Another failure
This morning I wrote a problem sheet for my HL students on the photoelectric effect. The first question was about a filament lamp so I illustrated it with a photo of the lamp behind my head. I was interested...
One pamph two pamphs
Today I was introducing single slit diffraction to my SL class and was having difficulty showing how the phase changed as you increased the diffracting angle. I was trying to do it on the SMART board...
Being negative for the sake of it
The other day in class I was deriving the equation for the simple pendulum and started wondering how to make the solution negative. I knew it had to be to fit in with the result a= -ω2x but why should...
Win some lose some
Some time ago I thought of doing a design lab using rubber powered model planes, however it seemed a bit extravagant to buy model planes at £5 each when all I wanted was the motor, so I set about looking...
LILAC
LILAC stands for language in Learning Across the Curriculum. Last term teachers at my school were offered the chance to take this course. I thought it would be a good idea to increase my awareness and...
Divers watch
Last week my son went diving with one of the teachers from the college, I went to watch which wasn't very interesting since all I could see were bubbles coming to the surface. Occasional excitement was...
Late Christmas present
Just before Christmas I made a blog post about a small solar car that I bought as a stocking filler for my son. I tried it out and decided to buy a whole bunch of them for my class. I also bought some...
Arc Attack
I just switched on the TV and caught a glimpse of Americas Got Talent. The act being auditioned said they combined science and rock music. Quite a show as one of the band stood between two Tesla coils...
Increase in empathy
Today the electricity was switched off at school so that a new fibre optic cable could be strung from the pylons. Most of the teachers decided to carry on as normal to show their students what it must...
Sweating makes you cool
Do you ever tell your class something and then think “that was a load of nonsense”. Today I told them that sweating makes you cool but it doesn’t really does it, well not in that sense at least. I once...