New Co-ordinated Science - Physics: Teacher's Guide

Abstract

The Co-ordinated Science series from Oxford University Press is a resource for Key Stage 4 GCSE Science courses, consisting of three books for Students (one for each of the three main sciences) with a Teacher's Guide for each one. The Physics teacher's guide, in its 127 pages, contains a collection of notes on the topics in the Students' book, 40 Activities, 12 Investigations and 6 Assessment tasks. These are all photocopiable so the guide is good value at £20. The 40 classroom Activities range from the traditional, well-trodden practical lessons such as timing a pendulum, following light rays through a glass block and measuring the 'centre of gravity' of a piece of card, to the more novel, eye-catching ones such as 'The Amazing Superflea', 'Making the Most of Rubbish' and 'Polar Bears and Energy Conversion'. All the Activities are clear and well written, and should slot easily into classroom life. Similarly with the 12 Investigations: the well known practicals such as the oscillation of a spring and the 'bounciness' of a ping-pong ball are included (an experiment which I did for my A-level Physics exam in 1967 when coefficients of restitution were still around). There are also several newer investigations such as comparing sandpapers. The six Assessments are also a good mixture of the old and the new. All the photocopiable activities are assessed for risk and a list of Hazard Warnings is given where appropriate. Generally this will be a useful resource for all physics teachers at Key Stage 4, whether they follow the Oxford Co-ordinated scheme or not.