Working Scientifically - A-Levels Physics
Indirect Assessment Practical Skills Appendix 5a
Question papers will assess the following student's abilities:
Practical Skills for Indirect Assessment
| Category | Developed Skills and Abilities |
|---|---|
| a) Independent thinking | • solve problems set in practical contexts • apply scientific knowledge to practical contexts |
| b) Use and application of scientific methods and practices | • comment on experimental design and evaluate scientific methods • present data in appropriate ways • evaluate results and draw conclusions with reference to measurement uncertainties and errors • identify variables including those that must be controlled |
| c) Numeracy and the application of mathematical concepts in a practical context | • plot and interpret graphs • process and analyse data using appropriate mathematical skills as exemplified in the mathematical appendix for each science • consider margins of error, accuracy and precision of data |
| d) Instruments and equipment | • know and understand how to use a wide range of experimental and practical instruments, equipment and techniques appropriate to the knowledge and understanding included in the specification |
Direct Assessment Practical Skills Appendix 5b
Practical work carried out throughout the course will enable students to develop the following skills:
Practical Skills for Direct Assessment
| Category | Developed Skills and Abilities |
|---|---|
| a) Independent thinking | • apply investigative approaches and methods to practical work |
| b) Use and apply scientific methods and practices | • safely and correctly use a range of practical equipment and materials • follow written instructions • make and record observations • keep appropriate records of experimental activities • present information and data in a scientific way • use appropriate software and tools to process data, carry out research and report findings |
| c) Research and referencing | • use online and offline research skills including websites, textbooks and other printed scientific sources of information • correctly cite sources of information |
| d) Instruments and equipment | • use a wide range of experimental and practical instruments, equipment and techniques appropriate to the knowledge and understanding included in the specification |
Use of Apparatus and Techniques Appendix 5c
Specifications for physics must give students opportunities to use relevant apparatus to develop and demonstrate these techniques.
All of the techniques listed below will be assessed through a minimum of 12 identified practical activities within each specification. These 'core' practicals must allow students to demonstrate all of the practical skills given in Appendix 5b.
Practical techniques to be gained by candidates
| No. | Practical Technique |
|---|---|
| 1. | Use appropriate analogue apparatus to record a range of measurements (to include length/distance, temperature, pressure, force, angles, volume) and to interpolate between scale markings. |
| 2. | Use appropriate digital instruments, including electrical multimeters, to obtain a range of measurements (to include time, current, voltage, resistance, mass). |
| 3. | Use methods to increase accuracy of measurements, such as timing over multiple oscillations, or use of fiducial marker, set square or plumb line. |
| 4. | Use stopwatch or light gates for timing. |
| 5. | Use calipers and micrometers for small distances, using digital or vernier scales. |
| 6. | Correctly construct circuits from circuit diagrams using DC power supplies, cells, and a range of circuit components, including those where polarity is important. |
| 7. | Design, construct and check circuits using DC power supplies, cells, and a range of circuit components. |
| 8. | Use signal generator and oscilloscope, including volts/div and time-base. |
| 9. | Generate and measure waves, using microphone and loudspeaker, or ripple tank, or vibration transducer, or microwave/radio wave source. |
| 10. | Use laser or light source to investigate characteristics of light, including interference and diffraction. |
| 11. | Use ICT such as computer modelling, or data logger with a variety of sensors to collect data, or use of software to process data. |
| 12. | Use ionising radiation, including detectors. |
Mapping between Appendix 5c and Core Practicals Appendix 5d
This qualification gives students opportunities to use relevant apparatus to develop practical skills and demonstrate competency in a range of practical techniques.
All of the techniques listed in Appendix 5c will be assessed through a series of core practical activities within this specification.
To achieve the Science Practical Endorsement, students need to show competence in the 12 practical techniques listed in Appendix 5c: Use of apparatus and techniques.
The following table shows how each core practical activity, listed in the content, maps to the required practical techniques in Appendix 5c: Use of apparatus and techniques.
Core Practicals to Practical Techniques Mapping Matrix
| Physics Core Practical | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1: Determine the acceleration of a freely-falling object | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||
| 2: Determine the electrical resistivity of a material | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| 3: Determine the e.m.f. and internal resistance of an electrical cell | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||
| 4: Use a falling-ball method to determine the viscosity of a liquid | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| 5: Determine the Young modulus of a material | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||
| 6: Determine the speed of sound in air using a 2-beam oscilloscope, signal generator, speaker and microphone | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||
| 7: Investigate the effects of length, tension and mass per unit length on the frequency of a vibrating string or wire | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||
| 8: Determine the wavelength of light from a laser or other light source using a diffraction grating | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||
| 9: Investigate the relationship between the force exerted on an object and its change of momentum | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| 10: Use ICT to analyse collisions between small spheres, e.g. ball bearings on a table top | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| 11: Use an oscilloscope or data logger to display and analyse the potential difference (p.d.) across a capacitor as it charges and discharges through a resistor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| 12: Calibrate a thermistor in a potential divider circuit as a thermostat | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||
| 13: Determine the specific latent heat of a phase change | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||
| 14: Investigate the relationship between pressure and volume of a gas at fixed temperature | ✓ | |||||||||||
| 15: Investigate the absorption of gamma radiation by lead | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||
| 16: Determine the value of an unknown mass using the resonant frequencies of the oscillation of known masses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |