The new HSC syllabus in NSW has presented a challenge for our high schools. With declining interest in science from the pupils, and fewer science-trained teachers entering the profession, we are at a cross-roads. With the introduction of a new context-based syllabus we do have a choice before us, and it gives UNSW an opportunity to directly address the schools and see if it can help. Last year the School of Physics ran a course on the preliminary syllabus in Physics, this year it did the same for the HSC syllabus. The challenge is greater here, as the outcomes are directly examinable for the school students. Yet the syllabus itself is hard to interpret in places. Mary Beilby, Richard Newbury, Joe Wolfe and myself did our best at interpreting the compulsory modules in the new syllabus. At times we must admit to being baffled too, but perhaps that reassured the teachers - to know they were not alone!

Over two evenings in December we addressed the three modules and provided a practical session in the First Year Laboratory and in Physics on the world-wide-web. An extensive web site has now been developed which provides a resource teachers and their pupils can use as they undertake the HSC. The School also maintains an HSC bulletin board on this web site to answer questions from HSC students and teachers. However there is still a long way to go yet, and the optional modules have yet to be tackled.