Issues in Planning a Course for Units 1 and 2 in 2016
Commentary to support the PowerPoint. Press the down key at the word Click
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A PowerPoint prepared by Dan
O’Keeffe, danok@bigpond.com
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Unit 1, then Unit 2, click
Sequence of Areas of Study click
For each Area of Study: click
– New concepts
– Some Practical Activities
– Possible Assessment Tasks click
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Unit 1: Sequence.
Almost any sequence could be argued
for.
click
Time: Weeks per AoS is also an issue.
Need to decide on balance.
click
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Titles of Areas of Study: click
You need to decide on what you will
call the Areas of Study in your course
documents and teaching: ‘How can
thermal effects be explained?’ or
‘Thermodynamics’ or ‘Climate
Change’. click
Thermodynamics: New Concepts click
 Zeroth law of Thermodynamics
click
 Internal Energy click
 First Law of Thermodynamics click
 Thermal Radiation:
- Wien and Stefan & Boltzmann
click
 Energy Flow click
Commentary
The presentation will look at Unit 1, then Unit 2,
then the sequence in which the Areas of Study can
be done.
Then for each Area of Study ...
New concepts will require some thought and
preparation to determine what are the best words
to describe each of them to the students and what
supporting materials and activities can assist in
that task.
The three Areas of Study can be done in any
order, but the Thermodynamics has a good
number of practical activities that can be done in
the more formal way for beginning of the year,
rather than the self-paced activities that Electricity
allows. The published order seems fine.
Each of the Areas of Study has a lot of content, it
may take about 5 - 6 weeks to cover each, so
looking of ways to save time in an often
interrupted Term 1 may be necessary. One of the
assessment tasks could be carried over into
Semester 2.
These are some new concepts that might require
some thought as to how to present them to
students.
We will now look at each of these.
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Zeroth law of
Thermodynamics
 A late addition to
physics, for
completeness click

A definition of
temperature. click

“All heat is of the same
kind”
click
Internal Energy click
You are heating a
substance, what happens to
its atoms and molecules?
click
Gas: Monatomic: Ne
click
Diatomic: O2 click
Multi atom: H2O
click
Liquid:
Solid: click
Atoms and molecules have
different types of energy.
click
Only translational kinetic
energy relates to Temp.
click
This is an unusual addition to this Area of Study. It is quite a
subtle point. The Zeroth Law was introduced in the 20th
Century so that the concept of 'Thermal equilibrium' was an
'equivalence relation' in the mathematical and logical sense.
The statement in the study design is an oversimplification of
the Zeroth law. Nevertheless its significance is subtle and
there is little that students can do with it other than know it, so
it probably needn't be given much class time with Year 11
students.
It may be enough to just say that is provides a definition of
temperature.
This is what Maxwell thought on the subject.
The graphic is the real Zeroth Law, that is, if A is in thermal
equilibrium with B and with C, then B and C are also in
thermal equilibrium with each other. This is the transitive
condition of equivalence. click
Internal Energy is an important concept. It explains why the
temperature stays the same while ice melts and why specific
heat capacities vary so much. It is also mentioned in a
quantitative sense, so it deserves some explanation.
Let's consider gases and solids, liquids have features of both.
What happens to the atoms if you heat Neon gas?
Ans: The atoms move
What happens to the molecules if you heat Oxygen?
Ans: They move, but what else can a diatomic molecule do?
Ans: They spin and stretch
What happens to the molecules if you heat water vapour?
Ans: They move, spin, stretch and what else?
Ans: They twist
All these actions have a kinetic energy related to it.
For a solid, the atoms can move, but they are constrained by
attractive and repulsive forces.
So the forms of energy include: rotational kinetic energy,
vibrational kinetic energy, torsional kinetic energy,
translational kinetic energy and potential energy in the case of
solids.
So, which motion or energy is related to temperature?
Note: The study design is inexact, if not wrong.
Note: Water has a very high specific heat capacity because the
water molecule has so many ways of putting the energy away
without increasing the temperature.
Note: If the heat capacities of He, Ne and Ar are multiplied by
their respective atomic weights, you get the same answer,
meaning, if you added 100 joules of energy to a mixed gas of
100 atoms, each atom would receive 1 joule of energy
regardless of its mass.
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Animations of modes of vibration of
water and carbon dioxide molecules.
click
1st Law of Thermodynamics click
Energy is conserved, click
but done quantitatively and best with a
gas example click
Three terms: click
• Energy can be added to a system, Q
• Work can be done by a system, W
• Internal energy can change as a
result, U
• U = Q – W click
Only simple calculations. click
Radiation and Greenhouse Effect click
A significant section with many new
physics concepts: click
• Spectrum click
• Temperature means click
• atoms jiggle click
• electrons jiggle click
• accelerating charges click
• electromagnetic radiation click
• Freq, wavelength click
• Energy, power click
Radiation and Greenhouse Effect click
Increased temperature means click
• atoms jiggle faster click
• electrons jiggle faster click
• higher frequency radiation click
• higher energy click
Wien’s Law: How does the
wavelength of maximum intensity vary
with temperature? click
maxT = constant click
Stefan-Boltzmann Law: How does total
energy emitted vary with temperature?
Consider Area under the graph:
Power ∝ T4. click
What determines the Earth’s surface
temperature?
Light from Sun click
Light reflected by Earth click
These modes are relevant when considering
climate change.
This is a basic enough concept, but ...
There are three terms, note the words 'to' and 'by'
are important to get the sign right.
Note: The study design has left out the  in U
and written the relationship in an unconventional
way. This is how most text books write it.
This can be a complicated topic, in practice Q, W
and U can be positive or negative, so stay with
simple problems, e.g. A gas is heated by 200
joules of energy, the gas expands doing 50 joules
of work. What is the change in internal energy?
The em spectrum is an important part of this Area
of Study. Students need to know the different
types of radiation and some sense of how they
vary in frequency and wavelength.
But they also need an explanation of why hot
objects give off light.
Which means ..
ditto
ditto
ditto
ditto
They should also have and understanding of these
terms without being quantitative.
Self explanatory
Students need to be familiar with the shape of
these graphs, realise that the peak wavelengths
follow an inverse curve with temperature.
They only need to know the relationship with
constant, so you could limit the problems to
calculation by ratio, but the actual value should
not present too many problems for most students.
Ratio problems only.
The actual equation is for teacher reference only.
The average over 24 hours and from pole to pole
is 340 W/m2, 100 W/m2 is reflected back by
clouds and ice leaving ...?
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Light from the Sun heats the Earth ...
click
click
How hot must the Earth be to radiate
240 W/m2 ? click
What determines the Earth’s surface
temperature? click
click
The Earth’s surface is 33 °C warmer
than it would be if it had no
atmosphere.
So how does the atmosphere warm the
Earth’s surface? click
Nitrogen (N2), Oxygen (O2),Argon (Ar)
• More than 99% of the atmosphere
• These molecules have one or two
atoms
• They block some ultra-violet light,
but
• Allow infra-red and visible
radiation through. click
With an atmosphere of Nitrogen
Oxygen & Argon, what would be the
surface temperature? click
click
Greenhouse warming is caused by
Water (H2O), Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
click
What is special about H2O and CO2?
• Their molecules have three atoms,
• Their natural frequencies of
vibration are in the infra-red,
• They are the earth’s blanket for
reflecting certain infra-red
frequencies back down to earth click
Infrared Radiation absorbed by Water
and CO2 click
Radiation from the earth. click
Absorption spectrum of water. click
Water's absorption spectrum now
overlays the spectrum of what the earth
is emitting. click
Absorption spectrum of CO2. click
CO2's absorption spectrum now
overlays the spectrum of what the earth
is emitting. click
Greenhouse Warming click
240 W/m2 to heat the earth and at thermal
equilibrium, the warmed earth to radiate 240
W/m2.
This should be a surprising result.
Why is the earth's surface 33 degrees hotter than it
needs to be?
Ans: Greenhouse effect
The key feature is that they are transparent to infra
red, so ...
Not surprisingly, it would still be -180C
The modes of vibration you saw earlier are the
ones that absorb and then re-radiate infra red, but
in re-radiating some goes up and some comes
down.
We start with the em spectrum and the shape of
the radiation coming from the sun.
Next comes the Earth's spectrum.
Up comes the absorption spectrum of water. The
dark areas are the wavelengths that water absorbs.
Where the graph for water overlaps, these
wavelengths are absorbed then re-radiated up and
down.
Up comes the absorption spectrum of CO2.
Different wavelengths of the earth's emission are
absorbed.
Water contributes more, but CO2 stays around
much longer.
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Diagram on Energy Flow from
IPCC
click
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Introductory activities on
phenomena to stimulate curiosity
and generate students’ questions
Experiments
Heat capacity:
i) mixing liquids,
ii) adding heated block to water
iii) heat capacity of thermos
iv) microwave oven expt
1st Law:Calorimeter prac (link to
Elec)
Latent Heat: i) Add ice to hot
water
Mechanical Equivalent of heat
click
Experiments ctd:
• Absolute Zero from Volume
vs Temp
Radiation:
• Spectra of hot objects,
• Stefan-Boltzmann Expt
Investigation:
• Keeping it Hot – design, build
& test
 Discount craft supplies
 Reverse Art Truck
Spreadsheet: Investigation of a
Climate model click
Assessment tasks could be:
• Written response to a
selection of context questions
• Exploration of an issue
related to thermodynamics
click
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This IPCC images summarises the energy flow.
Although note that the units are Watts per square metre.
Each of the entries is an energy transfer, so students can
determine which process is involved: conduction, etc.
An energy accounting exercise can be down in three
locations: i) the earth as a whole (342 = 235 + 107), ii)
just the energy entering and leaving the Earth's surface
and also iii) the energy entering and leaving the
atmosphere.
A 'what if' exercise can also be done. If the Arctic Sea
ice decreases and the 30 W/m2 reflected reduces to 25,
what happens? The earth absorbs more energy,
increases in temperature, radiates out more, some of
which is re-emitted back and absorbed, etc until a new
higher thermal equilibrium is reached. This can be
modeled with a simple spreadsheet.
Introductory activities: a series of short tasks, such as
dabbing metho on wrist to observe cooling by
evaporation,etc. See
http://www.vicphysics.org/thermodynamics.html for
examples of activities and questions. The students'
questions can form the basis of an assessment task later
in the topic.
Calorimeter possibly done in Electricity.
Students are given a plastic cup and are asked to design
a 'thermos' using materials such as foam, fabric, rubber,
alfoil, masking tape, etc. Then the next day build the
design and test it with thermometer or temp probe. Then
write it up.
Students' questions from introductory task.
Specified in the study design with seven issues listed.
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Exploration of an issue
Apply thermodynamic principles to
investigate at least one issue related to
the environmental impacts of human
activity with reference to the enhanced
greenhouse effect. click
Consider:
 other topics such as solar thermal
power, click
geo-engineering, blog related
discussion .... click
 integrating the task into the work
program. click
 a team approach with a group
presentation. click
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 how much resourcing do you supply.
click
 how much guidance and structure
click
Electricity
Extra Content
 Voltage dividers
 Specific reference to thermistors,
LDRs, LEDs
 Energy transfer with reference to
transducers
 Specific reference to Residual
Current Devices
So, basically the same, with slightly
extra content, which many currently do.
click
What is Matter?
Origins of atoms click
 Big Bang and Cosmology click
Particles in the nucleus
 Radioactivity and Nuclear forces
click
 Hadrons and Leptons, Baryons and
Mesons, Quarks click
 Anti-matter click
Energy from the atom
 Fission and Fusion click
 Binding energy and E = mc2 click
 Production of light click
How to group the content?
In what order do you want to teach it?
click
Some aspects to consider are:
There are other issues that are also interesting to
students.
Rather than doing the task at the end of the topic,
students could be given the task earlier, so it is
done mostly as homework, but with occasional
monitoring.
A team approach may reduce the workload on the
students and all students would benefit from
various presentations.
These are always questions of balance.
Very little change, many teachers already do
Voltage dividers in Year 11, so no need to
elaborate on this Area of Study further.
This is a summary of the topics in this Area of
Study as presented in the study design.
The task for you is to decide:
 do you want to group then differently e.g.
follow radioactivity with fission and fusion?
and
 in what order do you want to cover the
content?
The study design begins at the beginning of the
universe, an alternative is ....
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Different approaches are possible.
History of Science view:
 Radioactivity: decay, half life, nuclear
transformations, decay series as well as b+
and neutrino.
 Fission and Fusion: Equations, Binding
energy and E = mc2.
 Discovery of extra particles: anti-particles,
hadrons, then mesons and baryons leading
to quarks. click
History of Science view ctd:
 Cosmology: Big Bang theory including
inflation, elementary particle formation,
annihilation of anti-matter and matter,
commencement of nuclear fusion,
cessation of fusion and the formation of
atoms.
 Production of light: accelerating charges,
synchrotron, energy level transition click
Challenges click
Most of the new stuff!, however … click
It is mostly descriptive, so …. click
Treat it to your own comfort level, e.g. click
 Cover cosmology with a 50 min Brian Cox
video, or
 Applets from The Particle Adventure,
CERN, click
New concepts:
Anti-matter: Introduce beta plus decay with
beta minus decay. click
Neutrino:
Introduce to explain energy
discrepancy in beta decay.click
Forces:
Strong and weak click
Muon, etc:
This approach is similar to that for the
current topic, starting with Becquerel and
progressing through the 20th century as
discoveries are made and explanations
change.
The inclusion of 'inflation' makes this a
more complex topic as the inflation model
addressed the inadequacies of the big band
model.
Similarly, the explanations for different
modes of producing light can be quite
complex, so care is needed in how these are
approached with Year 11 students.
There is a lot for students to recall, but it is
not quantitative.
Take it to the depth you want to.
There are plenty of video resources available
that can do the job for you
Compare range, strength and what they
explain
Alpha spectra is discrete 
The presence of lines in atomic spectra
internal nuclear structure 
suggest that there was a structure inside the
Yukawa model  discovery of atom.
Similarly the discrete kinetic energies in an
muon, then  meson  even
alpha particle energy spectrum suggest a
more particles.
structure in the nucleus.
click
Quarks et al: Explains observed particles
click
Again the discrete kinetic energies in the
fragments of proton - neutron collisions
suggested a structure inside these particles,
hence the quark model.
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Chart of how the types of particles
relate
click
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Chart of quarks and leptons
click
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Mesons:
 made of one quark and one antiquark,
 positive, negative or neutral,
 examples: Pion, K-meson, over 100
click
Baryons:
 made of three quarks,
 +2 to -2 in charge,
 examples: neutron, proton,
Lambda, Sigma, and …, about
100, … click
 double charmed bottom, etc click
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click
How quantitative do you go? click
Which units? MeV, Joules click
Fusion Reaction: 2D + 2D = 4He click
Calculation steps:
1. Mass of 2D,
2. Mass of 4He,
3. Mass diff,
4. Energy release click
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Production of light
 electromagnetic wave by
accelerating charges,
 synchrotron radiation at a tangent to
a circle,
 light from transitions between
energy levels.
These topics don’t seem to link to the
rest of Unit 1.
So, how do you approach these
aspects?
click
Quarks and leptons are fundamental.
Leptons include electrons and neutrinos.
Mesons and Baryons have different numbers of
quarks.
Protons and neutrons are baryons.
Note their names.
In order of increasing mass left to right and charge
values up and down. Only basic information is
presented. Note: The Tau particle has a mass
equal to that of a Gold atom!
Note the range of their charge.
Because there are so many particles, it is hard to
come up with new names, hence ....
Students can use the quark names to come up with
one themselves.
This graph is a common feature of current text
books, but the inclusions of E = mc2 in the study
design makes the task quantitative. Also look at
the label and units on the Y-axis. So ...
Which units do you use? probably both.
Consider an example:
How would you do this?
Look up the mass of Deuterium and double it, and
then Helium 4,
Subtract
Multiply the answer by c2
The difficulty is that to obtain a realistic answer,
the initial mass values need to have six digits.
Care is needed in how these are approached with
Year 11 students.
It may be advisable not to spend much time of
these.
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Cosmology
So much descriptive content …
How do you approach it? click
 Brian Cox video click
 Images and graphs click
 Story line click
Diagram of the expanding universe
click
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Graph of the temperature of the universe against Time.
Big Bang Model: Expanding, intensely hot gas of
elementary particles. Explains observable universe back
to 1 second. click
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Graph of the size of the universe against Time. click
Big Bang model: Explains Hubble constant, background
radiation, click proportion of H, He and Li. click, click
Does not explain i) uniformity of universe, ii) universe
before 1 sec and iii) energy density of the universe, click
but inflationary model does. click
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Practical Activities
 Radioactivity Pracs
 Dice pracs click
Assessment Tasks
 an annotated folio of practical activities
 data analysis
 design, building, testing and evaluation of a device
 an explanation of the operation of a device
 a proposed solution to a scientific or technological
problem
 a modelling activity
 a media response
 a summary report of selected practical investigations
 a reflective learning journal/blog related to selected
activities or in response to an issue
 a test comprising multiple choice and/or short answer
and/or extended response click
Images and graphs can be
effective as well.
Lots to explore and digest in this
image. The wineglass effect at
the bottom is the Inflation
Effect.
This is a graph of the
temperature of the universe
against Time. The long straight
line is the expanding universe,
cooling as it goes, according to
the big bang theory.
The blip in the shaded section is
the Inflation model.
There are a few too many lines
here, but the straight lines
angling down show the
expanding universe according to
the big bang theory.
It explains some things but not
others.
The inflation model suggests the
universe increased by a factor of
1050 in about 10-20 second.
Not many
These are all the possible
assessment tasks in the study
design. There are several new
ones, se italics on the left.
But most are prac related, so not
many apply to this Area of
Study.
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What’s left?
 a media response
Evaluation of responses in an online discussion click
 a reflective learning journal/blog related to selected
activities or in response to an issue
 a test comprising multiple choice and/or short answer
and/or extended response click
Unit 2: Motion
 Motion Area of Study (with extra content)
 Options ( 12 on offer)
 Practical Investigation ( on any of above) click
Q’ns:
1. Do you split Motion or not? click
2. Managing several options at same time? click
Options:
Why you should run more than one option. click
 The number of options that students do over the two
years has dropped from 4 to 3 and now to 1. click
 Enrolment data indicates that since the introduction of
Detailed Studies, the proportion of Year 11 Physics
students staying on to do Year 12 physics has steadily
increased, both boys and girls. Conclusion: Students
value them. click
 Students learn about options as well as their own.
click
Motion:
Largely the same, but with extra content:
 Torque click
 Rotational equilibrium click
Differences: click
 Description of Force:
Force on A by B click
 Word ‘Weight’ is not used in the study design. click
How do you approach these changes?
click
Unit 2 Options
Suggestions for managing more than one option: click
 Student learning: individual, team based or jigsaw
method, not teacher directed. click
 Resources are prepared for several options. click




Each teacher decides which ones they are
comfortable offering. click
Allow students to choose, with a minimum number
of students ( eg 4) required for an option to proceed.
click
Teacher’s role: monitor, guide, support. click
Reporting back to the whole class. click
Not many choices left.
An evaluation of responses in an
online discussion may be worth
considering.
With extra content, Motion may
take up to 8 weeks, but it may be
unproductive to put options or PI
in between.
Also many teachers have already
offered four of the 12 as
Detailed Studies, so the
expertise and resources is
already there.
Practical activities and
assessment tasks will probably
be unchanged.
Are these changes significant?
More independent learning
Requires preliminary work to set
up
Allows for team to share the
workload
Has potential to be a very
rewarding experience.
51 Options: Assessment
Need to be consistent, but not onerous.
Some possibilities are: click
 an annotated folio of practical activities
 a media response
 a summary report of selected practical investigations
 a reflective learning journal/blog related to selected
activities or in response to an issue
52 Practical Investigation
 Now a separate Area of Study.
 The topic a student investigates can come from
Motion or any of the 12 Options.
 Now more substantial, the student ‘designs and
undertakes an investigation involving two
independent variables one of which should be a
continuous variable. A logbook must be
maintained ….’
 Topics can include ‘construction and evaluation of a
device’.
53  Requires class time for planning, design,
implementation, data analysis and writing up click
 Plenty of topics for students to choose from. click
 Preferable to report as: click
– A log book with click
–
A summary in the form of an electronic poster,
(e.g. a single powerpoint slide, templates are
available). click
54 Year 11 Exam
Consider:
 assessing the whole year, in preparation for the Year
12 exam,
 Including generic questions on the practical
investigation.
Students assessing presentations
could also be included.
A more significant task with more
class time.
Changes that impact on your
planning.
Study design suggests 7 - 10 hours,
about 3 weeks
Check vicphysics.org on EPI's
A daily record of plans, data,
graphs, ideas for final report.
Very much a summary, just the
main highlights, the log book is the
substance.
The Year 12 exam will have
questions on the EPI, so prepare the
students in Year 11, see link above
for examples.