Post-16 update

Abstract

Engineering Physics? Many A-level physics students do not go on to study physics. For them physics is a support subject, either just for fun or just for the grade. Where physics is a lead subject some students go on to study physics but many more go on to study engineering. So can we deliberately give some aspects of an A-level course an engineering flavour? Electromagnetism would seem a good place to start. There is a clear `physics' route into this topic, a microscopic forces and fields view of the situation. But do our students really need to look at it this way? All electromagnetic machines are linked magnetic and electric circuits. The design idea is to link these circuits as closely as possible. The electric circuits must be as good as possible, with a high conductivity. The magnetic circuits must be as good as possible, with high permeance. Conductivity depends on area/length. So does permeance. The goodness of an electromagnetic machine (how good it is at its job, which is linking electric and magnetic circuits) scales as the square of its linear dimensions. That means small electromagnetic machines are harder to make, and so the very smallest nanomotors are electrostatic. None of this is new, but many teachers are uncomfortable with it. We are thinking like physicists. Many of our students are not. They deserve us to take the trouble every now and again to encourage them to think a bit differently about a topic, to look at practical ways of discussing design and to give their course an engineering flavour. Philip Britton Coursework in A-level Physics The criteria for the new AS and A-levels have provided the teams developing the specifications with an opportunity to think creatively about how internal assessment is used within post-16 physics courses. Teachers may be concerned that allowing 30% of the marks to be internally assessed will create a burden for them. However, it is possible to look at this in a much more positive light. Provided the tasks are well defined and the marking criteria are straightforward to apply, internally assessed work provides an opportunity for real positive achievement; students are able to control the task they set themselves, and have every opportunity to maximize their marks. In the past most syllabuses used the coursework simply to assess experimental and investigative skills, through a series of experiments or a practical investigation. Two of the new specifications have taken the opportunity to broaden the scope of coursework. The Edexcel Salters - Horners Advanced Physics AS course includes a report on a visit. Students must make a visit to an establishment where physics is in action, and then report on how physics is used there. The visit may be to a local garage, supermarket or hospital, but could use any other local resource - or indeed justify that trip to CERN. The location of the visit is limited only by the imagination of teachers and students. In the AS course of OCR Advancing Physics students must make a presentation about a material they have studied. The presentation may be a talk, a poster or even a series of web pages. This gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their key skills in communication alongside collecting some marks towards their AS in Physics. In the A2 year students develop their research skills further by producing a research report on a topic of their choice. Students must show how they can draw together ideas from different aspects of physics in discussing their chosen subject. These two developments lead the way in encouraging teachers and examiners to take physics out of the school laboratory and into the world. Mary Whitehouse