Workshop Level: A Level

Duration: 2 days or 5 afternoons

These workshops, predominantly designed for year 12 students, are designed to provide an authentic experience of working within an active and busy research group, as part of a research led Physics Department. Students participating in the master classes will:

• Receive an introduction to Nuclear Physics at a research level
• Complete real university Lab experiments
• Hear from world-leading researchers
• Talk to current students and researchers

 Dates for Master classes coming soon.‌

What can you do with a Physics degree?

Workshop Level: A Level (can be adapted to Year 11)

Duration: 1 hour

This interactive talk runs in a classroom in your school on demand, requiring only audiovisual and desks. The purpose is to give pupils who are studying A-level physics an insight into studying physics at university and the wide variety of opportunities and potential careers available to them.

This informs students of the physics behind some of the latest technology. The talk links new technologies seen today using a combination of theory and interactive demonstrations and addresses some of the questions that students commonly have such as:

• What do Physics graduates do?
• Real world Physics
• Future technologies
• The Benefits of Physics

The talk explores the enormous scope of jobs available to physics graduates thanks to the analytical, logical and problem-solving skills they develop in their degree. The students are expected to take part in some timed activities that include logical thinking and some challenging calculations.

We also consider how physicists are researching new technologies such as:

• Future renewable energy (Laser Fusion)
• Nanotechnology
• High Definition Televisions
• 3D Imaging

Workshop Level: A Level

Duration: One day

This one day Year 12 event runs after the AS-level exams in June/July each year on campus. The purpose is to give pupils who have just completed AS-level physics an insight into studying physics at university and the potential careers available to them. In particular, this event is unique in that it is run by girls for girls with the aim of showing Year 12 girls studying physics what they can achieve and that girls with very different personalities, styles and tastes can all be interested in and succeed at physics! Places are limited to please complete and submit your application form below as soon as possible.

Pupils have the opportunity to engage with activities in the Department of Physics under the guidance of the current physics students who volunteer their time. Pupils perform undergraduate level experiments in small teams with support, using the latest equipment in the new Central Teaching Laboratory Building. Enthusiastic postgraduate students give short talks on their careers to date (where they studied, their typical day, and photos) and on their research area, at a suitable level.

A relaxed environment is encouraged from the start where pupils can compete to complete a simple physics puzzle before other pupils/schools have arrived. This allows pupils to engage with experimental work in a realistic way in which they develop their experimental skills and discover how experiments can illustrate a physical concept and assist in their understanding, all with support from trained students. Pupil feedback has indicated that this is usually the most positively received part of the day as, before then their experience of experiments at this level is usually in an assessed environment.

The light hearted theme is continued between the experiments and talks, with tours of the research facilities, pitched at an appropriate level, a short quiz and interactive sections on careers and liquid nitrogen. All have benefitted from the experience due to the different activities and interactions with female students from the University and girls studying physics at other schools. In order to build on the confidence gained during the day, there is a network for them to maintain contact with the other attendees as well as the female students and staff of the Physics Department who are involved. As a guideline only, please see an example timetable below.

Quotes:

“It has been a great experience because it made the prospect of doing physics at university seem achievable and interesting”

“I thought it was a very good idea as physics is often associated with males and it was encouraging to see so many female physicists.”

“Extremely useful - I was unsure whether to take a physics degree, now I think I will.”

“I really enjoyed the day and the girls-only because I got to meet other women physicists who shared their experiences with us. Physics is so often displayed as the manly science that it was a relief to have a day that supported more modern views.”

“I'm sometimes afraid to apply for events such as engineering workshops because it's always just the boys who apply.”

Dates for Women in Physics coming soon.