TY Physics (for the last few weeks of the year...)

Reposting this link to our TY Resources page with a few updates....

TY Physics | PhysicsResourceBank

One new addition relates to the AAC, with a list of project ideas from the old Coursework B.

For those of you to whom that means nothing - it was required coursework for Junior Cycle students, with three titles published each year, from which students would select two. On those, they then had to design and complete an experiment and compile a report. I know it has been used by a few teachers as a sort of gentle preparation for what is to come in the leaving cert, and that strikes me as a good idea.

In other items linked there, I came across this great resource form the NPL a few years ago: it teaches kids about satellites in general and about GPS in particular, while also introducing the idea of precision, and teaches us all to treat the information coming from our phones with a little healthy scepticism. But then I forgot about it entirely until I happened upon it on an unrelated google search last week. It would work equally well in a TY or a LC Physics class.

This video introduces it well if you're interested: Measurement At Home Challenge: Where on Earth am I? (youtube.com).

Also, a few years ago I helped put together two multiple-class class modules for use in TY.

One deals with the physics of music - and would, I think, serve as a good taster for LC Physics, while also going beyond that and hopefully engaging those who will never study physics again. I've re-posted it now on a page dedicated to TY resources that I hope to grow in the near future, available here: TY Physics | PhysicsResourceBank

And you can also find a module there that deals with the physics of time travel - a bit of a hobby horse of mine, but one that seemed to click with students when I used it in class. It brings together a few science fiction movies, Einstein's theory of special relativity, thoughts on future technology - and climate change. It hardly overlaps with LC Physics at all, unfortunately, but perhaps that makes it all the more important that we cover material like that in TY.

One last TY idea that could get you through an hour (while providing your students with an interesting and stimulating experience, of course) is this: Phun with Phyphox.... (physicsresourcebank.com).