The True Physics Project was created in 2001 by Declan Holmes and Anthony Caldwell. The objective of the project was to make physics more relevant and to increase the numbers taking physics for the Leaving Certificate (Ireland’s secondary school state examination).
The initial proposal was to create a website to teach physics in an exciting way. We also decided to create interactive science shows to help make physics come alive for students. We had watched the Royal Institute Christmas Lecture series on TV every year and thought this was a great way to teach science. Could we create something similar for schools in Ireland. The process took two years to create shows that were both educational and entertaining.
We have been presenting interactive science shows for the last 10 years to over 40,000 students in 500 schools around Ireland. In that time, we have developed our main website http://www.physics.ie to become a useful tool for both students and teachers. Physics.ie is now based on a content management system which allows us to update the site easily and to include the latest technology such as video and facebook. We developed a heat section which forms part of Anthony Caldwell’s research into students attitudes to online physics education based in Queens University Belfast.
In 2008 we rebranded the company and it is now trading as Science Ireland, the reason for this rebranding was that we expanded into primary schools, where the word physics is not used.
The True Physics Project is now an inquiry based method for teaching Leaving Certificate physics. We are designing a course to help students explore how the world works by creating experiments to test their ideas. The course is based on 20 years of physics education research understanding problems that students have with many of the ideas in physics.
- The course will take place in venues in west of Ireland in 2012.
- The plan for the course is that it will take place over 18 months – on Saturdays and holidays.
- It will include online homework assignments to develop problem solving skills.
- We will use the latest educational technology – interactive whiteboards, datalogging and video analysis.
- Students will discover the laws of physics by carrying out experiments, we will act as facilitators.
- The course is inquiry based, which means that students will have to think and predict the outcomes of experiments and activities, this will allow the facilitators to understand students misconceptions.
- Topics will be explored using different contexts so that over the 18 months students will see that physics is relevant to their everyday lives.
- The aim of the course is to develop students conceptual understanding of physics and to use this knowledge to attain a high grade in Leaving Certificate Physics.
Ask yourself these questions:
Do you want to get high points in honors Leaving Certificate Physics?
Are you based in or can travel to Mayo, Sligo or Galway for up to 10 days over an 18 month period?
Would you like to know how the world works, how planes fly, why is the sky blue?
Do you want to develop your maths and problem solving skills?
Want to have a career in science, engineering or technology?
Follow Science Ireland