PHYSICS
Course Description
This college preparatory course is de4signed to acquaint students with the methods and ideas used
by physicists to describe the physical world. With emphasis on laboratory investigation, the basic
principles of motion, forces, energy, optics and light, electricity, magnetism, and atomic and nuclear
physics will be studied. Mathematics will be used in laboratory data analysis, and for the solution of
problems. Project work is an integral part of the course.
1. Science as Inquiry
Science 9-12 Standard 1 Objectives
As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students will develop the following understandings:
Distinguish those observations that are relevant to the question or problem at hand.
Formulate testable questions, and generate explanations using the results of predictions.
Use a range of exploratory techniques, e.g., experiments, information/literature searches, data
logging, research and development, etc.
Make decisions about the range and number of independent variables, and how to control
other variables in designing experiments.
Select and use the appropriate tools to measure variables.
Select appropriate methods of recording, analyzing and interpreting data.
Accurately use scientific and technological nomenclature, symbols, and conventions when
representing and communicating ideas, procedures and findings.
Select appropriate means for representing, communicating and defending a scientific and
technological argument.
Question interpretations or conclusions for which there is insufficient supporting evidence,
and recognize that any conclusion can be challenged by further evidence.
Formulate further testable hypotheses based on the knowledge and understanding generated.
Interpret data in the light of experimental findings, and appropriate scientific and
technological knowledge and understanding.
Generalize and incorporate the results of individual experiments into established models.
2. Science and Technology
Science 9-12 Standard 2 Objectives
As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students will develop the following understandings:
Analyze benefits, cost effectiveness and consequences involved in using technologies or
resources of the environment.
Analyze how the introduction of new technology has affected or could affect human activity.
Recognize the technological innovations may produce unanticipated problems on their own.
Recognize that science and technology often develop faster than society can comprehend their
ethical implications.
Implement a technological design to solve a problem.
Discuss how new technology has modified scientific understanding.
3. Natures and History of Science
Science 9-12 Standard 3 Objectives
As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students will develop the following understandings:
Investigate and interpret appropriate historical events that led to the scientific ideas studied in
this course.
Recognize that changes in science usually occur as small modifications in existing
knowledge, and result in incremental advances in our understanding of the world, and our
ability to meet human needs and aspirations.
Identify and describe key factors that affect the development and acceptance of scientific
thought.
Describe how scientific innovations can challenge accepted ideas.
Illustrate how individuals and teams contributed to scientific advancements.
Identify the criteria, which must be met by scientific explanations.
4. Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Science 9-12 Standard 4 Objectives
As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students will develop the following understandings:
Apply scientific thought processes of skepticism, empiricism, objectivity and logic to
personal and social issues.
Apply a scientific method to the solution of personal and social issues.
Identify and describe the basic processes of the natural ecosystems and how humans affect
these processes.
5. Course Content Objectives
Goal I – Methods of Science and Measurement
Students will learn that scientists have developed procedures and methods of measurements, in order
to obtain accurate information about observed phenomena.
Objectives:
As a result of activities in Physics, all students will develop the following understandings:
1. Discuss some of the methods and activities by which scientists study the physical world.
2. Describe the role of measurement in obtaining precise information about the physical
world.
3. Measure length, mass and time.
4. Manipulate measured quantities mathematically. Use scientific notation, algebra,
geometry, and trigonometry in the solution of problems.
5. Learn how to measure mass and weight.
6. Distinguish between mass and weight.
7. Design and conduct an investigation using the scientific method.
8. Use basic measurement instruments, such as meter stick, stop watch, recording timer,
balance, etc.
9. Use significant figures.
10. Use order of magnitude approximations to obtain “acceptable” range for answers. (Is
this?
answer reasonable?)
11. Interpret data and results of an experiment and make generalizations.
12. Identify sources of error and/or unexpected results in an experiment.
13. Calculate percentage error for the results of an experiment.
14. Understand safety procedures related to the physics lab.
Goal II – force, Motion and Energy
Students will learn that energy often takes the form of matter in motion, and forces affect the motion
of objects. Energy and mass are interchangeable and follow the laws of conservation.
Objectives:
As a result of activities in Physics, all students will develop the following understandings:
1. Represent forces and motion by vectors.
2. Obtain the combined effect of two or more vectors acting upon the same point of a body.
3. Apply basic geometry knowledge in resolving vectors into perpendicular components.
4. Describe and analyze the motion of a body moving in a straight line or on a plane.
5. Construct a free-body diagram of the forces acting on an object or a system.
6. Apply Newton’s three laws of motion, which describe how forces affect motion.
7. Describe the limitations of Newton’s Laws and the role of Einstein’s theory of relativity
in dealing with those limitations.
8. Describe how forces do work, and transfer energy and develop power.
9. Explain the role of friction in affecting motion.
10. Describe the relationship between the work input and the work output, and efficiency in a
simple machine.
11. Compute work, energy, and power
12. Apply the principles of conservation of mass, energy, and momentum.
13. Represent the relationships between physical concepts using graphs.
14. Interpret the physical meaning of slope and area in a line graph of distance, velocity and
acceleration versus time.
15. Visualize the solution of problems by resorting to the use of models.
Goal III – Wave Motion, Sound and Light
Students will learn that wave motion is a method of transmitting energy, which can be either
mechanical or electromagnetic. Regardless of the type, waves exhibit certain predictable behaviors
characterized by wavelength, period and frequency.
Objectives:
As a result of activities in Physics, all students will develop the following understandings:
1. Describe reflection, refraction, interference, diffraction and polarization.
2. Give examples of the importance of resonance.
3. Describe the behavior of light waves, and the mathematics involved.
4. Describe how a prism separates white light into its component colors.
5. Describe how mirrors and lenses form images.
6. Make measurements of the wavelengths of different colored light.
7. Discuss the wave-particle nature of light.
8. Draw lens and mirror diagrams that show where, and what kind of image is formed.
Goal IV – Thermodynamics and the Structure of Matter
Students will learn that heat is a form of energy, and may be converted into work. The changes that
happen to matter because of absorption, or release of heat, give use clues as to the structure and
composition of matter.
Objectives:
As a result of activities in Physics, all students will develop the following understandings:
1. Differentiate between temperature and heat.
2. Measure temperature and heat.
3. Describe that a substance could either change its temperature, or its state when heat is
added or removed.
4. Describe entropy and the transfer of heat from hotter to cooler objects.
5. Describe the states of matter.
6. Review the kinetic theory of gases.
7. Use the definition of specific heat and latent heat, to understand the transformations in
the states of matter, and its relationship to change in temperature.
8. Compare specific heat constants.
9. Analyze graphs related to heat and gas laws.
Goal V – Electricity
Students will learn that all matter is electrical in nature, containing positive and negative charges,
which exert forces on one another. Electrical energy can be obtained by charges flowing in a
conductor, and this energy can be converted into work.
Objectives:
As a result of activities in Physics, all students will develop the following understandings:
1. Explain how objects acquire electric charge.
2. Investigate how electric charge flows through conductors or insulators.
3. Apply the law of conservation of electric charge.
4. Solve problems involving forces between charged particles.
5. Describe the concept of the electric field.
6. Describe how work and potential energy are related to electrical fields.
7. Relate electrical fields to motion of charged particles.
8. Connect resistors and voltage sources in series and parallel circuits.
9. Apply Ohm’s Law to series and parallel circuits.
10. Detect and identify type of charge using an electroscope.
11. Compare the attributes of electrical, gravitational, and magnetic fields and their
accompanying forces.
12. Know how to use a voltmeter and ammeter in electrical circuits.
13. Draw circuit diagrams.
14. Draw diagrams showing the field strength around a charged particle.
15. Explain the photoelectric effect.
Goal VI – Magnetism (Electromagnetism)
Students will learn that magnetism is associated with moving electrical charges. Charging magnetic
fields can produce a current. These electromagnetic fields can produce energy in the form of
electromagnetic waves, which, besides light, include radio, TV, microwaves, x-rays and heat.
Objectives:
As a result of activities in Physics, all students will develop the following understandings:
1. Relate electric currents and magnetic fields.
2. Describe and use the domain theory of magnetism to explain the behavior of magnetic
substances.
3. Describe the properties of magnetic fields.
4. Explain how a motor and generator work.
5. Describe how magnetic fields are used in instruments that measure masses and velocities
of atomic and subatomic particles.
6. Explain induction of current by changing magnetic fields.
7. Understand the electromagnetic spectrum.
8. Draw magnetic fields around magnets and current carrying wires.
9. Use the appropriate left-hand and right-hand rules to find direction of forces and currents
in wires, motors, and generators.