University of Leicester Open Journals
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Promoting Social Justice through Storytelling in Museums
Get PDFIn 2018 the Anthropology Museum at California State University San Bernardino (USA) opened an exhibition entitled In|Dignity. The collaborative endeavour combined social science techniques, documentary photography, and theatre performances to present first person narratives of 43 community members. Participants represented marginalized demographics and intersectional identities that extended far beyond standardized approaches to ‘diversity’. Their stories provided an intimate look into experiences of discrimination, microaggressions, harassment, exclusion, and other affronts to self-worth and barriers to community belonging. This article argues that connecting individuals through telling and listening to stories is a valid strategy to promote social justice. In|Dignity provides one case study of a museum using the narrative form and the processes of exhibition development to disrupt power hierarchies, uplift community concerns, and promote human dignity
A4_2 Life is a Highway
Get PDFIn this paper we examine the distance that an individual would travel around the Universe in their lifetime, based off of the popular song “Life is a Highway”. To do this, the distance of an Earth orbit around the Sun was calculated. Further to this, the orbit of the Solar System around the centre of the Milky Way and the movement of the Galaxy through space were also considered. The average life expectancy of a person was set to 80.7 years and, from this, the total distance a person would travel is found to be 2.12 × 10^15 km
P2_7 Underwater Hot Air Balloon
Get PDFThis paper analyses how a Bathyscaphe vessel, which uses gasoline to provide lift and weights and air tanks to lower the vessel, can travel to the bottom of the Mariana Trench and return to the surface again. When the air tanks are full, the vessel is neutrally buoyant on the surface with a density of ρ_surf = 1022 kg/m^3 . When the air tanks are flooded with water, the vessel becomes negatively buoyant, with the vessel density now equal to ρ_sink ≈ 1100 kg/m^3 , thereby causing the vessel to sink. Once it reaches the bottom, the weights are dropped which causes the vessel to become positively buoyant, with the vessel density now equal to ρ_rise ≈ 1020 kg/m^3
A1_7 Tea at Lake Windermere
Get PDFIn this article, we discuss the feasibility, most efficient and, cheapest method to make tea in lake Windermere, the largest lake in the UK. Although a very unrealistic scenario, it would be possible to brew tea in the lake but at great expense. The electricity and tea prices combined would cost about 14-34 billion pounds, depending on which teas are chosen and the method used. This leads to the conclusion that although theoretically possible, practically turning lake Windermere into a lake of tea is not feasible. It would be more realistic to pick a smaller lake in the peak district for this topic
P2_10 Leap Year? Get out of Here! Part 2
Get PDFThe aim of this paper was to determine by how much Earth’s rotation would have to slow down so that each orbital year was exactly 365 days, which would therefore remove the leap year. This was found to require the period of Earth’s rotation to decrease by 0.27% which corresponds to removing 1.1763E27 J of energy from the Earth. It was determined that this is not feasible because current energy production is insufficient, and also because we would have no mechanism of applying this force to the Earth even if we did meet the energy requirements
P1_8 Common Room Covid Costs
Get PDFWith Covid in the air, the University of Leicester have maintained a windows open policy to improve airflow. This will lead to an increased cost to heat the buildings. This paper finds the heating bill will rise by ∼4.9 times for the Physics Department common room, costing an extra ≈£5.61 per day to heat in winter
P4_5 Pandora’s Box
Get PDFIn this paper, we aim to investigate the effects of time dilation and how it affects the perception of time on the voyage to Pandora in the well-known franchise Avatar [1]. It was found that the time experienced on the Venture Star Interstellar Spaceship, travelling at a speed of 0.7c [2], was 4.71 years compared to the time experienced on Earth of 6.60 years. This meant that the ageing of the crew was 29% slower than if they had stayed on Earth
P1_10 Solar propulsion
Get PDFSolar sails and electric sails are proposed methods of spacecraft propulsion, they both use particles from the Sun to produce this thrust. But, to produce thrusts equivalent to modern ion engines (0.5 N)[4] a solar sail would need to be and an electric sail would need to have of wire, this makes both methods only practical for light spacecraft
A6_6 The AMD Heater
Get PDFIn the world of computer components, especially those designed for gamers, AMD components have always been synonymous with a long standing joke that in the past, these parts were capable of producing so much heat they could act as room heaters. In this paper, we establish whether this claim is valid, by using the power output of current generation components, and an average sized UK bedroom, among other assumptions. We determine that it would take approximately 37 minutes to heat an average sized room to 20oC from 5oC, the UK average in Winter. This means that, in this system, an AMD computer is a viable room heater, but in the real world, this is not the case due to heat loss from the room, and components not realistically able to run at maximum power indefinitely
The effects of Covid-19 on student transition from school to university in STEM subjects
Get PDFCovid‑19 restrictions affected most of the post‑16 learning experience of the students who will begin university courses in STEM in the UK in autumn 2021. Ongoing disruption to learning culminated in the cancellation of normal A-level examinations which were replaced with teacher assessments. Informal discussion with secondary school teaching colleagues reveals some possible consequences for the students’ transition to degree level study in STEM subjects. The main suggestion is that, despite the resilience that students have shown both academically and socially, there have been significant omissions from the normally studied curriculum that may affect their progress on degree courses in STEM including: lack of experimental practice and skills, lack of specific subject knowledge and lack of experience of assessment