Academic CentreThe Department of Physics organises lessons for physics teachers on physics content and methodology during each school year. The content of the lessons is chosen according to the professional needs of the teachers.
Planned lessons:
- In December 2023, astronomy lessons are planned in collaboration with NASE (Network for Astronomy School Education) on sundials, demonstrations of the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars, solar and lunar eclipses, as well as various astronomical instruments.
- Bimonthly workshops on content issues based on the materials developed in Physics I are planned for the 2023/2024 school year, with the aim of: 1) improving the materials as needed; 2) promoting the materials developed; 3) maintaining the quality of physics teaching within the physics teaching community.
2022/2023 school year
- 9 workshops (1 per month) were held in the process of developing teaching methodological materials for the secondary school course Physics I. The project has been completed, and from 24.08.2023 detailed lesson plans with corresponding resources and methodological comments for each of the 245 lessons of the course are available on the website: skolo.lv.
- On 18 and 19 January 2023, a workshop on modelling approaches in physics education was held, led by Dr. Mark Lattery from UW Oshkosh (USA). The topics covered reflected the wide range of interests of the participants and the breadth of the modelling approach: from techniques to make students feel comfortable speaking in front of the class, to philosophical ideas about what scientific modelling is and how scientific discovery happens; from experiments on harmonic motion to the role of imagination in the analysis of experimental data.
- In December 2022, an online Astrophysics class was held in collaboration with NASE (Network for Astronomy School Education). The lesson materials and demonstration videos are available at: https://www.naseprogram.org/lv/ppt/.
2021
- In 2021, the "Astronomy Series" – 9x4 lessons on secondary school astronomy – were organised online from January to May. The classes were led by Dmitrijs Docenko (Latvian Astronomical Society) and Inese Dudareva (UL Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Optometry), with Ilgonis Vilks (UL), Professor Emeritus Dainis Draviņš (Lund University), Ludmila Belogrudova (UL Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Optometry) as guest lecturers. Video recordings, presentations and links to Internet resources on the relevant topics can be found when participants register for the open access course.
2019/2020 school year
Department of Physics in cooperation with Latvian Physics Teacher Association organised a monthly series of classes for physics teachers:
- "Assessor's recommendations for the secondary school scientific research work"; "What is the scientificity of the scientific research work?"; "Astronomy at your fingertips"; "Modern electronics". The classes were taught by Kristaps Bergfelds, Vjačeslavs Kaščejevs, Inese Dudareva and Ivars Driķis.
- "Teaching Physics in Australia and Latvia – common characteristics and differences. The classes were taught by Dr. Matthew Verdon – Australian Science and Mathematics School.
- "Kinematics and Dynamics of Rotation"; "ARANET Sensor Applications". Lessons led by Pēteris Brics, Ludmila Belogrudova, Ģirts Zāģeris and Elīna Pavlovska.
- "Introductory briefing on the use of ARANET sensors"; "CERN technologies and their medical applications"; "New conceptual basis for the SI system". Sessions led by Ģirts Zāģeris, Elīna Pavlovska, Elīna Neilande, Vjačeslavs Каščejevs.
- "Measuring student understanding of basic physics"; "Reaction force, weight and centripetal acceleration of a support – practice in solving physics problems". The classes were led by Ģirts Barinovs, Ilva Cinīte, Sergejs Vinogradovs and Ludmila Belogrudova.
- "The new standard. Concept and thematic design of the Physics I core curriculum". The lessons were led by Valdis Zuters.