salters horners advanced physics the context-led approach for edexcel gce physics
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Salters Horners Advanced Physics
The context-led approach for
Edexcel GCE Physics
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
SHAP and Edexcel
Since 2008 Edexcel has offered a single AS/A-level specification.
Students can prepare for assessment via
a context-led approach (SHAP);
a concept-led (‘traditional’) approach;
a pick-and-mix combination of approaches.
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
1 SHAP philosophy and rationale
2 Overview of the SHAP course
3 SHAP in practice
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
4
Key features of SHAP
• Context led• Variety of practical and ICT activities• Integral scientific, mathematical and key skills• Addresses ‘how science works’• Developed by teachers, academics and industrialists• Resources for teachers, students and technicians• Extension and revision materials• Flexible resources enable differentiation• On-going support from University of York
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Why ‘Salters Horners’?
City Livery Companies
origins in mediaeval salt and horn trades
now charitable organisations
support science education
funded initial SHAP development(along with industrial sponsors)
continue to support SHAP
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Why use contexts?
To increase student interest and motivation
To generate a ‘spiral curriculum’
To develop practical and other activities
To illustrate possible career opportunities
To address ‘how science works’
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Why use contexts?
To increase student interest and motivation
Students often want to know ‘why are we doing this?’
Putting the context/application up-front provides a clear rationale.
For many students, the application also helps them to understand the physics.
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Why use contexts?
To generate a ‘spiral curriculum’
The course is structured around contexts (e.g. music, transport) rather than concepts (e.g. mechanics, dc circuits).
Students revisit key areas of physics on several occasions, applying and extending their knowledge and understanding in a variety of contexts
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Why use contexts?
To develop practical and other activities
SHAP includes many practical and ICT activities that are related to contexts and applications.
Many of these activities were developed specifically for SHAP.
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Why use contexts?
To illustrate possible career opportunities
Students sometimes have a limited idea of possible physics-related careers. Setting the physics in context opens students’ eyes to the wide variety of careers available to those who study the subject.
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Why use contexts?
To address ‘how science works’
Issues such as peer review, ethical considerations and so on arise naturally from the context rather than being seen as an add-on to the content.
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
The EPPI (Evidence, Policy and Practice Initiative) Review
What evidence is there that teaching approaches that emphasise placing science in context and promote links between science, technology and society improve the understanding of science ideas and the attitudes to science of 11-18-year-old pupils? Bennett, J., Lubben, F. and Hogarth, S. (2007) Bringing science to life: a synthesis of the research evidence on the effects of context-based and STS approaches to science teaching. Science Education, 91 (3), 347-370.
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
The EPPI Review
The review indicates that using contexts as starting points in science teaching has benefits over conventional approaches:• most students enjoy their science lessons more• students understand the science at least as well as they would on conventional courses• some students feel more positively disposed towards studying science in the future.
http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default.aspx?tabid=61
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Contexts used in SHAP were selected using several criteria e.g.
potential to interest young people
appropriate level of physics
focus on no more than 3 major areas of physics
availability of expert advice and information
potential to develop student activities
variety (e.g. personal, industrial, frontier research, cultural)
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Contexts used in SHAP
SportFood industrySurgerySpace technologyMusicArchaeology
Rail transportTelecommunicationsParticle physicsBuilding designAstronomy
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Example of a context-led teaching/learning activity:
bungee jumping
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Bungee challenge
Set up a model bungee jump using a piece of elastic. By calculating elastic energy from a force-extension graph, you can work out the height from which an object of given mass can ‘jump’ with a given piece of elastic, so that it will just miss the floor.
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Bungee challenge
Students are given a graph of energy vs extension for a thin elastic cord
They are told the mass of the model jumper (e.g. a Lego person).
Without access to the apparatus, they predict the launch height .
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Bungee challengeSelf evaluation
I/we predicted the correct height and achieved a drop that was both safe and exciting.
I/we predicted too high. The jumper complained that s/he had not been scared enough.
I/we would not be hired as bungee operators.
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
1 SHAP philosophy and rationale
2 Overview of the SHAP course
3 SHAP in practice
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
21
AS Physics
A2 Physics
Unit 1
HFS EAT SUR
Written paper
Unit 2
MUS SPC DIG
Written paper
Unit 3
Internal
assessment
Unit 4
TRA MDM PRO
Written paper
Unit 5
BLD STA
Written paper
Unit 6
Internal
assessment
Edexcel GCE Physics
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
SHAP AS
Unit 1 Higher, Faster, StrongerGood Enough to EatSpare Part Surgery
Unit 2 The Sound of MusicTechnology in SpaceDigging up the Past
Unit 3 Internal assessment
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Higher, Faster, Stronger (HFS)
How can athletes and coaches monitor and improve technique?
How does sports equipment and clothing affect performance?
How can sporting activities be made both exciting and safe?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Sports: sprinting, tennis, weightlifting, high-jump, climbing, bungee jumping, skiing
equations and graphs of motion vectors projectiles Newton’s laws kinetic and potential energy
use of ICT, datalogging
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Good Enough to Eat (EAT)
What part does physics playin making biscuits and sweets?
How is food manufacture monitored and controlled?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Chocolate confectioneryfluid flowviscosity
Sweets and biscuitsmechanical properties of materials
laboratory practical skills
Food distributionpackagingfood miles
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Spare Part Surgery (SUR)
What factors are important when designing replacement joints and prosthetics?
How can the properties of a material be measured and controlled?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Replacement joints and prosthetics
stress, strain, Young modulus
Designer materials
polymersstructure and properties
Ethical issues relating to surgery
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
The Sound of Music (MUS)
What determines the pitch and loudness of a sound?
What affects the quality of sound from a musical instrument?
How does a CD player work?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Musical instruments
travelling wavessuperpositionstanding waves
use of ICT e.g. Audacity
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
CD player
superposition
photons and energy levels
reflection and refraction
polarisation
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Technology in Space (SPC)
What is the best way to provide electrical power for instruments on a space craft?
How do extremes of temperature affect electrical components?
How can position and speed be measured remotely?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
33
Power supply
dc circuits
current, emf, power, resistance
internal resistance
maximum power transfer
Solar cells
photoelectric effect
radiation flux
efficiency
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
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Space environment
temperature and resistance
Remote sensing
pulse-echo
Doppler effect
Space research
ethical questions
environmental issues
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Digging up the Past(DIG)
How do archaeologists decide where to dig?
How can specimens be examined and analysed?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Site surveying
dc circuits resistivity
X-ray analysis of artefacts
electromagnetic spectrum diffraction and superposition
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Microscopic analysisresolutionelectron diffraction
Archaeologists at work
detecting fakes and hoaxes
digging sensitive sites
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
AS Unit 3 Exploring Physics
EITHER a record of a physics-based visit
OR a case study report
Visits have been made to cinemas, aero-engineering labs, university departments, hospitals, swimming pools, heating plants, opticians, particle accelerators, supermarkets …
AND one related laboratory practical assessment
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
SHAP A2
Unit 4 Transport on TrackThe Medium is the MessageProbing the Heart of Matter
Unit 5 Build or Bust?Reach for the Stars
Unit 6 Internal assessment
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Transport on Track(TRA)
How can a rail transport system be designed to operate safely and efficiently?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Rail transportation
DC circuits and switchingForce and momentumWork and energyMagnetic fieldsElectromagnetic forceCapacitors: dischargePlanning a rail route
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
The Medium is the Message(MDM)
How is information sent, received and displayed?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Telecommunication and display
Uniform electric field Capacitors: energy Charged particles in magnetic field LED and LCD displays Power demands – environmental issues Fibre optics: exponential attenuation
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Probing the Heart of Matter (PRO)
How do particle physicists explore matter?
What are the fundamental particles of matter?
What forces govern their interactions?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Particle physics research
nuclear atomCoulomb’s lawmomentum and energycircular motionmass-energyparticles in E and B fieldsquark-lepton model
fundingpeer review
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Build or bust? (BLD)
How can buildings be designed to withstand earthquakes?
How can buildings be sound-proofed?
How can buildings be heated and cooled?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Building design to withstand earthquakesSHMresonance and dampingmechanical properties
Heating and coolingspecific heat capacity
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Reach for the Stars(STA)
How can we study distant stars and galaxies?
How do stars form? How do they die?
How old is the universe? How will it change in the future?
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Astrophysics and cosmologystandard candlesStefan’s and Wien’s lawsgravitationmotion in a circleradioactivity
and decayfission and fusionmolecular kinetic theory
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
50
A2 Unit 6 Experimental Physics
A ‘long experiment’ (2 hours) planned and undertaken by individual students
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
1 SHAP philosophy and rationale
2 Overview of the SHAP course
3 SHAP in practice
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
SHAP students
“I do a lot of bungee jumping myself ... So when you actually do the physics of it and it is presented in a less than formal manner when the teaching starts off, then it can be quite entertaining. It was just interesting to calculate.”
“I liked the Secrets of Resistance, because the topic would mean nothing without being able to apply it to something. It made sense with this application.”
“The compact disc player, that is obviously something we use quite a lot as teenagers. You just take it out and just assume it plays. It was interesting to learn about how.”
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Destinations of SHAP students
Engineering 20%
Physics 12 %
Computer science 10%
Maths 10%
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
SHAP teachers and technicians
are supported by the SHAP project office at the University of York
receive regular newsletters
join email support groups
can attend CPD courses.
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
SHAP teachers
“In all of our contacts with outside companies ... there has been a tremendous response in terms of wanting to help students understand physics and engineering in the real world, and to encourage students into careers in these areas.”
“Everything they have learnt so far has fallen into place and they can now explain new material for themselves.”
“This is physics in the real world, the world my students live in. It is physics which is so obviously useful and interesting.”
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
SHAP teacher
“I’ve enjoyed SHAP so much, as have my students and theother teachers. We have had fantastic results – usually Physics is the students’ best subject, equalling or beating Maths. Our ALIS data shows a 3% above the normal ranges.
I think it is the context which keeps the students’ interest. Students usually carry on to A2 after AS – usually the only ones who drop it are those who leave the school having failed everything else. We have more studentsgoing on to physics at University, too, than ever before.”
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
SHAP publications
AS Student Book ISBN 978 1 4058 9602 3
AS Teacher and Technician Resource Pack ISBN 978 1 4058 9603 0
A2 Student BookISBN 978 1 4082 0586 0
A2 Teacher and Technician Resource PackISBN 978 1 4082 0587 7
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
SHAP publications
Student books contain
Contextual information Explanation of physics concepts and principlesWorked examplesBrief details of activitiesMaths notesQuestionsAnswers to some questionsSummaries of expected learning outcomes
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
SHAP publications
Teacher and Technician Resource Packs contain
Additional student sheets reviews of earlier workextension workfurther details of activitiesend of chapter testslists of data and formulae
Chapter overviewsSummaries of expected learning outcomesAdvice and suggestions for teaching Answers to questions from the bookMark schemes for testsAddresses of apparatus and software suppliersInstructions for making and assembling apparatus
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Contacts
SHAP project website at University of Yorkhttp://www.york.ac.uk/org/seg/salters/physics
SHAP Director [email protected]
SHAP Administrator [email protected]
Awarding body Edexcelhttp://www.edexcel.com/quals/gce/gce08/physics/Pages/default.aspx
Course materials distributed by Pearson Education http://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/SHAP
Salters Horners Advanced Physics
Other Salters Advanced Science projects
Salters Advanced Chemistry (SAC)http://www.york.ac.uk/org/seg/salters/chemistry
Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology (SNAB) http://www.advancedbiology.org/
Administrator for SHAP, SAC and SNAB [email protected]