LEAVING CERT PHYSICS:PHYSICS WAS brought squarely into the real world yesterday by a well-judged exam that is likely to encourage more students to study the subject, according to teachers.
A noticeable effort to relate physics theory to real life in both the higher and the ordinary level papers was welcomed by TUI representative Michael Gillespie.
“This year there seemed to be a move away from the rote learning end of things and a move towards trying to bring the subject to life. It was good to see.”
The higher level paper rewarded those who had done their work and was extremely well pitched, according to Edel McInerney, ASTI subject representative.
“Section one, the experiments section, was very straightforward,” she said. Students are required to answer three out of four questions in this section and the inclusion of three graphs meant that students had to draw at least two. “Some of the better higher-level students spent a lot of time trying to perfect these,” said Gillespie. “It brought them up to the wire time-wise.”
The second section of the paper was well laid out and touched on X-rays, hairdryers and mobile phones.
Pat Doyle, physics teacher in the Institute of Education said: “The question on the planets was very clever and would have suited the more mathematically inclined.”
However, he was keen to point out that there was not an over-emphasis on maths. “Again this will encourage more students to study physics,” Mr Doyle said.
“It was great to see the mobile phones cropping up,” Ms McInerney said. “Physics is easier both to teach and learn when it’s related to things the students come across every day.”
The final question had a section about data loggers and motion sensors, which was something of a surprise. “About 10 years ago, we got data loggers and motion sensors in schools,” Mr Gillespie said. “We have all of the equipment, but since then they have never come up on an exam so a lot of teachers stopped using them.”
Ordinary-level students were very happy, according to teachers. “The paper was very well laid out with plenty of diagrams and again, lots of the questions related back to students’ own experiences,” Ms McInerney said