Report on Senior Physics Challenge, Cambridge University, July 2007

The SPC was organised because physics A-level courses fail to provide realistic expectations of what it is like to study the subject at university. The objective is to introduce sixth-formers to the style of thinking required in a physics degree prior to “UCAS season”, hopefully enabling them to make an informed choice as to whether or not to pursue a physics degree.

Also, the fact that maths A-level courses are often more interesting to physics enthusiasts means that many people apply to study maths only to find that it is too abstract for them and that they would have been happier studying physics. Others dislike advanced maths, but are deceived into believing that they can pursue physics further in spite of this. ‘I wish someone had told me that physics is really maths’ is not uncommon to hear from first-year physics students at university. With this in mind, the course contains mathematical techniques from AS-level maths that are not found in A-level physics, and the course was advertised as ‘physics with the maths put back in’.

Content
Much of the course is composed of problem classes, with a preliminary lecture at the beginning of the day to introduce students to any unfamiliar concepts required to solve the problems. The problems were designed so that little knowledge was needed beyond AS-level physics and mathematics (and occasionally further mathematics, but where this was the case, the relevant concepts were explained in the lecture). The main focus of the problems was to encourage the students to “think like physicists”, and to familiarise them with the style of learning that they would encounter at university. The problems require a good deal more thought than those encountered at A-level, and very closely resemble the sort of problem sheets I saw in my physics modules in my first year at university. In particular, the students needed to apply mathematical techniques that are not used in A-level physics, such as calculus.

Another important element of the course was the lab sessions held each day. The course organisers told me that the experiments used were of exactly the sort that might be performed in the first year of a physics degree . When I asked the organisers of one such lab  why it was based on an experiment than many of them had seen already, he told me that few of them would have seen it demonstrated to a comparable quality, and certainly not have performed it themselves. This was in order to persuade the students that even A-level material could be interesting to the physics enthusiast when taught in the right way. He said that it saddened him that this was necessary. One pattern I observed in the experiments chosen was that they all reflected a certain degree of ingenuity that many A-level examples lack, which serves to show students that greater subtlety must be used at university when designing an experiment.

Some parts of the course (taking place late afternoon/evening) were simply there for entertainment, such as the “shock physics” lecture, the punting trip, and Dr Tokieda’s lecture on “the Physics of Toys”, all of which were very well received.

Reactions
The students on the course appeared to thoroughly enjoy it, and they worked together on problems/experiments very effectively, in spite of not knowing each other previously. They all found the course challenging, but they were all ready to take it on and have fun. From what I could ascertain, most, if not all of them will at least finish their physics A-level, but most of them would have done so anyway. Many of the people I spoke to said something like ‘I think this has confirmed that I want to study physics further’, which suggests that the course is serving its purpose. Others said something like “I was thinking of studying maths, but now I’m not so sure”. Both of the above types said that they liked the strong mathematical elements of the course.

There were a very small number of people who were actually discouraged by the strong mathematical component of the course, and who are now rethinking their plan to study physics further. The course organisers that I spoke to are of the opinion that this is a good thing, as these people are now more likely to study a degree course that they will enjoy and succeed at, rather than attempting physics, disliking it and then dropping out.

Having just completed my first year of a mathematics degree at Warwick, the reaction of the students to my presence was interesting. Although I was sent to the SPC to hear the students’ opinions, many of them took the opportunity to grill me about my thoughts on the course, and about what maths/physics courses are like at university. These questions confirmed what the course organisers suspected: that there are a great many potentially excellent physicists who are torn between studying maths and physics at university. When I explained to these people that the mathematical component of a physics course would be ‘A-level maths style, but harder’, as opposed to a maths degree which would for the most part be ‘many abstract concepts, and lots of proofs’, most of them came to the conclusion that they would like physics better, with one or two exceptions. Many of them said something like ‘if this is what a physics degree would be like, then I am keen to study it’, which was very encouraging.

Suggestions for improvement
It is my opinion that the course was very well constructed, based upon some very sensible ideas. From what I have experienced during the physics component of my maths degree, I can say that this course is a good indicator of what it is like, while remaining accessible to AS-level students. The feedback I received from the students themselves seems to confirm this view. One minor point that they did raise, however, was that there were one or two lectures/problem classes that they found very hard to understand. However, these people found it reassuring when I explained to them that at university, it was common not to understand a lecture fully until one had supplemented it with private study. I am not sure how people performed on the problem sheets, so I cannot say how well they understood the principles by the end. The solution to this problem, I think, is not necessarily to make the lectures/problem classes less challenging, but to warn people in advance not to be discouraged if it takes them a while to understand things.

Final remarks and issues arising
To summarise, it is my opinion that in attempting to engage potential physicists with a maths-heavy, university style short course, the course organisers are trying to do the right thing in the right way. I am convinced that getting good physicists into universities to study physics is a significant problem, which the course did much to address. However, while many people were much encouraged by this course, it was (with a few exceptions) like “preaching to the converted”, since many of them already knew that “real” physics is vastly different from A-level physics, and would have pursued it further anyway; they did, however, benefit greatly from finding out the precise nature of the difference. In any case from a “supporting individual excellence” point of view, the course was nothing but successful.
The remaining question is how to provide realistic expectations of university-level physics to the people that need it the most. I would imagine that the many disenchanted-but-capable sixth-formers would also benefit enormously from such a course, but it is clearly impossible to expand it reach them all.

Ben Simpson, 1st year mathematics undergraduate at the University of Warwick and summer intern at the Ogden Trust, sent as an observer to the Senior Physics Challenge.