Year 12 Physics Summer School

Day One

9:50 Arrive and introduction

10:20 Campus Tour with Student Ambassadors

St Mary’s Student Ambassadors will take you on a tour of our campus, speak to you about what it is like to be a student at St Mary’s and answer any questions that you might have.

11:20 Lecture 1: Quantum Physics: The weirdest world made accessible

We will be focussing on one of the most fascinating topics in modern Physics and explore the importance of Quantum Physics in our hyper technological era.

12:00 Lunch
13:00 Workshop 1 – Group Centred Problem Based workshop

Students will be divided in groups of 3-4 and be given a simple research problem to solve. In the last 30 minutes each group will have to present for 5 minutes how they solved the problem and discussions between the groups will take place.

14:25 Lecture 2: Peeping in the cosmos: A trip into the wonders of space physics

We will focus on the latest discoveries and challenges in cosmology and astrophysics including some of latest ESA (European Spatial Agency) projects.

14:55 Walk to the National Physical Laboratory (NPL)

15:10 Tour of the NPL

Students will be able to visit some of the NPL research laboratories.

15:45 Wrap up

16:00 Depart
Day Two

9:30 Applying for university session

This session will inform you of the things that you need to think about when applying for university.

10:30 Laboratory sessions
Students will undertake physics experiments under the supervision of staff and students of Applied Physics.

12:00 Walk back to St Mary’s campus

12:15 Lunch
13:15 Workshop 2 – Team challenge
Students will be divided in groups of 3-4 and asked to solve an experimental problem using physics undergraduate lab equipment. At the end of the challenge each team will present its work. The best team will be rewarded with a certificate.

14:15 Lecture 3 – Medicine and Physics: The wonders of medical physics and surgery

We will focus on the development of the latest clinical instruments for nuclear medicine and cancer treatments. We will also look at the latest robots for micro-surgery.

14:45 Break

15:00 Workshop 3 – Careers in Physics

Students will be able to ask questions to professional physicists about why they chose physics as profession.

15:40 Wrap up
16:00 Depart