PHYSICS
11th January 2024
Physics is studied at IGCSE at Braeburn in years 10 and 11, though we are very excited about having our first year 12 in September.
The year 11 students have been busy with their mocks this week and last, having already completed their practical exam before the Christmas Holiday. We have almost completed the topics and just have about half of the Radioactivity topic left to cover. Before they left for study leave, we were looking at the different types of radiation (α, β, and γ). This included their penetration power, their ionizing power, and therefore the dangers inside and outside the body. We will easily finish before half-term, giving us plenty of time for revision.
Year 10 is nearing the end of the Thermal Physics topic. Over the last few lessons, we have been looking at heat transfer and the different mechanisms as to how heat can move. We have looked at conduction, convection, and radiation, and various demonstrations showing these. We have also looked at how to prevent or encourage heat transfer depending on the situation. Finally, using this information, we looked at a number of real-life situations where heat transfer is useful and not useful, and they were able to use their knowledge of Physics to explain them. We are also including the practical skills needed in paper 5 into the curriculum as well as practising some of the examined practicals.
A very useful website to help students' understanding of Physics is the PHET:
