Speakers

James de Winter, Universities of Cambridge and Uppsala - Ideas from Physics Education Research to change your classroom

Formerly a secondary school physics teacher, James de Winter has led the secondary PGCE Physics course at the University of Cambridge for many years. He is a member of the Physics Education Research Group at the University of Uppsala, Sweden where he is researching the development of beginning and early career teachers. James also works with national physics and science education organisations including the Ogden Trust, Institute of Physics, and Association for Science Education in various roles which he characterises as “being nice to physics teachers for a living”.

Heather Earnshaw, Edinburgh Napier University - Limit Less – improving equity, diversity, and inclusion in physics participation

Heather Earnshaw is Lecturer in Teacher Education (Physics) at Edinburgh Napier University. Her previous roles have included managing the Improving Gender Balance Scotland programme for Institute of Physics/ Education Scotland, teaching physics in Edinburgh, and generally fretting about who feels physics is ‘right’ for them.

Martyn Crawshaw, IOPS - Limit Less – improving equity, diversity, and inclusion in physics participation

Martyn Crawshaw is an IOP Scotland Physics Coach and PT Sciences at Millburn Academy, Inverness. Martyn has spent many years encouraging a more diverse range of students to study physics and often seeing potential in some learners that is not fully realised.

Stuart Farmer, IOP - Visualising electric circuits

Stuart Farmer is Learning and Skills Manager for the Institute of Physics in Scotland. Prior to this he taught physics in Scottish schools for over three decades, was an IOP Teacher Network Coordinator, and has organised and delivered a wide range of physics CLPL.

Andrew Bailey, IOP - Improving Secondary Science: Seven recommendations for improving science in secondary schools

Andrew Bailey is a physics teacher and IOP Physics Coach based in Dundee.

Carole Kenrick, IOP - Physics Education Research Clubs: bringing education research into the physics classroom

Carole is an experienced physics specialist science teacher in both primary and secondary, and has a decade’s experience training teachers, including for the Institute of Physics, Ogden Trust, Teach First, and STEM Learning. She is particularly passionate about evidence-informed pedagogy, equity in science education, and building partnerships between teachers and schools. Carole is currently teaching physics part-time in east Kent and working for the IOP, supporting teachers of physics to use evidence to inform their practice. Alongside this she has been running Kew Gardens’ first family science club, set up an Eco Club at her school, and is learning aerial hoop (which is great fun and also full of physics!).

Drew Burrett, IOP - Perimeter Institute - Modelling the expanding universe

Drew Burrett is a physics teacher and IOP Physics Coach based in Ayrshire. Now in his 10th year of working with IOP, he has delivered an extensive range of CLPL sessions both in person and online. He is a regular contributor and admin of the IOP Sputnik email forum.

Matthew Burke, IOP - Forces and Newton’s laws: common misconceptions and how to deal with them

Matthew Burke is a physics teacher and IOP Physics Coach based in Fort William.

Jennie Hargreaves, IOP - Forces and Newton’s laws: common misconceptions and how to deal with them

Jennie Hargreaves is a physics teacher and IOP Physics Coach based in Dumfries and Galloway. She has extensive experience developing innovative teaching and learning materials and projects to enthuse young people to study physics. This has resulted in her attending conferences as far afield as Hungary, Portugal, and the USA to share her enthusiasm for teaching physics.

Gregor Steele, SSERC - Aye, ye can dae it – health and safety myth busting

Gregor Steele needs little introduction to physics teachers in Scotland. For many years he was the lead physics specialist and radiation protection adviser at SSERC.

Pete Colquhoun, Biggar High School - Bringing CERN to school

Pete Colquhoun is Faculty Head of Science at Biggar High School and also works as an Associate Regional Trainer and Verifier for the Young STEM Leader Programme led by SSERC.

Tim Browett, IOP - Using the BEST resources in your physics teaching

Tim Browett is a physics teacher and IOP Physics Coach based in Aberdeenshire.

Jim Dunlop, University of Edinburgh - The James Webb Space Telescope

Jim is Head of School and Professor of Extra-Galactic Astronomy within the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh, and also part of the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Institute of Physics, and has previously held a European Research Council Advanced Fellowship and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. His research interests are in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology: galaxy formation and evolution, the cosmic history of star formation, the first galaxies and cosmic reionization, and the connection between the growth of galaxies and black holes. Jim is now Principal Investigator of the largest approved Cycle-1 James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) “Galaxies” program: PRIMER = Public Release IMaging for Extragalactic Research.