Stephen Hawking Physics Project at San Andrea School

The idea of the Stephen Hawking Physics Project as an educational initiative held at San Andrea Senior School during the 2001-02 scholastic year had long been lingering in my mind since I first read about Professor Hawking's achievements and his admirable determination to overcome all odds to reach his goal. His book A Brief History of Time gives a new understanding not only of life around us, but also of the whole universe.

Hawking is a cosmologist and a relativist, that is, a scientist who studies the universe and a scientist who uses Einstein's Theories of Relativity. Together with Roger Penrose, Hawking is famous for showing, by the use of Einstein's General Relativity Theory, that the classical concept of time and space must have after all begun at the Big Bang and that therefore the Universe must at one time have existed in a hot, dense state. Also, together they implied that space and time would end in black holes.

Among many other discoveries, Hawking even discovered that black holes were not really black after all, they radiate a thermal spectrum like other thermodynamic bodies and will eventually end their lives in a colossal, gigantic explosion. This radiation was called after him, the Hawking Radiation. He also discovered that they possess a temperature proportional to their surface gravity.

His No Boundary Proposal is a model of an early universe. It is very ironic that while many scientific discoveries are verified by laboratory experimentation, some of Professor Hawking's discoveries about the Universe will probably take many years to verify.

When Hawking was still in his third year at Oxford reading Mathematics, shortly after his 21st birthday, he was diagnosed with a rare motor neuron disease. His case was an atypical one and the situation would unfortunately get worse. In his own words, the realisation that he had an incurable decease that was likely to kill him was a bit of a shock.

"But shortly after I came out of hospital, I dreamt that I was going to be executed," he continues. "I suddenly realised that there were a lot of worthwhile things I could do if I were reprieved."

His eventual engagement to Jane Wilde changed his life. "It gave me something to live for," he says. He has had this motor disease practically all his adult life.

"Yet," he says, "it has not prevented me from having a very attractive family and being successful in my work. This is thanks to the help I have received from Jane, my children, and a large number of people and organisations."

His speech started getting slurred, until in 1985 he had a tracheostomy operation and could consequently not speak any more. For a time the only way to communicate his ideas was to spell out words by raising his eyebrow when someone pointed the letters to him. Eventually computer experts managed to work out special computer systems that now enable him to communicate mere freely with others and write books, scientific papers and lectures.

Although he is today confined to a wheelchair, the enormous physical setbacks and difficulties do not hamper him from pushing on with his studies and research so that he managed to stun the scientific world with spectacular discoveries.

Basically, the Stephen Hawking Physics Project at San Andrea Senior School is aimed at helping our students understand that Physics is not just a subject to study and get certification in, but should be an interesting area of understanding to help visualise better the technological world around us.

Ideally, students have to understand as early as possible that Technology is essentially an application of Physics, Mathematics, and scientific and other knowledge in general. All knowledge learnt at school is meant to help them live a better life, have a better future and be in a position to affect those changes in society that result in progress. The sooner that feeling is absorbed by our students, the better it is for them in preparation for this.

Therefore, the whole idea of the project is simply an initiative to make students understand that Physics is a build-up of knowledge of the laws of nature in the whole universe, and the application of this understanding by humanity in an endeavour to make constant little changes to live a better life. The figure of Stephen Hawking, his attitude towards dedicated research, study, investigation, exciting discovery and courage has been constantly used to help students leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of discovery, learning and eventually its application.

With these ideas in mind, the project was organised at San Andrea Senior School with the following objectives in mind:

* to trigger and increase in the student at a very young age an interest to discover the physical principles and laws that govern the world around us;

* to encourage and build such skills as researching an assigned topic and its understanding, analysis, public presentation, discussion, group work, etc.

* to be an opportunity in discovery learning;

* to introduce and prepare our students in disciplined learning systems that will eventually be encountered later on in this area of education;

* to be in line with the spirit of the National Minimum Curriculum.

The programme was a compulsory event made available to all Grade 11 Physics students. They were asked to work in groups and present work in the following three areas of assessment:

A written and researched assignment preferably based on a set topic of the certification syllabus. Each student presented a file showing the amount, and level of his or her research.

A seminar or public viva voce presentation on the topic. The presentation was eventually used not only to test the comprehension and preparation of the topic chosen, but also as a very practical and useful way to share acquired information.

The use of visual aids, AV resources, 3-D models, experiments and all other means to show their understanding of the chosen topic.

The seminars and Physics discussions were held as an extracurricular activity during the midday break and on Saturday mornings. The whole project carried 20 per cent of the final examination mark in Physics. The seminar and the presentation itself, including any visual aids, carried half the allotted marks. After discussions with the school administration, it was decided that the final presentation would be done in the presence of the parents themselves. The headmaster, Evan DeBrincat, generously offered that the group getting the highest number of marks would be presented with a return ticket for an educational visit to England. It was consequently decided that the climax of such a visit would tentatively be a visit to Professor Hawking himself.

It was initially thought of choosing the titles for each group, so that each would not diverge much from the O-level syllabus. All through the project we found the constant encouragement of Charles Sammut, the Physics Executive Officer at the Education Department, who suggested that a free hand be given to students to expand on their chosen topics rather than restrict them with obvious syllabus limitations.

This meant allowing everyone a free hand to choose any Physics topic of his or her liking. Each subject and title chosen was first discussed at length with me so that there would be no repetition, and each would be on the right track.

The topics chosen by the students were:

The Solar System and the Universe; Waves: emission and absorption of radiant energy; Light and lenses; The Electromagnetic Spectrum; Waves and Sound; Sound and strings; Heat: Efficiency of electrical heaters; Principle of conservation of Energy; Time and Gravity, and The Earth and the Universe: Satellites.

The students were encouraged to be disciplined, practical, original yet adventurous in their treatment of the chosen topic. The cross-linking of Physics with other such areas as technology applications, computer soft-ware and technical design was inevitable in many cases.

A short list was prepared so that the selected final projects would be presented during a parents' meeting on May 22. The Saturday presentations proved to be very interesting sessions resulting in fruitful discussions. The group obtaining the highest number of marks was made up of Roxanne Vella, Gorana Pecotic and Jasmine Azzopardi.

The educational visit to England, held last month, included a visit to the Museums of Science and Natural History, a visit to a specialised exhibition of plastination in anatomy at the Body Worlds, and a visit to Telford's Ironbridge Gorge and Blists Hill Open Air Museum as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution.

Although it was not an easy task, our group also managed to have a brief meeting with Professor Hawking himself at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in Cambridge.

Previous correspondence had kept Hawking informed of the progress of the Physics project at San Andrea, so that during the unforgettable encounter he was glad to receive the group and the winning team. It was an unforgettable encounter and it was a joy listening to him exclaim, through his computer, "I am glad to be useful to Science in Malta".

In spite of his motor neurone decease, Stephen Hawking has been able to stimulate debate not only among his peers, but more importantly "he is also a world ambassador for science".

This first experience of the Physics project that carries his name at San Andrea Senior School, has shown that more hard work has to be put into such initiatives in the future since much benefit can be reaped from them. It is now a perennial activity at the school.

The understanding of what goes on beyond the school's main door, that is what technological understanding is expected for example in society and in industry, would be the ideal achievement and goal of the whole project. In this world of technological progress, it is imperative to make an effort to put science subjects in their proper perspective for humanity. We must not keep presenting science subjects as an O-level that must be pocketed as a requirement for entry into Junior College or Sixth Form.

Unfortunately this appears to have become a necessary evil that hampers the enjoyment of science and learning through discovery, or even learning through a hands-on activity.

My long experience in industry has taught me that the sooner the relationship between science subjects taught at school, and understanding technology, is grasped, the better it is for the individual and for our society in general.

Mr Borg is a teacher of Physics at San Andrea Senior School.