IAs for 2027: we're off!

I (Emma) have a small DP1 cohort this year: just 10 students (while my colleague has 33)! Maybe being on leave last term meant new students weren't sure what to expect from Physics in the “SL block”.

As usual, we're tackling IAs this academic year, with the timeline:

• Start on 16th March
• Experimental work by 27th March
• Draft deadline 10th April
• Feedback ready 27th April
• Final deadline 8th May

We have an Easter break during the first draft phase, which is quite convenient. It means the students can either be incentivised to submit early (and enjoy a proper break) or finish the written report with the benefit of time to reflect. The generous delay between draft submission and feedback preparation is because the second of the two weeks is DP1 internal exams.

One week in, this is what students are planning:

1. Latent heat of vaporisation, measuring how the mass of water remaining in a continuously boiling kettle decreases over time. Nice to see a student interested in “rate of change of mass” as a slightly quirky variable.
2. Measuring Planck's constant using LED minimum potential difference and LED wavelength. They've potentially got two investigations in one, because in order to find the mimimum potential difference, they used a data logger to plot the variation of current with potential difference for each of the available LEDs. Nice to see the characteristic curve!
3. Modelling sunlight on the earth, perhaps inspired by life in Norway! Will be looking at light intensity recorded by a probe taped to a rotating disc at a fixed distance from a light source.
4. The variation of temperature with time for cooling water. While not exactly explosive in excitement, I really appreciate the simple elegance of this. What relationship(s) will emerge?
5. A fairly standard refraction of laser light experiment with angles of incidence and refraction, but with lots of scope for demonstration of uncertainties propagation.
6. How does the initial velocity of a rubber ball just before a collision affect the final velocity just after the collision? The student has worked fast and videoed lots of collisions. The interesting thing (to me!) is where and how they'll draw the line on “just before” and “just after” - and how they'll justify their decision.
7. To quote the student: “seatbelt physics”. This student has been really keen to experiment with different materials as a way of changing the stopping time. I was initially quite nervous about this as I generally nudge students towards entirely quantitative variables, but I see now that it's not their focus.
8. Looking at velocity and mass for an “exploding” cart on a track. I hope this student has been keeping notes of all of the careful tweaks they've made during setup, because they've been more proactive than they realise in seeking to reduce errors.

Two students were absent this week, so will be my focus next time.