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High School Students Have Fun With Physics at UWI, Mona

Dr. Michael Ponnambalam, Lecturer in the Department of Physics at UWI, Mona advocates that, “if we focus first on the students having fun, then they will learn the principles of Physics without even noticing”. This is the philosophy on which the Fifth Form Physics Field Trip, organized by the Department of Physics, is built.  He added, “the aim of the Physics Field Trip is to give the students an opportunity to enjoy Physics and thus discover for themselves that Physics is fun.”  Approximately five hundred (500) students from twenty-two (22) schools island wide participated in the four day Field Trip which consisted of two hour sessions running from January 18-21, 2011 at UWI, Mona.

During these sessions, the students were exposed to selected topics on the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) and Caribbean Secondary Examinations (CSEC) Physics syllabi through interactive demonstrations, computer simulations and experiments. Topics explored during each session included: Force and Acceleration, Properties of a Wave on a String, Ohm’s Law, Faraday’s Law, Basics of an Oscilloscope and Rectification of an AC Voltage. 

The Fifth Form Field Trip follows on the heels of a two-part Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) Workshop held January 7-14, 2011.  Approximately one thousand (1000) sixth form students from twenty-seven (27) schools from across Jamaica participated in the 5th staging of the CAPE Physics Workshop held at the UWI, Mona –Western Jamaica Campus and the Mona Campus. The Workshops focused on selected topics from the CAPE Physics syllabus, namely: Simple Harmonic Motion and Waves (Unit 1) and Operational Amplifiers (Unit 2). The students were exposed to the theoretical underpinnings of Physics through a combination of lectures, demonstrations, simulations and experimentation during the Workshops conducted by a team of UWI faculty, postgraduate and undergraduate students. 

These Workshops and Field Trips are designed to give the students both theoretical knowledge and practical laboratory experience so as to assist them in understanding the application of Physics in “the real world”. This is evidenced by straightforward examples of: grandfather clocks which use the principle of Simple Harmonic Motion while the ringing of the school bell demonstrates the principle of waves and light-sensitive switches/ sensors is an example of how the theory of Operational Amplifiers is applied.

In 2007, the Department of Physics initiated this Outreach activity as a way of responding to gaps in teaching Physics particularly at the sixth form level owing in part to insufficient equipment to teach particular topics such as Operational Amplifiers. Students also have an opportunity to conduct experiments as part of their School Based Assessment (SBA), an internal component for the CAPE examination, during these Workshops. Additionally the Workshops provide the students with close interaction with lecturers with greater expertise in teaching Physics, as the Workshops are lead by a team of UWI lecturers.


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