE, VYPT Registrations open, Book on Irene Curie and Lisa Meitner, Release of Fukushima waste water.
2021 Term 1
No 9: Cross marking of SACs, Contributions of 20th C Women to Physics, Holiday reading.
No 8: VYPT Returns, more resources from AAPT.
No 7: VCE Lectures return.
No 6: Physics in the News.
No 5: More Conf Proceedings, Beginning Physics ISE, Grade Points on Physics Exam.
No 4: Conf Proceedings, Chief Assessor’s exam report, Vicphysics exam solutions, VCE Physics Review and Consultation, PD events
No 3: Conf update, Teacher survey, Climate change teaching resources, PD events
No 2: Teacher survey, Physics conf, More teaching resources from AAPT
No 1: Physics Conference, OAM to Colin Hopkins, Teaching resources from AAPT, Subscriptions to Vicphysics website

Extracts from “News” regularly emailed to physics teachers

This email newsletter has been operating since 2003. While many newsletter items have been on forthcoming events for students and teachers, there have been many items of ongoing value on resources, teaching strategies, etc. These have been combined into this one document.

Selected items from ‘Vicphysics News’ 1.36 MB

Items on teaching ideas, curriculum resources and useful websites from previous editions of the email newsletter ‘Vicphysics News’ have been compiled into the one Word document. The table of contents lists over 300 items.

Titles of the Selected items from ‘Vicphysics News’ 103 kB

Titles of the Items from “Selected items from ‘Vicphysics News’. The titles of items in the Resources section have been grouped by Area of Study. A 8 page Word document.

The newsletter has also contained short news items on current physics research and technological developments that might be of interest to teachers and students. The stories can be accessed through either of the two files. The items can be used to add relevance to classroom presentations or used for topical classroom displays.

The latest Physics Research 316 kB

These emails also featured items on the latest Physics research that might be of interest to teachers and their students. This list, in Word, contains all the titles of these items. The titles have been grouped by the email they were sent with and are hyperlinked for downloading.

An Excel file of the latest Physics Research 147 kB

The titles of the featured items on the latest Physics research now number over 700. They have now also been grouped by the relevant Area of Study. There is an article for every Area of Study. This Excel file lists all the titles by Area of Study and Date of the Email News. Articles can be found for the topic you are currently teaching and the story can either be posted on a classroom wall or actually referred to in class at an apppropriate point. The Date of the Email News is also hyperlinked for downloading.

TED: Riveting Talks by Remarkable People 34.3 kB

TED is a nonprofit devoted to ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.TED has many short videos by inspirational speakers, the presentations are designed to be accessible to the general public. There are 260 videos on Science. A search for Physics gave 156 talks by people such as Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, Brian Cox, Freeman Dyson, George Smoot, Lee Smolin and Martin Rees.This document lists videos relevant to physics giving title, duration (several minutes) , speaker and a short description.