The Physics Teaching Podcast

Festive Demos and Practicals


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Ah, the end of term beckons! Mince pies, tubs of choccy selection and of course “Sir/Miss, can’t we watch a video?”. Thomas and Robin are both wary of 45 minutes of Shrek as a Christmas treat – Thomas tells the story of his daughter coming home and asking to see “the rest of Ratatouille” having seen the first 50 minutes 8 times!

And so we present a series of fun physics experiments that will give your students a taste of physics fun at Christmas.

Given that it’s been a tough old term and we are close to the end, we have also decided that this will be the last episode of 2020. Holiday fun is a good point to call it a day for what’s been a punishing year.

So it only remains to say an enormous thank you to you for listening, contributing, but most of all for teaching physics. Enjoy your break and here’s to a more… normal 2021.

Links

pic.twitter.com/G6MNsuGNkN

— Christina Astin FCCT FInstP (@ChristinaAstin) December 5, 2020

We tend to be finishing up space about now so work with the chemists to do a bit on bottle rockets.

Methane bubbles, proper ratios and making things go bang – always a winner! pic.twitter.com/1HFBVwkqnQ

— Kaetror (@Kaetror) December 5, 2020

You can add these #Bernoulli demos to the list! Very accessible in virtual land – supplies are a strip of paper, a spoon, an empty aluminum beverage cans, and two coffee mugs #iteachphysics https://t.co/oYKtvrmusG

— DaNel Hogan (@STEMAZingST) December 5, 2020
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A post shared by Thomas W-P and Robin Griffiths (@physics_teaching_podcast)

Thomas has a go
  • The Guardian reports that copper tape does not work with slugs!
  • Christmas Circuits. Enhance your Christmas pics with some coloured LEDs. You’ll also need batteries and copper tape.
Join in!

Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

Music
  • Season 7: Physics Is Our Business by Miracles of Modern Science.
  • Seasons 5 and 6: Crescents by Ketsa.
  • Seasons 3 and 4: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear.
  • Seasons 1 and 2: One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus.
  • Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.
  • The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License

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    The Physics Teaching PodcastBy Thomas W-P and Robin Griffiths with Rosie McTavish

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