BOARDS.IE – An intriguing resource

boards.ie

boards.ie seems to win awards every year for its site. For me it merely highlights the fact that everybody seems to be communicating with each other except teachers – sure what would we have to talk about?

Well here’s an interesting nugget – from the comments below (pasted from the relevant boards.ie pages) it would appear that quite a few teachers are not sure what they are supposed to do with their students’ experiment copies, or how to fill in the green investigation booklets. Remember that if the students don’t tick the relevant experiments in their green booklets then they automatically forfeit 10%.

The site itself is also a very useful resource for getting student feedback on their various exams – these kids tend to have more honesty and intelligence than we (I?) give them credit for:

ok everyone, don’t forget your hardbacks tomorrow!

What you mean “hardback”?

Experiment copy? I nearly forgot! Thanks guys for reminding me

Dunno what he is on about, you don’t get marked on your hardback. Maybe he means just for study purposes?

I’m not sure..

You get marked on your mandatory experiment hardback

Think he means your experiment copy?? I think!

Exactly. DO NOT forget it. If they go to check yours, and you’ve ticked the boxes to say you’ve done it, and its not there, they count that as cheating.

nah you’re not supposed to take it in with you afaik…the supervisors would have reminded us anyways….

They inspect a small % of schools and the hbacks are sposed to be with your science teacher.
You’re meant to bring it in because every year they check a few schools, and if they check your school and they’re not there for inspection you lose your 10%

We’ve been told a million times to bring ’em in tomorrow

Our teacher collected ours at the end of April, she said there was a deadline I had to do about 15 experiments in the space of 3 days!

But the inspectors only come in the summer!
I’ve had to write up a good few today, but that was my own lazy selfs fault..

ive a few only not filled the science teacher said it was ok since half the class or more didnt get em finished either =P

I aint bringing mine in that’d be effort and no one told us to we were given them back and told it was fine?

Gawd im confused i ticked no boxes =S my science teacher is crap we have been reading out of a book all year and havent done any experimanens execpt for the 2 ones you did for 25%

My science teacher told us that we put them in a little pocket in this folder that also has our investigations in it. They just check to see whether you’re telling the truth or not. sure if yer teacher told u its fine then its not yer fault so theyd probably give you the marks

Exam done in 43 minutes. All spaces filled. No blanks. Two questions I couldn’t answer (one on chromosomes, one on the Hoffman Voltameter). Everything else is as far as I know it, correct. Junior Cert science in need of reform? hell yes
I know I’m probably not alone on this front.

have to agree ! left at about 10:30, that exam was an insult to my intelligence

For the green lab books did we have to tick something or do we just do the experiments and hand it up?…..i already have it handed up but didnt tick anything..??

You didn’t tick anything if the project booklet to say you did the experiments. I’m sorry to say if you didn’t, that’s 10% gone, it happened in my school before

The BBC – supporting Science

World of Wonder -Science on the BBC
Tagline:
This series is part of World of Wonder – a year of Science across the BBC in 2010. From popular science to Chaos Theory, there’s a little something for everyone.

Did you know that the BBC has a Science homepage?
It’s called “World of Wonder” – what a cool title.

You see the BBC know that if they want the public to watch their programs then they have to first of all draw them in and then they must deliver.
And the single best way to do this is with wonder. And the single best source of wonder is science.
And of course it helps if you have a passionate presenter who is comfortable in front of the camera.

The following represents just some of what they have produced lately:

The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion

Hammond’s Invisible Worlds

Museum of Life 

Journeys from the centre of the earth

The Power of the Planet

How the earth made us

South Pacific

Wonders of the Solar System 
Professor Brian Cox (the “rock star physicist” who looks as awed as I do when watching it) visits some of the most stunning locations on earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the solar system.
Professor Cox has just started work on a new series entitled “Wonders of the Universe” – follow him on twitter.

Not a bad roll of honour – each one a wonderful representation of the story of science.

When RTE does Science it is invariably a natural history program – nothing wrong with that in itself, but a little more from the physical sciences would be nice.

Presumably it’s rather expensive to produce a Science program. The last wildlife program from the Nature department of RTE was aired recently: Wild Journeys was a three part documentary with wonderful scenary but woeful narration. It was completely devoid of that one word which the viewer could respond to more than any other – wonder.  Check it out for yourself

Next time RTE is looking for material for a Science program they should just ask Mary Mulvihill for pointers and then give a lot of thought to choosing a presenter (and not just go with whoever happens to be passing on the corridor at the time). Why not have somebody who isn’t afraid to sound amazed or in awe of Nature? Imagine someone like Kathryn Thomas, Tommy Tiernan or Ray D’arcy narrating, or better still in front of the camera rather than just providing the voiceover.

Or my personal favourite – physicist/comedian  Dara O’ Briain.

A step too far for the fuddy duddies  in RTE methinks.

Leaving Cert Physics: Section A Questions and Solutions

Section A of the Leaving Cert Physics exam contains 30% of the overall marks so it’s worth studying it in detail.

I have put together a booklet which contains every Section A question which has appeared on an exam paper at higher and ordinary level together with all the solutions.

The booklet can be accessed from the revision page of thephysicsteacher.ie

Hope it’s useful.

Leaving Cert Physics: Derivations

There are a total of 11 derivations on the Leaving Cert Physics syllabus:

1. Three equations of motion

2. F = ma

3. v = r w

4. Relationship between Periodic Time and Radius for a Satellite in Orbit

5. To show that any object that obeys Hooke’s Law will also execute SHM

6. Equation for a diffraction grating

7. Resistors in series and in parallel

8. F = Bqv

I have put the derivations together in a single word document, together with the year in which they have appeared on an exam paper.

It can be found on the revision page of thephysicsteacher.ie

Hope it proves useful

Let’s remove voltage from the Junior Science syllabus; post #1

 

Dear Mr/Ms Junior Cert Syllabus writer,

The time has come to question why the concept of voltage is still on the Junior Cert syllabus.
It is by far the most difficult concept for students (and indeed teachers) to grasp.
Consider a relevant extract from the Junior Cert Science syllabus

Set up a simple electric circuit, use appropriate instruments to measure current, potential difference (voltage) and resistance, and establish the relationship between them

Let’s take a look at potential difference (commonly referred to as ‘voltage’):

The following extract has been taken from the minutes of a History of Science meeting, in 2002.

John Roche, of Linacre College, Oxford, opened the session after tea, speaking on the concept of voltage. He began by claiming that almost every concept in electricity and electromagnetism is ambiguous, and the concept of voltage is one of the most incoherent. Its evolution is difficult to follow.

 Abbé Nollet, in the 18th century, distinguished quantity and degree of electrification. Others made similar distinctions between quantity and intensity or tension or pressure – what we would call voltage.

 Roche showed how the term “voltage” had come to be used nowadays in three different ways; for electromotive force, potential difference and (absolute) potential.

Volta defined electrical tension as the endeavour of the electrical fluid to escape from a body. Volta’s tension was more akin to a force, unlike the modern definition of electromotive force, which is a misnomer, being defined in terms of energy.

Ohm carried Volta’s concept to closed circuits with the idea that voltage was proportional to the difference in tension between the ends of a conductor. For Ohm, it was the gradient of electrical tension that drove the current.

Poisson introduced an entirely different concept, of charge divided by distance to a point, which Green called the potential. This was an analytical device only, arising from an analogy with Laplace’s gravitational potential function.

Kirchhoff reconciled Volta’s tension with Poisson’s potential function through the concept of energy or vis viva introduced by Helmholtz. From Kirchhoff, current is driven by the electric field in a conductor and voltage is related to the energy supplied, but physicists and electrical engineers do not usually think of them in this way.

All the earlier interpretations remain current, but with different weights, and most of the time voltage is seen as a driving energy.

 IOP History of Physics Group Newsletter, Spring 2000, page 65

So what exactly should we be telling our students about potential difference? How many (non-physicist) science teachers can define or explain potential difference? Maybe most can, but if so I would be very pleasantly surprised.

Would it hurt anyone if we replaced the syllabus extract above with something more simple, like the following?

Set up a simple electric circuit using appropriate instruments to light a number of bulbs in series.
Understand that for current to flow a power supply and a complete circuit are required.

The other aspects of the syllabus on electricity could remain as they are, but no Ohm’s Law, no experiment to verify Ohm’s Law, no mathematical problems based on Ohm’s Law, and no more mention of potential difference.

Leaving Cert Physics: Definitions from Past Papers

This word document has now been updated; not only does it now include all definitions from the 2009 paper but it also includes all definitions from Ordinary Level papers from 2002 – 2009.
The document can be accessed from the revision page of thephyiscsteacher.ie

The answer to each question is also included; hopefully this allows for non-physics friends/parents/brothers/sisters to ask the questions and check the answers as you go along.

It is notable that in some instances the ordinary level definitions are actually more difficult ( and at times rather obtuse) than the higher level questions. I have noticed something similar in the Junior Cert Science papers over the years. I suspect that while many of us write in to exams commission to comment on the higher level paper, few of us ever bother to analyse the ordinary level paper in the same detail and so these anomalies go unchecked.
Anyways, as always the document is on the leaving cert physics revision page.
Hope it’s useful.

Pseudoscience

Astrology, telekenesis, ESP, telepathy, clairvoyance, telling the gender of an un-born baby by the spin of a pendulum and of course dowsing. What do they all have in common?
Answer – they are all examples of pseudoscience.

The Iraqi government has spent over $85 million on an electronic dowsing machine. Given that dowsing is one of those phenomena situated comfortably in the middle of the pseudoscience spectrum it is difficult to know why people seem so surprised that it doesn’t work. I suppose having a name like “ADE651” does make it more impressive. Still . . .

Pseudoscience is one of the topics we look at in our Transition Year module entitled Ten Great Ideas. Links to other resources are here.

For a wonderful introduction to pseudoscience see Michael Shermer’s presentation at TED entitled ‘Why people believe weird things’.

Erupting volcanoes – resources for teaching

The CESI forum has been wonderful this week, providing a series of links for up to the minute news on the Eyjafjallajokull volcano which erupted this earlier in the week.

I hope they don’t mind if I borrow their links.

NASA Photo

Helicopter footage of the erupting volcano

Beautiful Photos of the eruption

Watch flights over Europe – live!
This site seems to be down at the moment – I’m not surprised.

Visit here, select [24] frames, and press [Play] … you can see the color radar starting yesterday and then the actual effects of the eruption.

Two videos from Sky News
1: Background to the eruption
2: Pilot tells his story of flying into an ash cloud

And finally a wonderful blog post (with a National Geographic video embedded) from a fantastic school blog – thank you to msleydonsclassblog – and thanks to the Teachnet gang for pointing to it in their most recent post.

But most of all thanks to the good folk at CESI who continue to demonstrate the power of collaborative learning. Chances are, most of you reading this are signed up anyway, but if not why not do so now? Just go to their homepage and down at the bottom you will see the option to subscribe – you won’t regret it (but if you do you can always unsubscribe at any stage).

And never forget children: Nature – it always bites you in the ass.

Junior Cert Science – a guide to answering Maths questions

Answering maths questions is a skill which intimidates many students at Junior Cert level.
the revsion page of thephysicsteacher.ie now offers a guide to answering maths questions in the exam. It includes a full set of maths questions and solutions taken from past-papers at higher and ordinary level.

Hopefully seeing it laid out in this fashion will encourage students to see (i) the importance of learning the formulae, and (ii) how straightforward the questions actually are once the formulae are known. There is a general belief that all formulae are in the new log-tables and that therefore nothing needs to be learnt off, whereas in fact only half of the formulae are there. The revision-guide includes a reference to these and where to find them. It also includes a set of practice questions.

No password required etc. Hope someone finds them useful. As always all I ask is that you follow the suggestion on the top of the first page in relation to saving paper.

Junior Cert Science – a guide to answering exam questions

The ability to draw and interpret graphs is a skill which gets tested every year in the Junior Cert exam.
However I have yet to see a lesson-plan on this;  usually each graph is dealt with separately in its corresponding chapter. Which is why the revsion page of thephysicsteacher.ie now offers a guide to answering graph questions in the exam. It includes a  full set of graph questions taken from past-papers at higher and ordinary level.

Each graph is explained and solutions provided, including an emphasis on the importance of knowing the formula for calculating the slope, the significance of a line going through all data points and the origin, and the trick to drawing a ‘best-fit’ line (this is not on the syllabus but is only one more example of something not on the syllabus coming up on the exam paper).

There is no password required to access the resource, no log-in process, no funny handshake, no ‘you show me yours and I’ll show you mine’. As always, feel free to take it, adjust it and make it your own – life is too short to do otherwise. Make no mistake – this will be very useful to most students. All I ask is that you follow the suggestion on the top of the first page and photocopy A3 – A4 (this puts two pages onto one) and then use front and back of the page  to save paper.

There are a couple of other resources on the revision page and one or two more which should be completed and uploaded in the near future – stay tuned.