| Science of Magic | |
Psychology/Biology content Students should be able to : |
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| - explain how the brain may interpret its environment differently to what is real using examples such as change blindness and misdirection.. | Click |
| - give examples of how eyewitnesses may not always be reliable using change blindness and inattentional blindness to argue their case. | Click |
| - using McGurk's illusion as an example, explain how the brain uses multisensory inputs to create the final reality. | Click |
| - with the use of examples, explain what is an afterimage and neural adaptation | Click |
| - conduct a brain dissection and identify regions of the brain | Click |
| - identify parts of a nerve cell and explain how nerve cells communicate with each other through chemicals called neurotransmitters. | Click |
| - conduct an eye dissection and identify the different parts of the eye | Click |
| - explain how the two types of nerve cells in the eye, namely the rods and cones, differ in function and discuss their distribution within the retina. | Click |
| - explain how we can now map the brain activity using MRI and EEG and be able to describe how the two differ. | Click |
| - explain how an MRI is created and how an image depicts the density of water within the tissues. | Click |
| - describe hydrogen as the simplest atom composed of a proton with a positive charge and an electron with a negative charge. | |
Light content |
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| - explain how light bends as it travels at different speeds through different mediums of varying density and properties. | Click |
| - describe the term refractive index and use this to explain how light behaves as it passes through objects with different refractive properties. | Click |
| - perform one magic trick, such as the invisible glass, and be able to explain the illusion in terms of the refractive index differences between the mediums through which light passes. | Click |
| - describe the difference between virtual and real images. | |
| - explain, with ray diagrams, how concave mirrors can be used to perform illusions, such as the pig illusion. | Click |
| - locate an image, using ray diagrams, of an object in both a concave and convex mirror. | Click |
| - describe, using one example such as glare, the difference between natural light and polarised light | |
| - define the term total internal reflection and use it to explain at least one illusion, such as the disappearing coin trick. | Click |
| - explain how light can be trapped in glass tubes and columns of water such as the water display at Crown Casino Melbourne. | |
| - describe how 3D images are generated using 3D glasses | Click |
| - describe ways in which humans perceive depth of vision | Click |
Chemistry content |
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| - describe a number of different types of reactions such as , redox, acid/base and combustion that take place during a magic trick. For example reactions taking place in a battery are redox as is rusting of iron. While the reaction between baking powder and citric acid used in cooking is an acid base reaction. | Click |
| - explain the reactions taking place during the Red Rag and the magic wine bar and write word equations to describe each reaction | |
| - describe acid/base reactions as transfer of protons or H ions. | Click |
| - describe the nature of redox reactions as transfer of electrons. | |
| - describe combustion reactions as heat releasing reactions that involve oxygen gas | |
| - define an alloy as a mixture of a metal and one or more different elements and give an example of one that was made in class | Click |
| - describe, with reference to steel, how the properties of a metal can be altered by introducing another element. | Click |
| - perform a range of chemical magic tricks and categorise each reaction as redox, acid/base or combustion using balanced chemical equations to show reactants and products | Click |
| - define a base as a proton (H+) acceptor and an acid as a proton donor when placed in water acids will form H3O+ ions while bases form OH- ions | Click |
| - describe an acidic solution as having more H3O+ ions than OH- ions while a basic solution has more OH- ions than H3O+ ions | |
| - define pH as a measure of the proton, or H3O+ content of a solution | Click |
| - measure the pH of a solution using universal indicator or pH sensors and identify a solution as acidic or basic. | |
| - generate carbon dioxide using an acid and a carbonate and use it in a magic trick to demonstrate properties of carbon dioxide such as, denser than air, colourless and dose not support combustion. The student should be able to write a balanced chemical equation for this reaction and in doing so explain that no mass is lost or gained, by counting the number of atoms of each element on each side of the equation, just atoms are rearranged to form new substances, such as carbon dioxide. | Click |
| - define a catalyst as a substance that increases the rate of a specific reaction but is itself not used up and identify one magic trick that uses a catalyst to speed the reaction, such as the Genie in a Bottle trick | Click |
Electricity |
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| - describe the difference between static electricity and current. | |
| - describe different charged particles, such as electrons and ions and define electric current as the flow of charged particles | |
| - outline the structure of metals that make them good conductors of electricity, using the terms positive ions and delocalised electrons | |
| - describe batteries as chemical containers where redox reactions, as mentioned above, take place to produce a flow of electrons in an external circuit | |
| - describe the difference between an open circuit and a closed circuit and its influence on current flow | |
| - define the term resistance and use it to explain electron movement through metal and insulating substances such as plastic. | |
| - explain how a generator works in producing a current when coils of wire are placed in a changing magnetic field | Click |
| - recall Faraday's law and Lenz's law and use both of these to explain how a strong magnet is slowed down as it falls through a non-magnetic metal pipe such as a copper or aluminium pipe. | Click |
| - conduct a magic trick involving static electricity using the Van De Graaff generator and another involving an electric circuit. | |
| - define induced polarity and use it to explain the magic octopus trick | Click |
| - explain the difference between parallel and series circuits | Click |
| - construct a simple circuit using a soldering iron and explain how charge flows through this circuit using the terms, electron, switch, current and voltage. | |
Investigations |
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| - present data in an appropriate form using tables and graphs | |
| - form a hypothesis and design an investigation to test it | |
| - recall that the dependent variable is what changes and is measured during and investigation and offer an example | |
| - recall that the independent variable is what is changed during the investigation by the researcher to see how the dependent variable changes. Students should offer one example such as, in an investigation to see how stress affects heart rate the dependent variable is the heart rate and the independent variable is the stress to which a subject is exposed to. Stress is directly manipulated to see how the heart rate changes. | |
| - create graphs with the dependent variable on the y-axis and the independent variable on the x-axis | |
| - conduct at least one investigation clearly formulating a hypothesis and identifying the dependent and independent variables |