Last week Churchill was the host venue for two Isaac Physics residential boot camps. In total 295 Year12 and 13 students from widening participation backgrounds across England attended the two-day camps.
Under the guidance of experienced teachers, Churchill student volunteers and members of the Isaac Physics team, students practised the physics concepts needed to raise their school physics exam grades.
These free residential camps, which ran from 6—8 January at Churchill College, focused on an intense workout of key physics concepts and were aimed at students specifically from widening participation backgrounds studying in state-maintained schools or colleges in England.
Accommodation at Churchill for participants was provided for free by the project and funding has been made available for travel to the event.
Isaac Physics is co-directed by Churchill’s Director of Studies in Physics, Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright. Commenting on this new initiative she said:
“We are delighted with the students’ participation and engagement. We hope that these 48 hours will initiate a continued interaction with Isaac Physics going forward that will really help them to succeed.”
In addition to hosting the event, the College also encouraged its students to participate. Churchill undergraduate and camp volunteer Xanthe Malcolm said of his experience:
“I really enjoyed helping at the Isaac Physics Bootcamp. It was great to see such high attendance and really rewarding to watch the students grow in confidence as they tackled more questions on a wide range of topics.”
While another Churchill undergraduate, Kieren Heal said:
“It’s been an extremely busy two camps but hopefully the students seemed to find it really useful so it means all the running around was worth it.”
Isaac Physics believes that insight and understanding comes through doing physics, in particular, solving problems. Their website and events are designed to offer support and activities in physics problem solving to teachers and to students transitioning from GCSE (Y11), through to Sixth Form (Y12 & 13), to university. Their resources and events are designed to provide students with an additional arena in which to develop the skills required to solve physical problems.
