Physics School Trips and Workshops

Learning Objective

Technology and progress

Physics, broadly speaking, looks at how matter moves through space and time and also the way energy and force has an effect on this movement. While the history of discovery and understanding through characters like Aristotle, Newton and Einstein, is an essential grounding for all students, especially as many of the discoveries are every bit as valid today as they were hundreds of years ago. Yet to teach a subject which for many is rather difficult to understand, in such a way as to engage students and help them make sense of it all, is the difference between being a physics teacher and being someone who really inspires.

Physics governs our very lives, so making this connection between those stuffy mathematical formulas that make your brain hurt, and the physics of the every day is really important. Chances are new technologies such as computers or nuclear energy will inspire your class. You could also look at physics in sport; how coaches and trainers looking to science to get the most of their athletes or why formula one teams spend millions researching and developing new technology to make their cars go faster. Or what about why athletes such as swimmers spend hours analysing their technique to ensure they move through the water with the greatest efficiency.

You might be surprised how many physics school trips there are out there, from a short day trip to take part in hands-on experiments and demonstrations at a science centre in the UK, to a week long visit studying particle physics with 8,000 of the worlds leading scientists at CERN (see our European trips section), The European Organisation for Nuclear research in Switzerland, the opportunities to get your students learning about Earth and space outside the classroom are plentiful.