Table of contents

A one-time colleague of mine taught English with great success and went on to become a prize-winning author of children's books. Then he went on even further and much more lucratively as a notorious author of adult novels - merely to describe would be infelicitous within the chaste pages of this austere journal. As a party piece, and without too much prompting, he would recite with complete accuracy Boyle's Law. This is all that remained of his exposure to physics during an expensively private education. It is doubtful that this ability represented the tip of an iceberg of solid if not well organized knowledge. It was more like the smile of Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat: the final enigmatic vestige of a vanishing abstraction.

And like the Cheshire Cat Boyle's Law has now disappeared from the new version of the English and Welsh National Curriculum at GCSE level. However, in the currently obsolescent version Boyle's Law was indeed more like the smile than the cat: it had no hinterland. I remember the difficulty we had in fitting this vestige into a coherent GCSE course. It had no other gas laws to keep it company, or a kinetic theory to provide an environment. In the end we were quietly pleased that we could tack it on to Newtonian physics in the context of vehicle safety as being relevant to airbags and tyres. This isolation was, I guess, one reason for cutting out the Law, although the new version of the National Curriculum made other cuts to the content. There was a feeling perhaps that it is better for students to have a deeper understanding of fewer things than a superficial acquaintance with more. The danger here is that what is left is rather like the body of an overweight person who has used a carving knife as a weight-reducing instrument. Weight loss is assured but the outcome has its drawbacks.

I doubt if my friend ever made much practical use of a knowledge of Boyle's Law, and its replacement by Charles' or Ohm's would have made no difference. `No Man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main ...', noted Boyle's near contemporary John Donne. A laws of physics isn't an island either. It means little without at least its neighbouring continental territory. And not knowing a particular bit of physics, does not, I fear, do great damage to even the most intelligent citizen with no professional use for it. Even `knowing' it may not be of great use. If all that remains of such a person's education in physics is a facility to recall disjointed pieces `of the main' then the education has served little purpose.

Perhaps we need a reappraisal of the geography of physics. Physics is a continent, not an aggregation of islands, although it contains isolated peaks of a terrifyingly wide range of difficulty. We need a good map showing lines of communication. That which is to be studied should be an area - a province - that is ecologically whole with mutually supporting parts. The educated citizen should leave the pre-university system having explored such a rich and fertile tranch of territory - having perhaps climbed enough accessible peaks to give at least an admiring view of the more bleak and icy ones. The result, one might hope, would be the acquisition of a coherent knowledge of self-consistent applicable ideas and facts plus some experience of how the facts and ideas are collected, invented and related. The traveller should be dared:

... to think Of the fewness, muchness, rareness, Greatness of this endless only Precious world in which he says He lives - ...

Robert Graves, Warning to Children

`Only connect' said E. M. Forster. Then physics might make sense.

An exciting new facility aimed at encouraging the scientists of the future is being planned for the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, thanks to a `Partnership for Public Understanding' award from the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

School students will be able to drop into lessons from heights of thousands of feet, to examine factors such as airflow and air resistance. However, there should be no danger to the participants: Salford University's virtual reality researchers have joined forces with SGI (formerly Silicon Graphics), Trimension Inc and MathEngine plc to build a £100k virtual environment parachute descent simulator at the Museum. This will provide a unique hands-on approach to physics, promoting interaction and understanding through a novel experience for those involved. The result will be, in effect, a restricted virtual physics laboratory allowing users to select different options and then experience the effects in the simulator. Environmental conditions will be modifiable, in addition to other physical parameters such as the acceleration due to gravity. The project is one of 22 being funded from the latest round of EPSRC awards.

In a similar vein, the chance to experience near-zero gravity will be available to 30 international teams of students later this year. The European Space Agency (ESA) will be chartering a specially adapted Airbus A-300 for its parabolic flight campaign between 16 and 27 October, for the teams to carry out their own experiments in weightlessness as well as testing instruments and equipment prior to spaceflight.

To gain a place on the campaign, the students (over 18 years of age) had to submit preliminary designs for experiments by the end of March; the final selection process should be completed by the beginning of June. A few of the best experiments will be invited to fly again on a professional parabolic flight campaign at a later date, and there is the possibility of some actually being studied on the International Space Station. More details about the competition can be found at the campaign website:www.estec.esa.nl/outreach/pfc

ESA's new x-ray space observatory, now known as the XMM-Newton observatory, has been operational since early this year and is providing the opportunity for more involvement of young Europeans via the `Stargazing' competition. Students of age 16-18 will be able to win observing time using the x-ray telescope, enabling them to appreciate the complexities in operating and managing an observatory of this type.

`Stargazing' allows school classes to put forward proposals for observation in conjunction with scientists working on the XMM-Newton mission, the deadline being 12 May 2000. Two schools per country will be selected to take part, and in the period July-August two students from each class will visit the XMM-Newton science operations centre in Villafranca, Spain, to finalize their proposals. The best four will then be chosen for action by the observatory team at the end of the year and early in 2001, with the results being put on display at the Le Bourget air show in June next year. More information about the competition can be found atsci.esa.int/xmm/competition

Finally, those fascinated by the wonders of space and space travel may be interested to know that the Space School which was formerly hosted at Brunel University has now moved to the University of Leicester. The School runs two residential courses each year for students from age 14 upwards, sponsored by British industry and the government via the British National Space Centre. The move will enable those attending this year's two schools to take advantage of the facilities offered by Leicester's campus-based Space Centre in adddition to the Challenger Learning Centre (see Physics Education March issue, p 80). Those who attended last month's school had a hectic schedule in which they made a `virtual' trip to Mars, took charge of mission control or visited a Space Shuttle, learnt about the solar system, supernovae, telescopes and satellite communications. The next Space School runs from 30 July to 3 August 2000 and more details are available from Jean Collins, Space School UK, Space Research Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH (tel: 0116 2522675).

Early this year UK universities and colleges were urged to prepare themselves for the 21st century and to meet the challenges of globalization and the knowledge economy. A major project to harness new technology in the provision of high quality teaching and learning, both in the UK and overseas, along with the introduction of the `Foundation degree' as a new vocationally focused route into higher education were both announced by the government's Education and Employment Secretary.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England is to bring forward proposals for a new collaborative virtual venture: a consortium of `e-Universities'. This partnership between universities and the private sector will develop a novel means of distance learning through exploiting the information and communication technologies. Meanwhile, the new two-year Foundation degrees should enable more young people to benefit from higher education by the age of 30, particularly at the intermediate skills level. Courses could be offered in areas ranging from IT and finance to the creative industries, appealing to a wide range of students, and with the opportunity to progress to an honours degree with only a further 1.3 years of extra study.

A HEFCE consultation paper setting out the background and objectives for the e-University project was sent to all institutions, inviting them to submit information on relevant current activities to the project's Steering Group. By July it is intended to publish a detailed programme for the e-University, with a full specification by the autumn, along with expressions of interest and a call for tenders. The formulation of the e-University partnership is intended for early in 2001.

These activities have coincided with a cautionary announcement from the Association of University Teachers drawing attention to the lack of younger staff being recruited to posts in UK higher education. Almost a third of UK academics are aged over 50, with the figure in the `old' universities rising to 35%. Poor pay and insecure jobs are among the reasons for the reluctance of younger people to apply and take up posts. The most extreme case in the various subject areas is seen in education, where the proportion of staff over 50 is four times the number aged under 35. Biological, mathematical and physical sciences have 36% of staff over 50, engineering and technology 33% and language-based studies 35%. By comparison, in medicine, dentistry and health (where pay scales and salary increases have been dealt with separately) over a third of staff are under 35. The AUT naturally wonders, therefore, whether Britain's future is about to retire.

National concerns over the uptake of science subjects and an analysis of how school science departments together with careers programmes influence students' subject choices feature in a recent report from the UK's National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling. It points out that decisions on science subjects are taken very early in pupils' education, often well before the implications of those choices can be clearly understood. If pupils are to be encouraged to keep science options open, then both science teachers and careers advisers have important roles to play.

Physics is in fact singled out in the report's recommendations as in need of special attention, due to its perceived difficulty both within the double-award science course and also at A-level. The lack of qualified teachers in physics is noted as a problem for schools and the many initiatives to address these issues should be encouraged according to the report, but within an overall high-profile and well funded national strategy for developing science education in schools.

The report also notes that science teachers do not feel able to keep up with career information, whilst few careers advisers have a science background and have little opportunity to build up their knowledge of science syllabuses or of science and engineering careers. More contact between both types of specialist is naturally advocated.

Copies of the full report, Choosing Science at 16 by Mary Munro and David Elsom, are available from NICEC, Sheraton House, Castle Park, Cambridge CB3 0AX on receipt of an A4 stamped (70p) addressed envelope. A NICEC briefing summary is also available from the same address (20p stamp required).

Support for astronomy in A-level physics

Help is at hand for teachers and students choosing astronomy as part of A-level physics. The Teaching Resources Unit for Modern Physics (TRUMP) has produced a resource package covering all the astronomical options in the Edexcel, OCR and AQA (NEAB) syllabuses. The forerunner to TRUMP was the project that produced the highly successful Particle Physics Pack, sponsored by the Institute of Physics, which was instrumental in introducing particle physics into A-level syllabuses.

The TRUMP Astrophysics Resource Package fills a gap between the colourful stimulus of popular materials on the one hand, and professional texts on the other. But this is not just another A-level textbook; the six-part resource pack has a similar structure and purpose to the Particle Physics Pack. It provides over 400 pages of comprehensive information for teachers, building on their existing subject knowledge and bringing them up to date as well as giving suggestions for teaching and notes on syllabus coverage. The package includes nearly 40 photocopiable sheets for students. The emphasis is on the physics that underpins the astronomy. There are details of student activities requiring no specialist equipment beyond that normally found in A-level labs, exercises using authentic data, and plenty of questions (all with worked solutions).

The development of the TRUMP Astrophysics Package was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, the Institute of Physics and York University.

The package is available by mail order, price £48 (inc. UK p&p) from the TRUMP Project, Science Education Group, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD. Some parts may be purchased separately; for details contact the project's director, Elizabeth Swinbank (tel: 01904 434537, fax: 01904 434078, e-mail: es14@york.ac.uk) or consult the web pagewww.york.ac.uk/org/seg/trump.

The BaBar experiment

In the spring of 1999, scientists began to collect data from the BaBar experiment - an international collaboration involving the UK, several other European countries and the USA. The experiment is designed to throw light on the puzzling question of why there is so little antimatter in the universe and so much matter.

The TRUMP BaBar resource package brings the mystery of antimatter into schools. There are notes and colourful posters on the physics of BaBar, and photocopiable sheets supporting student activities. These include explorations of symmetry, templates for making a scale model of the BaBar detector, and a web-based research project. The pack is designed mainly for A-level physics (particularly those courses that include some particle physics) but parts also relate to GCSE science, Scottish Higher physics and Standard physics.

The BaBar resource package is available free from the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, which fully funded its development and production. Contact the Publicity Team, PPARC, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wiltshire SN2 1SZ (tel: 01973 442123, e-mail: pr_pus@pparc.ac.uk).

Colin Siddons, who died on 8 November 1999 aged 86, was one of the most brilliant of the generation of physics teachers who came into teaching out of necessity rather than vocation in the 1930s. He elevated physics teaching into an art and it was for his inspirational physics teaching that he won international recognition. He was made an Honorary Life Member of the Association for Science Education, awarded an Honorary Master of Science degree by the University of Leeds in recognition of his `Outstanding Career in Science Teaching', and in 1992 the Institute of Physics awarded him its prestigious Bragg Medal for services to physics education.

He was one of those science sons of Bradford who, along with the Noble Prize winner Sir Edward Appleton and the outstanding cosmologist Fred Hoyle, are hardly recognized in their own city. Colin wove together his politics and humanism in a career that could not but collide with the stuffy, class-ridden and prejudiced society of Britain in the thirties. He left Cambridge with a first-class honours degree in Physics, a product of the University Physics laboratories of Thompson and Rutherford, who did so much to break the mould of nineteenth century science, launching science into the modern era.

With his degree he applied to work as a Meteorologist at the Air Ministry. His scientific competence was not in doubt but the fact that he read Tolstoy made him unacceptable to the interview panel.

In the Britain of the thirties, with a working class background and a father out of work Colin had to get a job. After 83 applications and 13 interviews, in which he learned the hard way that teachers' personal lives were not allowed to deviate from convention, he got his first teaching post in Devon. He soon found that his school governors did not take kindly to teachers publicly challenging the support their local MP was expressing for Hitler and Mussolini. Later, when Colin had returned to Yorkshire, Chamberlain's notorious Munich agreement in 1939 drove the 26-year-old, who had been horrified as a six-year-old at the pointless slaughter of the 1914-18 war, to join the Communist Party.

His public opposition to the war led to his arrest for criticizing the British Government. He spent three months in Wakefield goal and was suspended from his teaching post by Bradford Education Committee. On his release he worked at Marks and Spencer's as a porter until he was called up.

The British Army were unable to recognize the value of a first-class physics degree from Cambridge when associated with political conviction. Even by the end of the war they had not recognized that Colin's political views were the same as our allies', the Russians. Colin spent the war in Egypt as an ordinary soldier with the Eighth Army, learning Russian and educating his fellow soldiers in politics, physics and astronomy.

Demobbed in 1946 he first taught at Penistone but he was soon back in Bradford after his suspension was lifted, not without a good deal of opposition, by the casting vote of the Chairman of the Education Committee. He became Head of Science at Thornton Grammar School, where his genius for using common household materials to demonstrate physical principles was honed. Washing-up bottles, kitchen foil tapes, polystyrene plates, baked bean tins, 78 rpm vinyl records, dandelion and feathers all featured in Colin's Aladdin's cave of Physics, with which he first charmed and inspired his own students. His demonstrations were, for many years, a highlight of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Science Education. After retirement he was as at home doing experiments with primary school children as he was with delegates at international conferences.

His first wife, Joan, was a teacher and also a very practical woman. Colin was always trying out new ideas for experiments with her and their three children. Colin was heartbroken when she died of breast cancer in 1968. Eventually he married Mary, an old school friend of his first wife, who continued the tradition of feeding Colin many of the technological titbits of an active kitchen.

Colin's humanism, left-wing politics and zest for physics and physics teaching continued right up to the end of his life. He read the Morning Star, and his instructions for his funeral service led to a dignified celebration of his life without `religious hypocrisy'. He was particularly disappointed not to be able to go to Cornwall and see the August Eclipse for himself, but it was probably the Institute of Physics' citation on the Bragg award that best captured Colin's passions for physics:

``Colin Siddons, during a lifetime in physics education, consistently produced experiments of wit and ingenuity that simultaneously make difficult principles accessible to the young and can be extended to tax the most able prospective physicist. As well as delighting thousands of students with his lecture demonstrations, he has illuminated physics for many teachers in revealing his art of teaching.''

Friends of Colin who have been in touch since learning of his death, including several from overseas, all agree that physics teaching is unlikely to see Colin's like again.

Gron Jones, as he was known to all, was a champion of Physics Education and his death, shortly before his eightieth birthday, robbed physics teachers of a colleague who fought many battles on their behalf. He was not shy of taking issue with anyone in authority who might be putting forward policies which would harm his great love: Physics Education and Physics Teaching.

His photograph shows a man with an impish grin, looking friend and foe alike straight in the eye, before delivering the death blow to an argument which was founded on less than common sense. At other times he would listen patiently to the woes of colleagues before offering them fatherly/grandfatherly advice so that whoever was on the receiving end would go away feeling better for the encounter.

Gron was born in Swansea and educated at Lewis Boys Grammar School in Glamorgan before entering University College Cardiff first of all as a mathematician before graduating in Physics in 1941. After his war service in the RAF, working on signals and radar development, he returned to do an MSc in X-ray crystallography before completing a PGCE in Bristol. What then passed for teacher training in all institutions left him wary of returning to train teachers himself but after 14 years spent teaching physics in three schools he returned to Cardiff and began a 25 year career in teacher training. He and his two colleagues, Clifford Othen (chemistry) and Douglas Hillier (biology) built up the Cardiff Science Centre as a focus for initial and in-service science teacher training in South Wales. The triumvirate was well known and a power to be reckoned with. They created links between the University Science Departments and the Schools. Gron knew the local schools and their physics teachers intimately. Cardiff became a focus for science education both nationally and internationally. He was a frequent attender at both ICPE (International Commission for Physics Education) and GIREP (International Physics Education Research Group) conferences and he was much respected wherever he went.

Two of my early meetings with Gron illustrate the care that he took. Late one Sunday night I went with one of the Cardiff students to collect apparatus for teaching practice the next day. Sitting in the lab on the pretext of issuing apparatus, but also encouraging and helping students, was Gron (who I didn't know at the time). He had no need to be there but his friendly words sent students on their way ready for Monday morning. There are many teachers who remember him not only as their tutor but also as their first colleague and friend, who would move mountains to smooth the passage of students from training into teaching. In their turn they became his mentors for students who themselves were to follow into teaching. He gained the respect of his students because he showed them that he knew what he was talking about from his grass roots experience of the classroom in both academic and challenging schools. He was a great sharer and wanted to share his knowledge and love of physics with all his students. On another occasion I have seen him reading borderline O-level examination scripts and really trying to understand what a candidate was trying to say in order to find the occasional mark which would give the candidate a well deserved pass.

He was a devotee of Nuffield Physics because it reflected his own experience of teaching; he saw the laboratory-based argument and discussion as central to students building conceptual models. The physics had to be right but it was cloaked in humanity. He was an expert in using his common sense to cut through the paperwork. He didn't suffer fools gladly and had a quick wit which was often used in defusing tense situations. He was a tower of strength to many who crossed his path. No-one who met him could forget him.

He was loyal to his friends and that included the Institute of Physics and the Association for Science Education both as Institutions and individual members. Gron served the Institute well, both as Chairman of the South Wales Branch and as a Member and Secretary of the Education Group. When it was difficult to find people with the time to take on the job of secretary he took it on when he was well into his retirement. He would catch the early train to London both to attend committee meetings of the Education Group and to stand in for other members of the committee who couldn't be released from work. He never missed an Education Group Conference nor an IOP Congress. He served, too, on the Editorial Board for Physics Education. In 1989 he was honoured by IOP with the Bragg Medal and in his humility he always wondered why. He was always ready to name others who should have received it. In 1986, through the Education Group, he instituted the Teachers of Physics Awards and wrote the aims in such a way that the honours would only go to those serving teachers who had remained in the classroom, or rather the laboratory, encouraging the next generation. Nothing thrilled him more than when pupils nominated a teacher by writing in glowing terms about what their physics teacher had done for them. He also served on committees of ASE and was made an Honorary member on his retirement. It seems that he invented the phrase `I'm past my sell-by date'; he used it frequently and it usually preceded some earth-shattering illumination on a problem that everyone else had missed. Many of us feel we took him too much for granted and we failed to thank him properly for all he did.

Gron was Physics Education in South Wales and many teachers and former students mourn the passing of a great professional; he will be missed by many. We, his friends, offer our support and sympathy to his other great love, his family; to his wife Clare, his children and grandchildren.

Windmill Graphics simulation software has been developed to help explain control technology to students. The software allows an engineering process such as might be found in the oil or gas industry to be controlled from a PC through simulations of closing drain valves, filling tanks, starting heating operations etc. Other tasks include using level control systems with digital sensors, temperature control with digital and analogue sensors and monitoring systems plus datalogging.

The kit was funded by the Scottish Higher Still Development Unit and it has been distributed to all secondary schools, further education colleges and teacher training institutes in Scotland. It will also in turn be distributed to all schools in England, but in the meantime free copies can be downloaded from: www.windmill.co.uk/wmldemo.html

The `Computers for Teachers' project announced early in the year should offer a helping hand into the information age by providing up to 50% of the cost of a new computer.

Besides supplying up to half the purchase price of the machine (maximum £500), the project will ensure that teachers receive high quality training to take their new ICT skills back to the classroom and it also links the new computers direct to the National Grid for Learning.

Other initiatives outlined at the same time were the provision of curriculum enhancing courses via the web and CD-ROM and a package of grants for Local Education Authorities and some regional consortia to assist with the construction of high-speed Internet links.

Details of the scheme can be found on the Computers for Teachers website at cft.ngfl.gov.uk

Here we present a collection of useful websites for physics teachers. If you have any items to add to this collection please send them to the Physics Education Editorial office (e-mail ped@ioppublishing.co.uk).

Download this!

Readers will be interested in the offer from Scientific American (October 1999, page 96) of a Molecular Dynamics simulation that is of really excellent quality. This is offered free of charge by the software company and details can be obtained from www.starkdesign.com/sciam. The free offer is open until October 2000.

Ken Dobson

Although I prefer to use printed textbooks and papers for the preparation of high school lectures, I would like to draw your attention to the following three websites which could be useful for readers of Physics Education:

www-hpcc.astro.washington.edu/scied/physics.html

This site contains physics education resources such as courses and topics, curriculum developments, physics education projects, software, resources for demonstrations, physics textbooks, discussion groups etc.

www.cpepweb.org

This is the site of CPEP, a non-profit organization of teachers, educators and physicists located around the world. CPEP is focused on presenting charts, brochures, web features and classroom activities dealing with the fundamental nature of matter and energy.

www.stemnet.nf.ca/~yliu/physics/education.html

This site could be very helpful because it contains downloadable physics textbooks.

Tomas Ficker

I suggest readers should take a look at the `Physlets Home Page' mentioned at the recent Editorial Board meeting by Dr Steve Mellema. This has some useful physics applets:

webphysics.davidson.edu/Applets/Applets.html

Alan Piercy

As part of the International Astronomical Union Meeting taking place in Manchester in August, the Education Committee of the Royal Astronomical Society is organizing a day conference on using robotic telescopes in schools.

`Astronomy research projects for schools and university students' will commence at 10.30 on Friday 18 August 2000. This discussion meeting will explore ways in which students at school and university can participate in research projects, and at the same time increase their understanding of astronomy and develop useful skills. The increase in access to robotic telescopes and to astronomy databases is making research by school and undergraduate students ever more feasible. In addition, useful research can be done with very modest telescope systems, of the sort a school could afford. A range of international speakers will describe and demonstrate the possibilities, as well as leading the discussion.

This meeting is being organized by the Education Committee of the Royal Astronomical Society and by Commission 46 of the International Astronomical Union. It is being held at the end of the IAU General Assembly. Those who pay the registration fee for the General Assembly need pay no further fee for attending the discussion meeting; otherwise there is a fee of £10. Refreshments will be provided at no charge.

To obtain a registration form for this discussion meeting please contact Alan Pickwick (Alan_C_Pickwick@compuserve.com).

Most of what Bob Kibble wrote in `The how of physics' (2000 Phys. Educ.35 79) is both true and important. How we teach physics makes a profound difference to student learning and to progression in physics-related subjects.

This is why it has played a big part in designing the Advancing Physics publications. These include a printed Course Guide and, on the CD, chapter-by-chapter Teacher Guides together with Teaching Note `pop-up's which accompany every teaching resource. The Course Guide includes an overview of teaching and learning Advancing Physics; for example, encouraging student initiative and groupwork, recommending variety in tasks and approaches. The Teacher Guide and Teaching Notes then go into detail about what might work and what does not. Suggestions are made about how to introduce topics and how to choose between resources as you plan your lessons. Specific practical information and guidance is provided to help teachers with experiments and software.

Several times during this past year, teachers in Advancing Physics pilot schools and colleges have met locally, face-to-face. They also have access to an e-mail list where they can ask questions and exchange ideas to make their teaching more effective. Similar support will be available to teachers starting the course in September 2000. When it is fully operational, the AP website will allow teachers to post their suggestions for routes through the course, suggest amendments to existing resources and submit new resources which they have created. Text, images and software will be exchanged. We hope that this network of mutual support will contribute to a sense of both the excitement and the social nature of physics.

And I agree with Bob: physics teachers need space and time to join in networks where they can share their classroom experiences.

The interesting article on `University students' conceptions of basic astronomy concepts' by Ricardo Trumper (2000 Phys. Educ.35 9-15) was spoiled by a lack of attention to detail.

The percentages for the student responses were mostly quoted to three figures but the sample size of 76 allows for only two at most. As well as making the article much less `readable', the decimal point in the percentage figure implies a measurement accuracy that is just not there in reality.

Sociologists and newspaper reporters have long been guilty of this kind of accidental deception. If we physicists don't set an example in our own journals how can we ever expect it to stop?

A case is made for the Institute of Physics to provide services to back up physics courses in the first foundation year in British universities. There are several reasons why it is timely to consider such action. Firstly there are several physics departments in the country which are scarcely large enough to maintain a full four-year honours course while at the same time winning a lucrative research reputation. Secondly, if Advancing Physics, the new A-level initiative sponsored by the Institute of Physics, is successful, there will be a flood of new recruits into the subject, just at a time when the number of places available in universities is static or, more likely, falling. Thirdly, the new students will expect very high standards of presentation, for both practical and theoretical work: standards which, given the resources available to existing departments, will be very hard to provide under the present circumstances. It is proposed that the Standing Committee of Physics Professors should examine whether and in what ways the provision of IOP services to universities might be made. The SCPP is an appropriate body to manage such a resource.

Much physics is now taught by teachers qualified in other sciences. It is surely worthwhile for such teachers to have some preparation in physcis, and to this end a new Swedish institution is attracting students with its courses on interdisciplinary thematic topics and courses `about' science.

Much research is carried out in education but how many teachers find it relevant to them? The author argues here that teachers would benefit from becoming more actively involved in educational research.

Are we missing out by ignoring the new generation of calculators? This article argues for their wider use and the following article suggest a particular application where they are valuable.

The preceding article argued for the wider use of graphing and Computer Algebra Systems calculators and here their value in teaching about waves is demonstrated.

The jousters' paradox crops up in several guises in discussions of special relativity. An analysis using space-time diagrams shows how it can be resolved.

It is shown that an easy way to understand convection is to model convective flow in a heated liquid as a Carnot heat engine.

Two improved methods are suggested for measuring the specific latent heat of fusion of ice. One improves the thermal contact and allows a more accurate measurement of the mass of ice melted; in the other an ice calorimeter is made from simple materials.

Viewing the vibrations of a tuning fork against a typical computer monitor screen gives rise to a surprising and attractive pattern that can be used to illustrate or explain various physical concepts. These include wave vibrations, waveforms, standing waves and phase differences, as well as ideas from applied physics such as monitor refresh rates.

This article describes a simple method for determining the observer's latitude and longitude using the Sun. The exercise provides a valuable link between students' own experience and the non-trivial concepts that underlie the Keplerian model of the solar system and Newtonian gravitation.

The physics curriculum for the upper secondary school meets many different demands. A broader recruitment of pupils to science education has changed the aims and objectives of the subject. `Physics in context' is an important aim both for those who will quit physics after secondary school and for those who will continue with deeper studies of physical models with experimental methods and mathematical aids. Here the author gives his own views on what is important and problematic in connection with the physics curriculum at the beginning of the new century.

The links between physics and biology are growing in the real world. They must grow in our classrooms too.

Recent curriculum reforms emphasize the importance of the public understanding of science and lifelong learning. This article develops from the assumption that school science should act as a preparation for lifelong science learning. The article documents a study of the public learning of physics. More specifically, it explores factors that influence how the public learns about a potential health hazard - radon gas. The article concludes by suggesting that meeting the needs of citizens requires more than a minor adjustment of curriculum content - it also requires the recognition of an important conative dimension in physics education.

The Salters Horners Advanced Physics course has been running as a pilot for the new-style AS and A-levels since September 1998. Here, some of those involved in the pilot reflect on their experiences.

Black Holes Wormholes & Time Machines is a welcome addition to the collection of books written with the purpose of explaining interesting aspects of 20th century physics to a general audience. Throughout the book it is clear that the author, Jim Al-Khalili, must be a wonderful public lecturer. His style, informal yet precise, is just what is needed to convey these difficult concepts to an audience of non-specialists.

As the title might suggest, the author has chosen to specifically address certain topics that have been introduced into the public imagination through the mass media (primarily movies and television). He does an admirable job, both of connecting to these media-generated perceptions (with frequent references, for example, to Star Trek) and of correcting them (or at least placing them in the proper context) insofar as the current knowledge of physics is concerned. What emerges is a well thought-out journey through the theories of special and general relativity as well as appropriate aspects of cosmology.

The book eschews the standard, historical approach, which would introduce special relativity, followed by general relativity, and finally some cosmology. Rather, it begins with the promise and the paradoxes of time travel (exemplified in the movie The Terminator) and then winds its way carefully through all of the physics relevant to the possible existence of a time machine. Along the way, the reader is introduced to aspects of special and general relativity, including higher dimensional space-times and geometries. The astrophysical and cosmological journey visits the Big Bang, open and closed universes, and black holes.

By meticulously piecing together the puzzle of time (and along the way meeting such oddities as parallel universes and wormholes) the author comes to the climactic chapter entitled `How to Build a Time Machine'. There may be readers who are disappointed that this ultimate question is unraveled, not so much like an instruction manual (as its title might suggest), but rather as a series of speculations emphasizing what is not forbidden according to our current knowledge in these fields. Still, I doubt that many will be put off after reading a book that so lucidly connects some of the most esoteric topics in all of science.

Perhaps the best thing the book does is to paint an accurate image of science as an endeavour in which the answers (and even the questions) are constantly changing in the light of new knowledge. Unlike A Brief History of Time or The First Three Minutes, this is a book that can be understood and truly appreciated by any fan of Star Trek or Back to the Future. All that is needed is the desire to explore a bit of the physics behind the images created in those stories. The book would make a great gift for such a person. And, it would also be useful as supplemental reading in a course on physics or modern physics aimed at non-science majors.

Physics has the reputation of being a difficult and dry subject. Many books have been written in attempts to show that the difficulties are not insurmountable, even for the layman, and to convey some of the fascination it provides for those within it. In Seeking Ultimates Peter Landsberg avoids mathematics, the source of so many difficulties, entirely, and seeks to make physics comprehensible by what he terms intuition. He also emphasizes that there is almost no part of science that is completely understood; there are always areas of incompleteness and uncertainty, capable of providing exciting new results, and examples of this are highlighted throughout the book.

After an introduction Landsberg starts with macroscopic phenomena for ease of understanding, though one might question whether the chosen topic of thermodynamics is ever going to be easy. Next he looks at microscopic effects, from atomic structure to the fundamental particles of the standard model and their interactions. There follow chapters on time and entropy, on chaos theory, on quantum mechanics and then cosmology. The final chapters look at physical constants (including the anthropic principle), whether physics has room for a creator God (the conclusion is that this is not the province of science), and some thoughts on science as a human activity. The chosen topics are those which have been important in the late twentieth century and remain important. Each chapter cites an eminent scientist as a `hero', though little is made of this. There are occasional historical notes, set in boxes, and a few short poems to leaven the text.

What the book achieves is difficult to assess. Removing mathematics and adding a glossary of technical terms do not necessarily allow non-scientists to enjoy the text, as the publisher's note on the back cover suggests. The concepts can baffle the layman even more than the mathematics, and one of the most difficult of all physical concepts permeates so much of this book: entropy. It is physicists who can benefit most from discarding mathematics and seeking intuitive understanding. It is often too easy to put the numbers into a formula, with little real comprehension of the underlying physics. For layman or physicist the book is hard work. It is not a volume to be read from cover to cover; each section needs to be considered and digested, with frequent turning backwards (or sometimes forwards) to other pages. Even then the outcome may leave questions that can only be answered by access to an academic library to look up some of the copious references to original papers (which, of course, do not eschew mathematics or make concessions to conceptual difficulties).

Unfortunately the book is marred by an impression of haste and lack of care, leading to errors that should not have reached the final print. For example, a graph of increase of population with generation number is shown as and stated to be a straight line. It should be exponential. This sort of thing undermines confidence in the whole text. High temperature superconductivity may have a revolutionary effect on electrical machines in the future, but for the time being magnets for magnetic resonance imaging machines and the like still use the old superconductors. Amusing anecdotes make for interesting reading, but the one about Faraday is garbled: he had nothing to do with frogs' legs (that was Galvani), and the quip about taxing electricity one day, if not apocryphal, was made either to Peel or to Gladstone, not to the King. In at least one case a topic mentioned in the index and glossary does not appear on the stated page in the text, apparently having been cut out at a late stage.

Personally I did not find the book satisfying, but others will differ. Especially when dealing with intuitive appreciation, what is straightforward to one person may be utterly opaque to another. Making physics comprehensible and conveying its fascination is a daunting and often thankless task, but a very necessary one. The more it is attempted by those with a command of the subject, the more likely it is to be achieved.

Listeners to science programmes on Canadian radio were invited to submit questions which were then answered, on air, by the author of this wee book. Its purpose, he says, is `to indicate that there are many questions in the real world to which there are no perfect answers' but most of the answers given `contain the essence, if not the whole truth, of the solution to the problem.'

The questions, many of which are old chestnuts, range from the mythical - Why might Rudolph be red-nosed? Are high-flying larks harbingers of a hot summer? - through the mundane - Why does the glass handle of a cup of hot coffee stay cool? Is it easier to pull or push a wheelbarrow? - to the mystifying - How is it possible to walk barefoot on red-hot coals? - Is it true that when you take a shower large electric fields can be set up or chloroform released?

As the answers were originally given on radio programmes and intended for `educated laypeople' they contain few references to mathematics and no equations! Nevertheless many of the problems are discussed in detail and most readers will find at least some of them fascinating and informative. Many of the answers will be of interest and value to science teachers.

In this short book the questions and answers fill only 60 pages but there is a lengthy contents section at the beginning and, at the end, a glossary of many of the terms used throughout. At £8.99 for the UK edition it is pricy - so `feel the quality' of these sections!

Outdoors contains questions such as: How is artificial snow created? Can fish really give an electric shock? Why do skates glide along ice? How can blowing on your hands sometimes cool them and sometimes warm them?

Theoretical. Here questions on exponential growth, global warming, magnetic poles and energy consumption are answered.

Home & Kitchen. Can clothes be whiter than white? How can you tell if an egg is boiled or not? How can a ketchup bottle explode? Why do leaves in a cup of tea collect in the centre after stirring? I have a sense of déjà vu with this last question as it and others in this book were also discussed in the brilliantly written and illustrated volume Riddles in your Teacup, published by the Institute of Physics a few years ago.

Miscellaneous. This section deals with topics such as quartz halogen lamps, degreening oranges, free-fall phenomena and a discussion on the origins of the terms `physics' and `physicist'.

The concluding section is devoted exclusively to Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus. It is clearly intended to convince readers that Physics is (still) Fun!

Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, is best known for the cannon boring experiments that confirmed to him that heat was what we would call molecular motion. Some will also know him as the founder of the Royal Institution in London. He was, however, a much more colourful character than these details suggest. Born in Massachusetts in 1753, he had an unremarkable childhood. He married a wealthy widow, who bore him a daughter. In the American War of Independence he sided with the British, and spent some time in England. At the end of the war he moved to Europe and contrived to become an aide to the Elector of Bavaria.

Munich was the scene of his most solid achievements and of most of his scientific work. It was here he was ennobled as Count Rumford. He founded the Royal Institution in 1799, during a lengthy interlude in London, but almost from the start there was friction between Rumford and other backers. He spent most of the rest of his life in Paris, contracting a second marriage to the wealthy widow of the chemist Lavoisier. Ironically, Lavoisier had been a supporter of the alternative, caloric, theory of heat. The couple soon divorced and Rumford became increasingly reclusive, dying suddenly in 1814.

The book cover describes Rumford as `scientist, soldier, statesman, spy'. He was all of those but not first rate at any of them. He was also an adventurer, a womaniser and a self-publicist with a habit of exaggerating his own accomplishments and a talent for acquiring honours and permanent pensions. His work on the nature of heat was significant, but to claim, as the title does, that he was a scientific genius is excessive. He was the first to provide real evidence for the kinetic theory of heat, and his work did influence James Joule, who, with the help of Rumford's near-namesake William Thomson, succeeded in getting the equivalence of heat and mechanical work accepted, but Rumford himself made no fundamental discoveries. He was more of an inventor, devising improved oil lamps, an efficient fireplace known as the `Rumford stove', and a kitchen range to replace the traditional fire for cooking. He was a genuine philanthropist who used his gifts to benefit mankind but his relations with individuals were more difficult. He never saw his first wife again after leaving America, but after her death he was reconciled to his daughter.

Brown's biography is a fast-moving, readable book, and the references, bibliography and index make it a good starting point for further study. It pulls no punches about the less attractive aspects of Rumford's life, and it is sufficiently discursive that it can be understood without prior background knowledge. It does fill in some details for those who only know that he studied the heat produced during the boring of cannon. That observation roused his interest, but his conclusions were derived from meticulously conducted experiments using a specially prepared cannon casting. There are minor flaws in the book. The sequence of events is not always easy to follow, so that, for example, the second wife of the aged Elector of Bavaria seems to remain 17 for at least two years. Teachers might wish that Brown had started rather than finished his discussion of heat energy where modern students begin, with the identity of all types of energy, measured in joules, rather than with calories and the now-alien concept of the mechanical equivalent of heat. These quibbles detract little from the book. It is to be recommended.

This CD is the second edition of Multimedia Motion. It is an excellent resource for learning about kinematics.

To run the software requires at least a good 486 processor with Windows 9x or 3.1. I used a P166 with Win 98. The CD contains 36 video clips, or `movies', of events ranging from a space shuttle launch, sporting activities and vehicle crash tests to familiar laboratory air-track experiments. For each event there are options to access concise on-screen notes and an audio commentary. The emphasis is strongly on user activity. The software design is very good, stimulating and supporting the user to think and make decisions about physics. `Inauthentic labour' is largely dealt with by the programme, and the result is that there is a high thinking-time to using-time ratio.

The application is easy to install from scratch (it took under three minutes from first opening the box to running it for real). Basic use is as follows: you play a video clip through to get an idea of its contents. This takes a few seconds. Then you play it again, step by step, using the mouse to track a particular point of interest as it moves in the video (e.g. the tip of the space shuttle or the centre of a tennis ball). This results in a data set of x, y and t coordinates. The data can be plotted immediately, not only as x or yversus time but also with velocity or acceleration as the ordinate. There is an option for curve fitting, and if a linear or quadratic fit is chosen, the equation is displayed, from which it is simple to obtain gradients and intercepts, terms that often have significance in the physical system.

It might be inferred from above that the package is designed for A-level and upper GCSE. While this is so, it could also be used with younger secondary students. The software is transparent and data gathering and graph plotting are very easy. The difference in the use of the application with younger students will be in the level of interpretation that the teacher would expect. This is an issue that is in the teacher's hands; the package is flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of learning aims.

Audio clips are brief and to the point, with both female and male speakers. The commentary goes beyond the descriptive, raising interesting questions and issues and setting challenges for the user. The optional screen text is pitched at A-level. Video clips can be viewed at full screen, which is a big improvement over the first edition. There are some new clips and a few omissions from the first edition; further CDs of movie data are planned. Clips may be played forwards or backwards at various speeds using a scroll bar. This allows close control and analysis, which is useful for critical events in which changes are rapid, such as collisions. Printing of data and graphs is straightforward and the results are clear. Unlike the first edition, Multimedia Motion II only gives direct support to graphs with time as the abscissa. For graphs such as v(x) versus v(y), however, it is a simple matter to save the data directly into Excel or another spreadsheet. I encountered only one snag in using the CD: if I forgot to save my data before moving to a new clip I could not recover it. This failing could be mine, but I did try hard.

The Teacher's Guide contains photocopiable worksheets and detailed discussion and graphs of the video clips. For each clip there is a section of `useful data and formulae'. The guide is not a necessity for using the CD-ROM but it would be a very handy A-level teaching resource, allowing the option of independent use by students. It is accompanied by a floppy disc containing sets of experimental data for the video clips, a useful option for quick demonstrations. In addition, the guide explains the interesting and creative option of making your own movie sequences from videotape, though access to a video card would be needed to do this. Imagine the motivational value of students recording themselves playing various sports, or even just riding a bike, and then analysing their own kinematic behaviour on the computer!

In summary, this package has a lot to offer in the teaching of kinematics. It can be used in its full glory at A-level but has much to offer at, or even before, GCSE. It allows for the nearest realistic thing to direct experimentation in a wide range of well-chosen examples of motion.