Moving from GCSE Science to A Level can be a daunting leap. You’ll be expected to understand complex ideas and to remember a lot more facts, equations and definitions. You will need to learn new maths skills and develop confidence in applying what you already know to unfamiliar situations.
The below ‘Getting Ahead’ work aims to give you a head start by helping you:
The following activities are designed to give you an overview of what to expect and to start thinking about some of the core ideas required to succeed at A Level Physics;
There are lots of online resources available throughout your A Level Physics course to help consolidate the learning we do in class. Watch Lewis Matheson from A Level Physics Online outline what you can do to help prepare for September. Then watch his ‘Introduction to Maths for A Level Physics’ video before moving on to the next activities. We teach the OCR A Specification.
Get Ready for A Level Physics in September – 4 Easy Steps
Throughout the course you will be using the Isaac Physics website to complete assignments and consolidate your knowledge.
Use this link to join the HSDC Alton Physics Group for 2024 – https://isaacphysics.org/account?authToken=7WV2V2
For guidance on how to sign up and how to use the platform see here; (Group code 7WV2V2)
Once you have logged in to Isaac Physics you will find an initial set of questions to have a go at under ‘My Assignments. Do as much as you can. Isaac Physics will only tell you if you have got the answer correct or not and will not provide the right answer. Make sure you have completed all parts of the question. If you get stuck, have a think, try again, then move on. We will be looking at these ideas further in the first few weeks of the course.
Tutorial videos to help;
Physics requires mathematical and logical thinking, but also a deep curiosity and the willingness to wrestle with some complicated ideas. Your success is directly proportional to the work you put in both during lessons and in your independent study time.
What topics in A Level are you looking forward to? Choose one of the following examples and think hard about which parts of physics from your GCSE course apply;
Do some of your own research on the development of your selected example and share with us what you have learnt in response to the following question;
‘What physics understanding was required and what technical or engineering solutions translated this understanding into a practical solution?’
Share your thoughts here;
There are more stars in the Universe than sand grains on the entire world’s beaches
The Higgs boson was predicted by theory nearly 40 years before it was seen
Superconductivity was known about 40 years before it was properly explained by theory
The sky is blue because blue light is far more scattered by particles and molecules in the atmosphere than the other colours
Medical physicists can use radioactivity to monitor whether your kidneys are functioning correctly
The atomic clocks on the GPS satellites need to have a precision of better than 1s in several million years
