Senior School
Physics
Physics is taught as a separate subject by specialist teachers to years 9, 10, 11 & Sixth Form.
The Teachers and Facilities
The classes are taught by Miss Booth, Mrs Walkinshaw and Mrs Fletcher. Miss Booth teaches in the spacious bright Lab 2 that was refurbished in 2006. It has been designed to give every student access to multiple power sockets and gas connections as most lessons are based around practical tasks. The cupboards are packed with both traditional class sets of equipment e.g. ray boxes, lenses, magnets, ammeters, capacitors, motors and more recent additions e.g. data loggers, sensors, model wind turbines.
Years 7 & 8
Physics is taught in topics as part of their general science course. The students are encouraged to question how and why 'things work' in the real world and design experiments to test a hypothesis. We also concentrate on important skills e.g. using equipment to collect precise results and using tables and graphs to analyse results. At this early stage in their science education we feel it is important that the students realise the wide range of career opportunities for scientists so visits are organised so the students can experience science in action.
Recent visits include The Engineering Show and The Centre for Life
Centre for Life June 2010
Engineering Show
Year 9
The students are set according to their ability and begin working towards their GCSE course as well as studying the traditional subjects of electricity and forces and motion.They are encouraged to question the scientific findings in the press and think about the precision and reliability of their own experimental work.
The main topics studied in Year 9 are:
Autumn Term
- Energy forms and energy transfer
- Generating electricity
- Paying for electricity
- Resultant forces
- Motion, Acceleration and Freefall.
The students use motion sensors, light gates and the tried and tested stopwatch and trundle wheel method to measure the speed of passing cars, themselves walking and falling objects.
Spring and Summer Terms
The New GCSE course will start with:
- Kinetic theory
- Conduction, convection and radiation
- Evaporation and condensation
- Energy transfer by design
- Specific heat capacity
- Forms of energy
- Conservation of energy
- Using electrical appliances
- Generating electricity
- The National Grid
As an introduction to forces the students completed an engineering challenge.
Physics - building structures
In March we had an ideal day for showing convection and radiation as the air was cold but the sun was bright. The black plastic was an excellent absorber of the Sun’s energy and the air inside the Airship soon became warm and less dense than the surrounding air. The Airship would have been floating over Darlington if we had not kept it under control.
Lower 5 studying radiation
KERBOODLE has arrived
Kerboodle is a Virtual Learning Environment that the science department will use to support their normal classroom teaching. Year 9 pupils are the first year group to be introduced to Kerboodle and they have their personal login details. Whenever the pupils have internet access, they can use:
- Online text books that they can annotate.
- Video clips and animations
- Homework assignments set by their teacher.
- Quizzes and online assessments
- Lots & lots more that will be introduced into the teaching when the science department learns how it use it!
Year 10 & 11
Students are set according to their ability. The most able science students will complete 3 physics units, spread throughout the two years and will gain a GCSE in Physics. Other students complete 2 physics units along with 2 biology and 2 chemistry units to gain 2 science GCSE 's ( science and additional science).
Unit examinations are taken throughout the course and some students will have gained a GCSE in science by the end of their year 10. We use the AQA examination board and the specification can be found at aqa.org
What are ISA's?
Many students and parents have heard of ISA's but are unsure of what they are and how important they are to their science grades. ISA stands for Individual Skills Assessments. The students complete investigations as part of their course. Marks are awarded for drawing tables, graphs and completing a written paper that is relevant to the investigation. The written paper tests the students knowledge of experimental terms, e.g. control variable, calibration, precision. Students will have the opportunity to complete several ISA's for each GCSE course and the best mark is sent to the examination board. ISA marks make up a quarter of the overall GCSE grade so they are very important.
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