Its IA time again at RCN and my lab is piled high with apparatus. At the start of the process I tried to encourage students to put their equipment away but I lost the battle and am now going with the flow. Luckily I don't share my lab with anyone and second years have finished so it's nt affecting anyone else.

The majority of students are finding the practical stage a lot of fun, enjoying turning their initial vague ideas into concrete reality. There are some very interesting investigations going on. In this photo we have

• Harald, building a lever arm to launch projectiles.
• Ayca, interfering sound waves.
• Jacinto, on the length of pendulums in a pendulum wave
• Pam, refracting waves in a ripple tank

Not in the photo but same class

• Nils, rate of cooling and surface area.
• Oliver, induction braking.
• Mirian, little balls rolling off big balls
• Alastair, attenuation and angle of entry of light in an optical fibre.