From Kerry.Parker at tekura.school.nz Tue Jul 13 12:30:57 2010 From: Kerry.Parker at tekura.school.nz (Kerry Parker) Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:30:57 +1200 Subject: Incorrect information on TKI Message-ID: Kia ora tatou It was great to meet with so many great physics teachers at SciCon. There was quite a bit of discussion about the new NCEA level 1 standards and I have just found a couple of glitches in the information on TKI. I have alerted the people at the Ministry, but had no response yet. I thought that you good people should know about them, to save you wasting the time. One or two of you might even have the correct information. The issues are: 1. The Conditions of Assessment have disappeared! The only CoA on TKI is for business studies level 1. At SciCon teachers were reminded to look carefully at the CoA in designing their programmes and assessments. You won't find them on TKI right now. 2. The physics rationale, (22 dec 09) says "AS P1.1 Carry out a practical physics investigation, with direction, that leads to a linear relationship Removal of "linear relationship" from the title to be consistent with the other sciences". The standard in the 30May10 versions says Carry out a practical investigation, with direction, that leads to a linear mathematical relationship. Can we assume that the latest information is right? 3. Draft level 2 standards on TKI (in all the sciences) are still the Sept 09 versions. These have been changed quite a bit - the Earth and Space Science ones look completely different (and we are wondering whether to offer them as options for physics students). warm regards Kerry Kerry Parker Curriculum Leader: Science Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu The Correspondence School Thorndon, Wellington, NZ 04 473 6841 x 8708 0800 659988 x8708 skype: kparker.tcs Mailing address: Private Bag 39992 Wellington Mail Centre Lower Hutt 5045 New Zealand ________________________________ Warning: This email contains information which is CONFIDENTIAL and may also be LEGALLY PRIVILEGED. If you are not the intended recipient you must not peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or attachments. If you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return email and delete this email. Thank you. ##################################################################################### This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared by MailMarshal ##################################################################################### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Kerry.Parker at tekura.school.nz Tue Jul 13 12:34:23 2010 From: Kerry.Parker at tekura.school.nz (Kerry Parker) Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:34:23 +1200 Subject: FW: NZ in IYPT Final Message-ID: Forwarded from Paul Haines, Chair of IYPT New Zealand. Dear All The New Zealand team of Jennifer Randle, Tony Luen, Evan Simmers, Yufei Chen and David Xie have just qualified for the Final of the Physics World Cup (also known as the International Young Physicists' Tournament) being held in Vienna. In the final the team will compete against teams from Singapore, Austria and Korea. This is now the 4th year in a row that New Zealand has reached the final, something that no other country has achieved in recent years. In the last of the qualifying Physics Fights Evan Simmers presented the "Electromagnetic Cannon" scoring 7.1 against opposition from Bulgaria. Jennifer Randle opposed the problem "Liquid Light Guide" presented by Iran scoring 7.6. Jennifer Randle then reviewed the problem "Sand" reported by Croatia scoring 8.3. Cheers Paul Electromagnetic cannon A solenoid can be used to fire a small ball. A capacitor is used to energize the solenoid coil. Build a device with a capacitor charged to a maximum 50V. Investigate the relevant parameters and maximize the speed of the ball. Liquid light guide A transparent vessel is filled with a liquid (e.g. water). A jet flows out of the vessel. A light source is placed so that a horizontal beam enters the liquid jet. Under what conditions does the jet operate like a light guide? Sand Dry sand is rather ?soft? to walk on when compared to damp sand. However sand containing a significant amount of water becomes soft again. Investigate the parameters that affect the softness of sand. ________________________________ Warning: This email contains information which is CONFIDENTIAL and may also be LEGALLY PRIVILEGED. If you are not the intended recipient you must not peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or attachments. If you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return email and delete this email. Thank you. ##################################################################################### This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared by MailMarshal ##################################################################################### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Kerry.Parker at tekura.school.nz Sat Jul 17 11:54:51 2010 From: Kerry.Parker at tekura.school.nz (Kerry Parker) Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 06:54:51 +1200 Subject: News about IYPT NZ Message-ID: News from IYPT in Vienna I am proud to announce that the NZ team at the International Young Physicist Tournament won medals again with a brilliant third place in the final in Vienna. This makes it 4 years in a row that NZ has made the top 3! The team from Singapore were deserved winners as they had gone the whole tournament performing to a high standard. Last year they had just missed out on getting to the finals. The final totals for the final are: Singapore 52.1 Austria 49.4 New Zealand 46.2 Korea 45.3 In total there were 23 countries involved in the tournament. At all times throughout the tournament all five team members Tony, Jennifer, David, Evan and Yufei worked together as a tight knit team always supporting each other. Our team was noteworthy for the way they did this. At all times they were excellent ambassadors for both New Zealand and their respective schools. The team comprised: Jennifer Randle Onslow College Evan Simmers Onslow College Tony Yuen Auckland Grammar School Yufei Chen Auckland Grammar School David Xie Auckland Grammar School They were accompanied by teachers Kent Hogan (Onslow College), Gavin Jennings (Auckland Grammar School) and Paul Haines (King's College). This team was selected from a wider squad of 10 students, which was in turn selected at the National Final of the New Zealand Young Physicists' Tournament. Preparations will be starting soon for the 2011 NZ regional tournaments next March with the selection of problems. These will be posted in the next month or so on the IYPT NZ website. Dates for your diary (and your students' diaries!) * selection of problems: August 2010 * closing dates for early-bird entries 10th Dec 2010- * final closing dates for entries: (25th February, 2011 including names of team members and jury members) regional tournaments: (13th March, 2010) * national final: (27th March, 2010) * team selection: (23rd April, 2010) Kerry Kerry Parker Curriculum Leader: Science Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu The Correspondence School Thorndon, Wellington, NZ 04 473 6841 x 8708 0800 659988 x8708 skype: kparker.tcs Mailing address: Private Bag 39992 Wellington Mail Centre Lower Hutt 5045 New Zealand ________________________________ Warning: This email contains information which is CONFIDENTIAL and may also be LEGALLY PRIVILEGED. If you are not the intended recipient you must not peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or attachments. If you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return email and delete this email. Thank you. ##################################################################################### This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared by MailMarshal ##################################################################################### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andydyson at actrix.co.nz Sun Jul 18 00:30:05 2010 From: andydyson at actrix.co.nz (andydyson at actrix.co.nz) Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 19:30:05 +1200 (NZST) Subject: Incorrect information on TKI Message-ID: <3784f226a2da37718d5a8eb67c740c9b.squirrel@my.actrix.co.nz> Hi Kerry, Now back in Kerikeri after a fabulous walk in the Abel Tasman and a road trip round the South that included a helicopter up the Franz Joseph glacier, the Haast pass, big chess in Christchurch cathedral square (I lost!), a crayfish in Kaikura (yum) and the top end with Picton and Blenheim. As you point out the new level one standards seem to be still in a state of flux to some extent, when it would have been nice by now to have it all finalised so that the decisions can be made about the courses to be offered next year and preparations made well in advance for assessment to new standards. Francis Bryden asked if the new internal standards could be assessed by in class tests. My reading of them is that they require an "investigation" which involves "collection of data". I can't see how this could be done by a test. I really do wonder how schools intend to teach/assess these new internals. Could one really follow the "Are biomags dangerous?" example and award 4 credits and feel happy that one's students had a good grasp of the implication of electricity and magnetism in everyday life? And then there's the concept of doing this at a distance a la Correspondence school. I'm sure that many teachers will spend many (happy?) hours devising ways to interpret the new standards and ways to assess the ability of their students against them. They will then have their efforts moderated and hopefully will stay upbeat when the results come back. We will, of course, in the end, do what we can to put together educationally sound Science courses that advantage/don't disadvantage our students though the change process could be done better. Having said that I have been through loads of educational changes and none of them have been well thought out and well organised so why should this be different? On a different note the freeware Tracker video analysis software looks really good but do you have the code letters for your Casio Exilim camera that does 1000 frames per second video? eg is it the EX-FC100 or another? All the best, Andy Kerikeri. > Kia ora tatou > > It was great to meet with so many great physics teachers at SciCon. > There was quite a bit of discussion about the new NCEA level 1 standards > and I have just found a couple of glitches in the information on TKI. I > have alerted the people at the Ministry, but had no response yet. I > thought that you good people should know about them, to save you wasting > the time. One or two of you might even have the correct information. > > The issues are: > > 1. The Conditions of Assessment have disappeared! The only CoA on > TKI is for business studies level 1. At SciCon teachers were reminded to > look carefully at the CoA in designing their programmes and assessments. > You won't find them on TKI right now. > > 2. The physics rationale, (22 dec 09) says "AS P1.1 Carry > out a practical physics investigation, with direction, that leads to a > linear relationship > Removal of "linear relationship" from the title to be consistent with the > other sciences". The standard in the 30May10 versions says Carry out a > practical investigation, with direction, that leads to a linear > mathematical relationship. Can we assume that the latest information is > right? > > 3. Draft level 2 standards on TKI (in all the sciences) are still > the Sept 09 versions. These have been changed quite a bit - the Earth > and Space Science ones look completely different (and we are wondering > whether to offer them as options for physics students). > > warm regards > Kerry > > > Kerry Parker > Curriculum Leader: Science > Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu > The Correspondence School > Thorndon, Wellington, NZ > > 04 473 6841 x 8708 > 0800 659988 x8708 > > skype: kparker.tcs > > Mailing address: > Private Bag 39992 > Wellington Mail Centre > Lower Hutt 5045 > New Zealand > > > > ________________________________ > Warning: This email contains information which is CONFIDENTIAL and may > also be LEGALLY PRIVILEGED. If you are not the intended recipient you must > not peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or > attachments. If you have received this in error, please notify us > immediately by return email and delete this email. > Thank you. > > ##################################################################################### > This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared > by MailMarshal > ##################################################################################### > _______________________________________________ > Phys-teach-talk mailing list > Phys-teach-talk at nzip.org.nz > http://nzip.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/phys-teach-talk_nzip.org.nz > From Kerry.Parker at tekura.school.nz Sun Jul 18 12:00:01 2010 From: Kerry.Parker at tekura.school.nz (Kerry Parker) Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:00:01 +1200 Subject: Incorrect information on TKI In-Reply-To: <3784f226a2da37718d5a8eb67c740c9b.squirrel@my.actrix.co.nz> References: <3784f226a2da37718d5a8eb67c740c9b.squirrel@my.actrix.co.nz> Message-ID: Hi Andy and fellow Physics teachers The state of flux you mention is what I think the ministry people call 'an iterative process of development'. I think it is important not to bracket at the physical world internals together. The practical and the application of physics standard (Physics 1.1 and 1.2) are pretty different to the 'implication of...' standards (Science 1.2,1.3,1.4) which were designed ( I think) with more of the Nature of Science part of the curriculum in mind (as well as the Physical World). I know that Dave H is aware that we all need more exemplars. As you point out, the Big Decision about what goes (test or no test) will rest with the physics moderator. No pressure then on whoever get the job. Fancy a challenge? See the vacancy http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/working-at-nzqa/vacancies/moderators/ , closes on 26th. regards Kerry -----Original Message----- From: andydyson at actrix.co.nz [mailto:andydyson at actrix.co.nz] Sent: Sunday, 18 July 2010 7:30 p.m. To: Kerry Parker Cc: phys-teach-talk at nzip.org.nz Subject: Re: Incorrect information on TKI Hi Kerry, Now back in Kerikeri after a fabulous walk in the Abel Tasman and a road trip round the South that included a helicopter up the Franz Joseph glacier, the Haast pass, big chess in Christchurch cathedral square (I lost!), a crayfish in Kaikura (yum) and the top end with Picton and Blenheim. As you point out the new level one standards seem to be still in a state of flux to some extent, when it would have been nice by now to have it all finalised so that the decisions can be made about the courses to be offered next year and preparations made well in advance for assessment to new standards. Francis Bryden asked if the new internal standards could be assessed by in class tests. My reading of them is that they require an "investigation" which involves "collection of data". I can't see how this could be done by a test. I really do wonder how schools intend to teach/assess these new internals. Could one really follow the "Are biomags dangerous?" example and award 4 credits and feel happy that one's students had a good grasp of the implication of electricity and magnetism in everyday life? And then there's the concept of doing this at a distance a la Correspondence school. I'm sure that many teachers will spend many (happy?) hours devising ways to interpret the new standards and ways to assess the ability of their students against them. They will then have their efforts moderated and hopefully will stay upbeat when the results come back. We will, of course, in the end, do what we can to put together educationally sound Science courses that advantage/don't disadvantage our students though the change process could be done better. Having said that I have been through loads of educational changes and none of them have been well thought out and well organised so why should this be different? On a different note the freeware Tracker video analysis software looks really good but do you have the code letters for your Casio Exilim camera that does 1000 frames per second video? eg is it the EX-FC100 or another? All the best, Andy Kerikeri. > Kia ora tatou > > It was great to meet with so many great physics teachers at SciCon. > There was quite a bit of discussion about the new NCEA level 1 standards > and I have just found a couple of glitches in the information on TKI. I > have alerted the people at the Ministry, but had no response yet. I > thought that you good people should know about them, to save you wasting > the time. One or two of you might even have the correct information. > > The issues are: > > 1. The Conditions of Assessment have disappeared! The only CoA on > TKI is for business studies level 1. At SciCon teachers were reminded to > look carefully at the CoA in designing their programmes and assessments. > You won't find them on TKI right now. > > 2. The physics rationale, (22 dec 09) says "AS P1.1 Carry > out a practical physics investigation, with direction, that leads to a > linear relationship > Removal of "linear relationship" from the title to be consistent with the > other sciences". The standard in the 30May10 versions says Carry out a > practical investigation, with direction, that leads to a linear > mathematical relationship. Can we assume that the latest information is > right? > > 3. Draft level 2 standards on TKI (in all the sciences) are still > the Sept 09 versions. These have been changed quite a bit - the Earth > and Space Science ones look completely different (and we are wondering > whether to offer them as options for physics students). > > warm regards > Kerry > > > Kerry Parker > Curriculum Leader: Science > Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu > The Correspondence School > Thorndon, Wellington, NZ > > 04 473 6841 x 8708 > 0800 659988 x8708 > > skype: kparker.tcs > > Mailing address: > Private Bag 39992 > Wellington Mail Centre > Lower Hutt 5045 > New Zealand > > > > ________________________________ > Warning: This email contains information which is CONFIDENTIAL and may > also be LEGALLY PRIVILEGED. If you are not the intended recipient you must > not peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or > attachments. If you have received this in error, please notify us > immediately by return email and delete this email. > Thank you. > > ##################################################################################### > This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared > by MailMarshal > ##################################################################################### > _______________________________________________ > Phys-teach-talk mailing list > Phys-teach-talk at nzip.org.nz > http://nzip.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/phys-teach-talk_nzip.org.nz > Warning: This email contains information which is CONFIDENTIAL and may also be LEGALLY PRIVILEGED. If you are not the intended recipient you must not peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or attachments. If you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return email and delete this email. Thank you. ##################################################################################### This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared by MailMarshal #####################################################################################