The School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics at Newcastle University and NUSTEM at Northumbria are pleased to host the School Physicist Of The Year Awards, proudly sponsored by the Ogden Trust, to celebrate the talent of exceptional physics students from across the region. Across the UK, 25 School Physicist of the Year events take place annually, with more than 600 students recognised for their achievement and effort in physics, including many Year 6 primary students.

Congratulations to all of this year’s amazing 28 SPOTY nominees across the region! You have shown great improvement, enthusiasm and overcame difficult times to achieve success in Physics

Commendations from teachers and more info about SPOTY can be found on the SPOTY page.

Every year, the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics run a Challenge and Senior Challenge for students in Year 8 and below and Year 10 and below.

Entrants complete a series of challenging and fun problems over February half-term and either return them to us directly or via their teacher at school. Problems are sent out to local schools in late January and are also released on the Maths Challenge page (link below). Some of the questions might involve some investigation and problem solving.

The best entrants, along with teachers, family and friends are invited to a prize-giving evening at Newcastle University.

For more information go to the Maths Challenge page.

The "WISDOM: Women In Science Doing Outstanding Maths (and Physics)" virtual careers event is now open online!

We have personal video profiles from 30+ women using Maths and Physics every day in their roles, describing their journey, and how Maths and Physics helps in their roles. The event is aimed at engaging year 9/10 girls in Maths and Physics but all students who might be interested are encouraged to take part. Students, teachers and parents can ask questions to each of our featured women, responses (video or written) will be posted in early August and participants can sign up to receive updates.

The website includes the following elements:

• Personal Profiles (in the form of short videos or written material) from
  • Women from STEM Industry
  • Undergraduate Students
  • Postgraduate Students
  • Academic Staff from Maths, Stats & Physics
  • Academic Staff from outside Maths, Stats & Physics
• Engagement talks (approx. 10 mins each)
  • Cora Uhlemann (Lecturer in Applied Maths)
    • “The Skeleton of our Universe”
  • Matina Trachana (Pure Maths PhD Student)
    • “The Reality of Imaginary Numbers”
  • Laura Thornley (Statistician, Northern Gas)
    • “Statistics in the Gas Industry”

• Additional Resources

We hope that the personal profiles from women in industry and academia will provide an opportunity for participants to ‘meet’ a range of women from different jobs that all involve some Maths and/or Physics.

The website will be live in interactive mode for 3 weeks (6^th July – 24^th July), during this time below each profile/talk participants can enter a question. These will be collated and answered (either in written or video form) and we plan to make the answers available on the website for the participants to return and review from 3^rd August. The website will remain once the interactive period is over for use as a careers/classroom resource by teachers, parents and students.

Click here to enter the WISDOM 2020 website and ’meet’ our inspirational women. Please also feel free to tell any friends/family/colleagues that you think will be interested to do the same! The more interaction we have on the site the better it will be!

If you have any queries, please contact Kate Henderson or Paul Branch.

The Year 10 Conference is not running in 2020 but we hope to return in 2021.

The conference is aimed at encouraging pupils to continue studying mathematics at A Level.

2019 talks included:

• The Storm of the Century! - Dr Lee Fawcett (Royal Statistical Society (RSS) Guy Lecturer)
• PhD Research Showcase

Previous speakers have included Professor Robin Johnson (Newcastle University), Dr Lee Fawcett (Newcastle University), Dr Paul Baxter (Royal Statistical Society (RSS) Guy Lecturer) and Professor Philip Moriarty (Nottingham University).

Ordinarily the event takes place on a Wednesday afternoon and teachers sign up to bring groups of students to the event.

Every year, the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics run a Challenge and Senior Challenge for students in Year 8 and below and Year 10 and below.

Entrants complete a series of challenging and fun problems over February half-term and either return them to us directly or via their teacher at school. Problems are sent out to local schools in late January and are also released on the Maths Challenge page (link below). Some of the questions might involve some investigation and problem solving.

The best entrants, along with teachers, family and friends are invited to a prize-giving evening at Newcastle University.

For more information go to the Maths Challenge page.

To ease the transition between the content expectations of GCSE and A level physics, we will be holding an enrichment event in the summer term 2019.

This event will be open to year 11 students who have just completed their GCSEs and are looking to commence their studies in physics at A level in September 2019.

The week will support the main content listed in the A level syllabus, and is taught by our world leading physics academics.

The taught sessions will be supported by sessions in our highly equipped laboratories, giving students the opportunity to:

• develop laboratory skills
• learn to use scientific equipment
• gain a deeper understanding of scientific principles.

Seminars showcasing cutting edge research in physics and the possibilities available for the study of physics to degree level and beyond will also feature.

The event is free to attendees, and includes food and drink during the sessions.

Spaces will be limited to maximise the student experience. Details of how to apply will be available here soon.

The School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics at Newcastle University each year team up with Maths Inspiration to co-host the annual event at the Northern Stage.

Maths Inspiration is a national programme of interactive maths lecture shows for teenagers. It gives 14-17 year olds a chance to experience the UK's most inspiring maths speakers live in theatres. These speakers present mathematics in the context of exciting, real-world applications.

All shows have three interactive talks, an interval and a lively Q and A session at the end. Many of the shows feature mathematicians, engineers and physicists. This an ideal STEM outing for your school that can also open your students' eyes to careers they may not have considered before.

The event took place on Tuesday 28 January 2020 and was very well received, with excellent feedback from those who attended:

Thank you so much for yesterday's event - our students loved it and found all speakers to be really engaging. We would certainly love to come back next year....

Gosforth Academy

We love the show, it is very well done and very professional. The pupils loved it too...Thank you for all your efforts.

Yarm School

We really enjoyed the show. Many thanks for organising such a great event to inspire and enthuse our mathematicians.

Newcastle Sixth Form College

We intend to co-host Maths Inspiration in future when possible, for more information please go to the  Maths Inspiration website.

The School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics each year offer Taster Days for Year 12/13 students to give an insight into what life is like for a Mathematics student or member of staff at Newcastle University. These are not likely to take place in 2020-21 but we aim to run them again in 2021-22.

 

The Taster Days are typically held in May and include:

• observing academic lectures
• a careers and UCAS session
• a campus tour,
• a subsidised lunch with undergraduate students
• observing an academic research seminar
• a computing session,
• meeting an academic member of staff and a postgraduate

Each of the days take a slightly different form depending on the activities available in the school that day. But all attendees should get a flavour of life in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics at Newcastle University.

Each year as year 12 students begin engaging with the UCAS process we offer a one hour visit from two of our Stage 1 undergraduate Maths and Physics students.

The student visit consists of a 20-30 minute talk about Maths and Physics degrees (both generally and specifically at Newcastle University) and plenty of time for your year 12 students to ask any questions they might have about degree choices and/or uni life.

The student drop-ins usually take place in mid-June (subject to student availability).

We hope to continue to provide such visits in future but for the year 2019-20 these visits will not run.

This scheme was developed to provide A-Level students in Local Widening participation Schools with the opportunity to fulfil their potential and expand their horizons. It is hoped that it will inspire confidence and lead to students wishing to study Physics at Undergraduate level by providing access to excellent laboratory facilities and academic expertise

The scheme allows students from local schools to be given the opportunity to perform the required A-Level experiments here at Newcastle University. The scheme is open to schools which would fall into the Widening Participation category and others who do not have access to the required equipment.

There will be no charge for the scheme from the University, but the school is expected to oversee the transport of students to and from the University, and to make any charges for this which they would normally do. Experiments are to be carried out within school hours, as this makes it very much easier to organise on both sides, and a teacher is expected to be present and to lead the session.

Sessions are scheduled on Wednesday afternoons to minimise disruption to the University and the school. Six sets of each experiment will be available.

Students will be encouraged to work in pairs, and to collect data to take away with them. A member of University staff will be present together with a technician and undergraduate student mentors. University staff will not lead the sessions, but will offer insight into the experiment or results obtained.

Any relevant questions about the University are encouraged and our degree programs and entry routes will be discussed. It is hoped that contact with staff and students from the University will be beneficial both to the school students and the teachers.

To register, please complete this form.