Friday 31 December 2021
Acoustic Levitator
My Holiday Job. I am going to build an acoustic levitator. My wife bought my the kit for Christmas so now I have a little time to see if I can build one of these things to demonstrate to the students. It might not be in the syllabus but its what makes science interesting and fun.
Thursday 30 December 2021
How many students do Physics without Maths.
Wednesday 29 December 2021
Back to Work
Back to work today with more A level Physics, looking at terminal velocity in a long tube of water and using a @pascoscientific rotary motion sensor to calculate the velocity. #iteachphysics #Science #STEM
Thursday 23 December 2021
More Maths
Last lesson before Christmas and its A Level Maths. I have been teaching more Maths this year, its the demand from the students having missed so much. I thought it would be science but its not...
Wednesday 22 December 2021
Barton's Pendulums
Looking at Barton's Pendulums. An interesting problems on why they move the way they do. Amazed at how many nearly right explanations I got. #iteachphysics #Science #STEM
Tuesday 21 December 2021
Determining the speed of sound
Determining the speed of sound using a tube and tuning fork. We were impressed with the speed that we got - we repeated the experiment three times and managed similar values.
Monday 20 December 2021
Seismograph
Seismic Waves are easy to understand but the fact that a seismograph pen stays where it is whilst the machine moves isn't. #iteachphysics #Science #STEM
Sunday 19 December 2021
Notes and lengths of tube
How does the length of a tube affect the note. Yes I could use a sonometer but the trombone is much more fun. #iteachphysics #Science #STEM
Saturday 18 December 2021
Speaker and square plate
I always enjoy this experiment with the speaker, square plate and some salt or sand vibrating #iteachphysics #Science #STEM
Friday 17 December 2021
Getting Old and Hearing loss
I am seeing how becoming more mature (ok old) that when I put the lid on the Space Tube I can't hear the sound let alone when I remove the air. Fortunately the students still have good hearing and tell me. #iteachphysics #Science #STEM
Thursday 16 December 2021
Fractional Distillation
Crude Oil fractional distillation. Looking at many different types of fuels and why to use or not use them.
Wednesday 15 December 2021
Tuesday 14 December 2021
Electrical Conductivity
This is not usually the first sensor I think of to use but for many physical and chemical reactions the @pascoscientific electrical conductivity probe provides an insight into the composition of the solution. #STEM #Science
Monday 13 December 2021
Air Pressure in a Balloon
What is the air pressure inside a balloon? The students were amazed at the answer using a @pascoscientific wireless pressure sensor and Capstone to prove the pressure didn't really change. #teachphysics #STEM #Science
Sunday 12 December 2021
The power of air pressure
The power of a little air pressure. A few pumps was enough to lift this full 15kg Cannister of Butane by a few centimetres.
Saturday 11 December 2021
Investigating Photosynthesis
Investigating Photosynthesis and the distance of the light source and the inverse square law. I find you have to get the light very close to get bubbles that you can measure.
Friday 10 December 2021
Making own resistor sets
Making up our own resistors using Locktronics by @MatrixTSL Predicting The total resistance and then measuring it to see if correct using Ohms Law. #iteachphysics #STEM
Thursday 9 December 2021
Simple Distillation
Doing a distillation in organic chemistry to separate the products. Explaining why the water has to go up the condenser - seemed so strange to the students.
Wednesday 8 December 2021
Specific Heat Capacity
Using @pascoscientific Capstone to look at specific heat capacities Graphs showed the different uptakes of of the heat in the same time, which gave a better idea of this concept of specific heat capacity. #iteachphysics @chatphysics #STEM
Tuesday 7 December 2021
Practical uses of a thermistor
#Physics Investigating the properties of a thermistor using Locktronics by @MatrixTSL and then having to turn this into a make shift digital thermometer using some coding on a Raspberry Pi and some Python. #iteachphysics #Science #STEM
Monday 6 December 2021
Resistors give off heat
#Physics trying to show that resistors give off heat is fairly difficult, but with this device it is easy. The students loved it. #iteachphysics #Science #STEM
Sunday 5 December 2021
mass spectrometer
Teaching how a mass spectrometer works. It one of those machines I have always wanted but I don't really know what I would do with it if I had one. #iteachphysics
Saturday 4 December 2021
What is difference between theory and practical?
What is difference between theory and practical? Practical should lead to theory and then better learning and understanding. But many students don't do practicals and some don't see demos. #iteachphysics #Science
Friday 3 December 2021
How the National Grid Works
#Physics Teaching how the National Grid works https://youtu.be/P0j5VeRtGKo using a step up and a step down transformer or not and watching it fail. My pylons I am told make the difference. #iteachphysics #Science #STEM
Thursday 2 December 2021
Fermentation
Turning all that sugar into alcohol and Carbon dioxide. One of the fun practicals learning about microbes and fermentation.
https://youtu.be/S1FhTzup-Cc #STEM #Science
Wednesday 1 December 2021
Trying out electronics
#Physics Learning about electricity is learning what does work and what doesn't. Here practical work, seems far better than doing the theory. The students learn more and faster, here using Locktronics #iteachphysics #Science #STEM @MatrixTSL
Tuesday 30 November 2021
Good storage = Rapid deployment
Really useful these boxes for storing all the experiments. They stack well and the different sizes mean that they are more efficient in the storage/space ratio. Makes easy to find as we work on an experiment on demand system. As the students arrive they say I learnt about this today but I didn't understand it, we didn't do an experiment, so we can rapidly get out the experiment and let the student carry out the experiment and lean by doing and by discovery.
Monday 29 November 2021
Mobile phones in lessons
Many teachers don't like phones in their classrooms. Some are afraid their lesson could be recorded. I like my students to use their mobile phones in the lab. They record all my experiments. The good and the bad. My students Record the experiments, they take photos of the set ups. They enjoy taking Slo-mo of fast and not so fast events and using the phone as a microscope. Amazingly they usually organise themselves that one student does the recording and passes the files around. They act very responsibly and I have never had any problems. On the contrary the opposite is true. #STEM #Science #iteachphysics
Sunday 28 November 2021
Water Clock
I need a much better water clock to do this experiment Rule of odds - Todays job. A cart is rolled down the track. As it passes a bell it rings the bell. We try and make the time between each bell ring the same. As the cart is accelerating, the gap between each bell gets larger. in the ratio 1:3:5:7 etc Once this is set up then I use water coming out from a tap to fill up different measuring cylinders. The amount of water is in the ratio 1:4:9:16:25
Saturday 27 November 2021
Flame Tests
Flame Tests are one of my favourite topics. Explaining the colours of fireworks to year 8 in an online lesson.
Friday 26 November 2021
DNA replication and Protein Synthesis
Its been a busy week of covering DNA replication and Protein synthesis, my models have been duplicated, copied and translated almost as many times as a real cell this week. @chatbiology #Science #STEM
Kipps Aparatus
One of the most iconic pieces of Chemistry equipment is the Kipps Apparatus. The students are fascinated by how it produces gas at any tim...
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Negative feedback is a difficult concept to try and get over so I tried using a balance board and the @pascoscientific smart cart strapped...
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Getting a classic set of results for the titration of NaOH and HCl is not that difficult but it is nice when we can get students to this ...
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Mechanics: the grand meeting of Maths & Physics! Using strobe light & a ball drop for gravity-acceleration calculations and SUVAT fo...