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Category: Education

Finding acceleration due to gravity: take 2

I’m teaching the AS content for the AQA Physics A-level for the second time this year, and have recently had my students carry out the core practical to “find a value for g using a free fall method”. I used the same approach as I used last year, using a “g-ball” as shown in the video below, but have simplified the worksheet that I used. (The one I used last year asked the students to carry out parts of the uncertainty analysis as they were going along, whereas this one… Read more Finding acceleration due to gravity: take 2

Standard Form and Prefixes

It’s important that A-level Physics students can handle numbers in standard form and use prefixes with units. Below are some resources students can use to help them revise these skills: Video on how to convert numbers into / from standard form: Click here for online questions to practise converting to and from standard form. Video on how to use prefixes with units: Click here for practise questions using prefixes.

Why teach when you can tutor?

There have been a spate of articles recently about the “crisis” in teacher recruitment. Such pieces cite a number of factors which might be responsible, but one that stood out to me was the suggestion that there is a “trend for middle-aged teachers to become private tutors” which is “stripping the profession of experienced people”. I’m not sure whether this is true – I’ve not seen any data on it, but the TES recently provided an example of this phenomenon in an article by a “successful history teacher” explaining why he was leaving the… Read more Why teach when you can tutor?

Science / Engineering work experience for 6th formers

Lots of my A-level students are unsure what they want to do at university or for a career. I believe work experience in science or engineering during the summer following Year 12 can help them make up their minds. Over the past few years, I’ve managed to use personal contacts to arrange placements for a number of students and they’ve always been incredibly grateful for this, often choosing to go into the field in which they did the work experience. It shouldn’t be the case that I am left to organise such things… Read more Science / Engineering work experience for 6th formers