CLEAPSS Supporting Safe and Successful Classroom Physics

This course is now fully booked

Please email ioe.shortcourses@ucl.ac.uk to register your interest or join an alternative date or course.

This course assumes a basic level of experience in physics. Technicians who are completely new to supporting physics are recommended to attend the introductory physics courses before attending this course.

You'll learn about hazard identification and risk assessment with demonstrations that include the following:

• Lasers
• Microwaves
• Ionising radiations
• Heat
• Flammable liquids
• Electrical and mechanical hazards.

Who this course is for

It's aimed at secondary-school science laboratory technicians teaching Key Stage 3 and 4 (KS3 and KS4).

Course content

1. Physics Safety 

Hazard identification and risk assessment with demonstrations, including:

• Lasers
• Microwaves
• Ionising radiations
• Heat
• Flammable liquids
• Electrical and mechanical hazards.

2. Practical Workshop

Hands-on activities, with an emphasis on the work often carried out by technicians to support physics teaching.

The list below is subject to change, depending on availability of equipment: 

• Electricity, a circus of activities which includes work with extra high tension power supplies, transformers and power lines, electron beam tubes and the Van de Graaff generator
• Low voltage work including using ammeters, voltmeters and multimeters, thermistors, light dependent, resistors and electric motors, model steam engines
• Ionising radiation, how to set one up and what to look for before each use
• Waves
• Pscilloscopes and signal generators
• The Rubens tube
• Lasers and LED’s.

Teaching and structure

The course is delivered as a practical workshop.

Entry requirements

You'll need to be the science technician in your school.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, you'll have:

• Gained confidence in the support that you provide in teaching physics
• Understood hazard identification and risk assessment
• Learned new techniques to support physics teaching.

This course is now fully booked

Please email ioe.shortcourses@ucl.ac.uk to register your interest or join an alternative date or course.

About CLEAPSS

The Consortium of Local Education Authorities for the Provision of Science Services (CLEAPSS) has a membership of more than 28,000 schools and colleges, mainly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where its advice is recognised by HSE, DFE and OFSTED as representing best practice in these areas. As such, it's used by employers as the basis for them to discharge their responsibilities under the H&S at work act, 1999.