Physics Excursion

On Wednesday this week our Year 11 and Year 12 VCE Physics students travelled down to Luna Park in St Kilda to take part in the annual VicPhysics hands-on learning days. Students have the opportunity to explore practical examples of concepts covered in the Unit 2 ‘Motion in one and two dimensions’ and Unit 3 ‘How fast can things go?’ sections of the study design. 

Students used data logging equipment to collect information about a variety of amusement park rides and will unpack this data to provide context for pendulums, vertical and horizontal circular motion and conical pendulums, energy transfer and conservation and basic motion calculations. Our students may also use this stimulus as a basis for future research in their student designed investigations later in the year.

“When we finally arrived, I was looking around at our group, I could see everyone was just looking around in awe at the park. Everyone was just amazed at the scale of it, and how the scenic ride was still standing after over 100 years. For me, going to the park was great because it gave me an opportunity to see real life representations of the theoretical physics I have been studying at school, and I couldn't help thinking about the physics involved in each ride. It was so much fun going on all of the rides, but for me the most fun was the pharaoh's curse. There is something fun about hanging upside down in a cage, with only a bar across your legs.” 

Sam Ryan.

A special thanks to the Campaspe Cohuna Local Learning Employment Network (CCLLEN) for generously sponsoring Rochester Secondary College so that our students had significantly subsidised costs for the excursion. The ongoing support of CCLLEN for our students and local community is always very much appreciated.