Overview

1. Choose a material which is being used for  particular application

2. Gather information about the properties and internal structure of this material

3. Produce an interesting and entertaining presentation on your findings

4. Hand in a hard copy of this along with any notes you used

Choose a material

There are lots of interesting materials out there being used for lots of interesting things. Even for the most mundane of uses, (e.g. a washing up bowl) there is always a choice of materials one might use.

You might choose an ordinary material being used for an everyday application and this could get a very good mark if there is plenty of physics in your presentation. On the other hand you may choose a high tech modern material being used for a very specialist modern application.

Gather Information

For this task it is acceptable, though not necessary, to get all your information from internet sites. (For the year 13 Research and Report task it isn't!) In the documents you hand in there should be a sources sheet. This will show documentation ( URL, author, organisation etc..) for your sources and an indication of what information they provided. You should use at least 5 sources.

Produce a Presentation

I ask my students to produce a PowerPoint presentation which they must present to their classmates. they are limited to 5 minutes (which is a long time when you haven't done it before!). Do not expect your audience to sit and read loads of text. They want to see pictures, graphics, animations, graphs etc.. which you explain / describe as you present your findings. 7 or 8 slides will be enough. Remember this is an A level PHYSICS course and your presentation should contain plenty of it. Study the strands of assessment carefully.

Hand in stuff

A print out of your slides and notes for each slide that you used in your presentation. Don't forget the sources sheet.