The Cornwall Physics Education Partnership held its first teacher workshop on 10 October at Truro School. Delegates from eight local schools attended – Bodmin College, Camborne Science and International Academy, Falmouth School, Humphry Davy School, Penair, Richard Lander School, Truro High School and Wadebridge School. Led by Adam Laity (Head of Physics, Truro School) and Trevor Huxtable (Physics Partners), teachers, technicians and Truro School staff tackled the latest practical work from the new GCSE specifications. There was expert troubleshooting of technical details and much collaborative discussion on how to avoid conceptual pitfalls and help develop pupil thinking skills.
In developing the workshop, new resources had been created by the Truro team and these were shared with all teachers and technicians that attended. The resources were supplemented by additional material introduced by the delegates in the ‘bring your best ideas and share’ session. This collaboration has created an extensive bank of material for future Cornwall partnership workshops and for distribution to other schools by Physics Partners.
Delivering the workshop required significant planning and preparation two weeks beforehand. This catalysed excellent sharing of best practice and team work from the Truro Physics Department in advance. This was reinforced and extended by the exchange of ideas with delegates on the day of the workshop. It was disarmingly refreshing to hear some erudite physicists admitting they had made mistakes with their physics in the past! What we found was that it did not matter if you were an experienced physics teacher, head of department or a novice – all benefited.
This event was the first of five workshops on different topics to be hosted at partnership schools over the coming year. All Cornwall schools are invited to attend these free workshops, all supported financially by Physics Partners and the host schools. Click here for the programme.
