With coursework being introduced into Leaving cert physics classes in the near future, I thought it would be interesting to see what this looks like in other exam systems and in other countries.
It seems that there is some version of coursework in Scotland, New Zealand, and various regions of Australia and the US, but the international comparison that is perhaps most like that proposed for the Leaving Cert students is the International Baccalaureate. For their final grade at Higher Level, students need to complete 3 exams, which is then combined with 20% assessment by their school, which is mainly determined by an investigation and report.
This really interesting site was shared with me recently, by Kevin McCormick of Moyne Community College, which shows numerous examples of student's IB coursework: Clastify - Write Excellent IB Coursework & College Essays
On there I found this project, that might be relevant to a LC student
Like all good coursework, I learned something new as soon as I started reading. Apparently the H/B rating used for pencils relates to the mix of graphite, clay and wax in the 'lead' of the pencil. a 6H, for example - which is a very hard pencil, that generally leaves a faint line on the paper - is only 50% graphite. Whereas a 6B, which is much softer and which leaves a dark mark, is 85% graphite. A standard HB pencil - often used in classrooms - is 68% graphite.
The student went on to study how the percentage of graphite in the pencil affected its conductivity - and came up with the beautifully clear graph above.
I'd have been pretty impressed if they left it at that - but they then went on to play around with the results and learned - through trial and error - that the conductivity is proportional to the 5th power of the graphite content.
The site allows us to see how it would have been marked - but without a premium account, you can only see parts of that.
Following this and a number of other links, I found a range of topics used by students in other investigations
How does the radius of a toy parachute affect the terminal velocity?
How does the angle of release of a golf club affect the distance travelled by the ball?
How does temperature affect the spring constant of a spring?
How does the temperature affect the range of flight of an elastic band
How does the distance between panes of glass in double glazing affect the rate of heat loss?
How does the concentration of salt in water affect the specific heat capacity?
How does the temperature of a guitar string affect the frequency produced when plucked at a constant force and left to vibrate freely?
How does temperature affect the magnetic field strength of a permanent magnet?
How does the diameter of coil on a battery copper coil train affect the speed of train?
Confirm the relative permeability of free space by varying the current of a solenoid and measuring the resulting magnetic field.
These are some of the links I used: ·
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