Bob Kibble

What Kind of Research Culture Do Teacher Educators Want, and How Can We Get It?.

This article describes a collaborative research journey involving nine teacher educators. Their common purpose was to find a research identity in a university department with a strong commitment to the education and training of student teachers but which existed within a university that prided itself on maintaining a reputation for research excellence. The methodology was inextricably linked to the decision to take a journey as a group. The journey, both route and progress, became the focus of our self-study through a number of exchange platforms including collaborative meetings, agendas which embraced equity and social justice, a shared blog space for self-reflection, and engagement with others through partnership conferences. Data were qualitative and focused on the ambitions, frustrations, and achievements of the participants as revealed through personal writing on a blog. Key findings of this study include: (i) the discovery of hurdles, false starts and frustrations that were common to all members of the group but hitherto had remained hidden and private; (ii) the tension between an identity as educator with a sense of responsibility to students and that of an active researcher; and (iii) issues of time and work balance between teaching and researching.

The Physics of Fast Track.

Toys can provide motivational contexts for learning and teaching about physics. A cheap car track provides an almost frictionless environment from which a quantitative study of conservation of energy and circular motion can be made.

How big is the Earth? A calculation beyond your horizon

A consequence of the curvature of the Earth is that distant ships apparently disappear over the horizon. This article shows how you can use a simple photograph to help students obtain a reasonable estimate of the size of the Earth using little more than the mathematics of Pythagoras.

Doll’s house physics

School physics rarely stands still for long. Environmental physics is now an option in some post-16 courses in England. The physics of environments, and in particular the built environment, offers a recognizable context in which to see the applications of physics at work. This article considers how a model dolls house might be used to help learners understand energy transfer, thermal equilibrium, energy management, and responsible citizenship.

Balancing beams—for a few moments

A 2 m long wooden beam provides an ideal demonstration tool for exploring moments. A class set is cheap and can be used at introductory and advanced levels. This article explores how such beams can be used to support learning about moments, equilibrium, vectors, and simultaneous equations.

To boldly go where fizz-pop rockets haven't been before

Interesting experiments on pressure and force can be performed by using dataloggers to measure exploding plastic film tubs.

Digging up the past: modelling resistive surveys

One way in which archaeologists locate a site to dig is to use a resistive survey. This can be modelled simply and instructively for students in the school laboratory.

Take up teaching

It was with a heavy sigh that I read Sarah Bohndieks letter about the state of physics teaching in schools, which has been a less than inspiring experience for her (February p18). She points to the tired teaching, the lack of quality equipment and the race to skim over topics before assessment deadlines. Although these problems have long been recognized by the teaching profession, her voice – as a consumer – has to be considered.

Relic, Icon or Hoax? Carbon Dating the Turin Shroud

Some of the very best texts on physics are those which take the reader on an excursion beyond the laboratory or the examination syllabus and into the real world of airports and hotels, where you meet real people with real quests, ambitions and prejudices. By placing an internationally known mystery, a piece of cloth with a miracle attached, into this melting pot Harry Gove has added just the right amount of spice to provide the reader with a delicious feast of religion, rivalry and research. This is not a book for those who simply want to know if the shroud dates from the time of Christ. You can easily skip to the middle of the book to find that information if you wish. However, as the author suggests, those believers who do this are most likely to remain believers regardless of the outcome of radiocarbon dating. Those non-believers who are wanting to have their positions affirmed are already so convinced of the non-authenticity of the garment that it would probably make no difference to them either way. This book is more than a date; it is a tale that reveals as much about human nature as it does about carbon dating or the shroud itself. Harry Gove is a nuclear physicist who worked in the field of accelerator mass spectrometry, a technique that required only a minute sample of material to provide a radiocarbon date. The availability of such a technique emerged in the late 1970s, just when renewed scientific interest in the dating of the shroud raised its profile. Harry Gove and his colleagues just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The tale that led to the eventual release of material for the dating, the rivalry between groups, both religious and scientific, forms the main spine of the book. I found it a long read but the author managed to keep my attention throughout, largely through his anecdotal style but also his ability to evaluate the human condition from a relatively unimpassioned standpoint. As he says repeatedly throughout the book, he had no personal desire to know the shrouds authenticity - in fact he could see very good arguments for leaving it as it stood: a mystery to some, a holy relic or a hoax to others. When all was said and done and I had reached the final pages I found that I had learnt something about radiocarbon dating, something about the Turin shroud, but mostly I had learned about Harry Gove, and thats why I enjoyed the book.

Make your own millennium sundial

A home-made sundial offers a unique blend of design, construction and mathematical challenge. Readers armed with no more than a calculator and toolbox may wish to celebrate the millennium by constructing a sundial for their school, college or home. The design and construction of two dials is detailed in this article.