The Rutherford Trophy was awarded to Tristan O’Hanlon (Department of Physics, University of Auckland).
This trophy is awarded annually for innovation in physics education that enhances New Zealand students’ understanding of physics or participation in physics education, and shows a strong link to the teaching or practice of physics experiments.
Mr O’Hanlon is an enthusiastic and outstanding developer of practical demonstrations in physics teaching. He builds his lectures and classes around experiments that give context to the theories and laws presented – from simple tennis balls and carts, to a resonating wine glass and a liquid nitrogen bottle rocket. Tristan’s portfolio included a set of videos compiled during the COVID lockdowns using equipment scrambled together, much of it from around the house. The quality of these ad hoc videos and the associated demonstrations are such that they remain as part of his teaching toolkit at the University of Auckland, where Tristan has been a Professional Teaching Fellow in Physics since 2018 having previously taught at ACG Parnell College and St Peter’s College (Epsom). At the university, he leads the physics teacher education programme (part of the GradDipEd) where student teachers learn to use simple demonstrations as part of their pedagogy. Tristan uses his practical resources in his role as the Physics content lead of STEMOnline, and has also strongly incorporated programming skills (Python notebooks and Arduino using C++) into his teaching, facilitating training at a national level through NZIP professional development sessions.
Several of Tristan’s video demonstrations are available to view at this link.
NZIP President Prof Richard Easther presented Tristan with the award at an afternoon tea in the University of Auckland’s Department of Physics.
Tristan with close teaching colleagues Margaret Peace and Mark Conway.
