Frequently Asked Questions

Each module includes a mixture of written information, videos, questions and activities. 

The course starts on Monday 4 March. You will receive an email with a link to the masterclass at around 10am.  All of the modules will be live from this point, so you can work through the course at your own pace. 

We will assign the Isaac Physics questions for each module weekly, but they are also available through the website and will still count towards your certificate if you want to access them earlier.  

The course runs until Friday 19 April. Webinars will take place in the first four weeks, but the question forum will remain open to enable you to work through at your own pace. However, note that the question forum will be closed for one week for Easter, closing on Friday 29 March and reopening on Monday 8 April.  

In order to receive a certificate, all Isaac Physics questions must be completed by the end of Sunday 21 April 2024. 

There will be around three to five hours worth of content per week if you watch/read all the content and complete all of the activities/questions. 

You will be sent an email at around 10am on Monday 4 March with a link to the course. You will also receive reminder emails each week that the course runs for. If you have not received these emails, make sure to check your spam folder and ensure that the email address you have signed up to Isaac Physics with is correct.   

Much of the course can be accessed on a phone or tablet, although a PC or laptop will certainly help if you have access to one. Options are given for using Excel or (free) Google Sheets where appropriate, so none of the core activities need specialised software. 

The Online Nuclear Masterclass is delivered by leading experts from all over the world. 

You will be eligible for a certificate by completing all the core parts of the course before the end of Sunday 21 April 2024.

A list of the core activities is given at the top of each module page, and you will find questions labelled with an Isaac Physics icon and activities labelled with a paper/pen icon. Anything that is optional will be indicated.

You will need to sign in to Isaac Physics when completing the questions. You do not need to get every question correct to receive a certificate, but we will be looking for clear engagement across all activities. 

The webinars will take place on from 6.30pm - 7.30pm on:

• Wednesday 6 March

• Wednesday 13 March

• Wednesday 20 March

• Wednesday 27 March

The webinars are also being recorded and will be available after the event. 

If you are watching from outside the country, please note that all timings are given for GMT.

A joining link will be sent to you by email on the Monday before each webinar, and again an hour before the webinar starts. Please do not share this link on social media or forward the email to anyone.

All of the webinars are hosted using Zoom. You don't need to have an account, but you may need to download an app, depending on the device you are using.  

The webinars are run through Zoom. You may need to download the app onto your phone/tablet/computer, but you should not need to create an account. 

Yes! Security measures include:  

• All webinars are password protected (embedded in the link that you will be emailed). 

• Links will not be shared on social media.

• Zoom’s ‘attendance tracking’ feature has been disabled.

• Zoom webinars are protected against interception to and from the Zoom servers and, as the Nuclear Physics Masterclass is a public event, we are not worried about the risk of Zoom or the US Government eavesdropping on the event. 

• The Zoom software is kept up to date to ensure that any security issues identified are remedied as soon as patches are available.  

• Zoom has removed the Facebook software kit in their iOS app to prevent Facebook from accessing user data.  

Only the presenters will be visible on-screen. Your camera and microphone will remain switched off throughout the event and you will not be able to turn them on. However, you will be able to ask questions by typing them in the Q&A box.   

Speakers from around the world will be presenting at these webinars. Each webinar will include a short presentation, followed by the opportunity for you to ask questions.   

The webinars will be recorded and made available after the event. However, please allow up to a week for the webinar to be posted.

Please note that if you are not watching live, you will not be able to ask questions.

During the webinar, there is a ‘Q&A’ button on screen. You will be able to type questions into this, which will be sent to the expert panel. They will then select questions to answer live. 

If there are too many questions to cover during the webinar, we would encourage you to submit them through the Question Forum instead.  

You can ask questions using our Question Forum, which will be live from Monday 4 March 2024. If you are using a phone to access the page, clicking on 'ask your question' will take you to a new page where you will need to click '+?' to be able to ask your question.  

You will be asked to give your name when you first post a question - please only use your first name. The question forum will remember this name when you ask further questions on the same device (phone/tablet/laptop etc).  

You can post a question at any time, but we will be answering questions on weekdays between 4pm - 5pm from Monday 4 March 2024 - Thursday 28 March 2024, and again from Monday 8 April 2024 - Friday 19 April 2024.  

All questions will be visible on the website, so please only use your first name when posting the question and don’t post any personal information. However, the questions are moderated, which means that we will need to approve them before they go live so don't worry if you can't see your question straight away.  

If there is an issue that you need to discuss privately, please email physics-bindingblocks@york.ac.uk.  

All questions have to be approved by a moderator before they will appear on the website. At evenings and weekends, this may take a little while. Don't worry - we are still looking at your question, and you will receive an answer shortly.   

You will see when there is a reply to your question because a box saying 'answered' will appear next to it.  Click on this to see the reply.  You can then ask a follow-up question if you would like.  However, if your question is on a different topic, we recommend starting a new question so that it can be assigned to the person best placed to answer it.  

If the question forum is busy, you might want to make a note of what time you asked your question. You will then be able to scroll back to find it in the list.  If you are using the same device (phone/tablet/laptop etc), you should also be able to find your questions by clicking 'ME' at the bottom of the page.  

There are a range of different activities including questions, calculations, and data modelling using a range of different techniques. You will need to read the content on the web pages and watch the videos to enable you to complete these activities. A list of the activities in each module is included at the top of the module page.  

All of the questions use the Isaac Physics platform.

All the videos featured in the masterclass include subtitles, that you can enable if you wish to do so. If you want to view the transcript for the video, then you need to open the video in your browser on YouTube. Then, if you click on the video's description, at the bottom there will be a button "Show Transcript" that will then display a transcript in time with the video. 

If you have any problems accessing the subtitles or transcripts of the videos, or have any additional accessibility requirements, please get in touch as physics-bindingblocks@york.ac.uk.

Isaac Physics is an online platform that aims to encourage insight and understanding of GCSE and A-level/IB physics through problem-solving. There is a huge bank of self-marking practice and problem-solving questions.  

We are using the Isaac Physics platform for all of the questions within the Nuclear Physics Masterclass. To access the masterclass, you will need to have registered with Isaac Physics.  

You can create a free Isaac Physics account by clicking on 'SIGN UP' at the top of the page at isaacphysics.org. 

As long as you are logged in, you will be able to see which questions you have already attempted and which you have completed correctly. 

When logged in, you can also go to 'My Isaac' >>> 'My Assignments'. Any questions you have not yet completed will be listed under 'Assignments To Do', with any you have finished listed under 'Completed Assignments'. 

Yes! You are welcome to attempt the questions as many times as you like - we only see whether you have attempted the question and whether you have it correct, not how many attempts you have made.  

Some of the questions have 'Hints' that you may find useful. We would also encourage you to ask for help on the Question Forum.  

We are not expecting you to have 100% across all of the questions. We are looking for you to make a good attempt at everything and to ask for help when you need it.   

Standard form can be written as, for example:

• 7.6x10-12 is written as 7.6x10^(-12)

Note, there are no spaces between any of the figures.

Read the privacy statement explaining how we use your data. 

You can ask a question through the Question Forum (live from 4 March 2024) or email physics-bindingblocks@york.ac.uk.