Live polls and video summaries are making a big bang at the University of Southampton, where interactive teaching on the early universe has been honoured with an Excellence in VLE Award.

The School of Physics and Astronomy module was nominated by its students for the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) accolade, which celebrates effective online learning materials and student support.

The popularity of the course has prompted lecturers to split the content into two modules covering Cosmology and Physics of the Early Universe for the 2019/20 academic year.

The topics are available to third and fourth year students and taught by Dr Francesco Shankar and Professor Alexander Belyaev.

“We are honoured that our efforts have been awarded as one of just three prizes across the education of the whole University,” Alexander says. “I believe that the quality of teaching in Physics and Astronomy is always improving and it’s pleasing to know that our innovative methods in this fascinating and contemporary module are being welcomed by students.”

Around 50 students attended the course in 2018/19 and benefited from short 10-15 minute video summaries of lectures as well as ‘Explain everything’ videos of the topic’s complex mathematical content.

The lecturers also utilised a real-time polling app to ask the group questions during the sessions which were then answered by phone and displayed live at the front of the venue.

Comments from Physics and Astronomy students on completion of the course included: ‘Outstanding content organisation and feedback’, ‘The lecture summary videos were helpful’ and ‘The quantity of useful supporting content was on another level’.

The module content is divided across its two expert speakers, with Francesco covering cosmological principles and observables, geometry and the Friedman expansion of the universe, while Alexander teaches the Big Bang model, the early stage of universe expansion, inflation, dark matter and the concept of Big Bang nucleosynthesis.

This year saw the seventh VLE Awards hosted by the University’s Digital Learning team. Students are involved in the nominating, shortlisting and judging of the scheme, which is finalised in its latter stages with input from the University’s Associate Deans for Education and partnered online learning specialists.

An international research team led by the University of Southampton has identified several unusual properties of a hot wind’s violent outbursts around a black hole.

The astrophysicists, led by School of Physics and Astronomy Emeritus Professor Phil Charles, investigated the dense outflowing wind in Swift J1357.2-0933, an X-ray transient some 25,000 light years from earth.

The research observed ionised helium and hydrogen being emitted in bursts that repeated every eight minutes, the first time this behaviour has been seen around a black hole.

The international project, which included partners from Southampton, Oxford and South Africa, used data from the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. Researchers have published the findings in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Read the full story here.

Dozens of young scientists with bright futures were celebrated at the seventh annual Southampton Schools Physicist of the Year (SPOTY) awards.

The talented pupils were honoured by the national Ogden Trust scheme in a ceremony at the University of Southampton’s School of Physics and Astronomy, marking outstanding efforts and achievements studying physics in the city.

This summer’s event included the presentation of Discovery-level CREST (CREativity in Science and Technology) awards for children who worked on a public engagement project which connected them with Southampton’s leading dark energy and supernova research.

Forty Year 10 pupils received SPOTY awards and eight home educated students were presented CREST awards at the ceremony on Highfield Campus, supported by many teachers and family members. All prize-winners were given a certificate and gift voucher.

Dr Sadie Jones, event organiser and Outreach Leader in the School of Physics and Astronomy, said: “These awards are so important as they provide an opportunity for the young people, their teachers and family to celebrate all the hard work they have applied to their physics studies this year. It is really important that young people take a moment to reflect on their work and allow themselves to feel proud of their achievements.”

The Ogden Trust aims to increase the uptake of physics with post-16 pupils, particularly those from under-represented groups, and fully funded last month’s ceremony which included a buffet dinner.

SPOTY events also offer a taste of the university physics experience, with last month’s celebration including an explosive edition of the Accelerate! show. Southampton PhD student’s led by Alex Mitchell presented the interactive performance that explored some of the principles of particle physics.

The ceremony’s CREST award winners had taken part in the Public Engagement with Research unit (PERu) funded Dark Energy Pilot Project. The programme involved producing weekly media clips inspired by Southampton research which will now be used in future Soton Astrodome planetarium shows.

The University of Southampton is committed to delivering a wide-ranging outreach program with Key Stage activities for both students and teachers. Find out more at the School of Physics and Astronomy’s outreach and public engagement pages.