Physical Science
Junior High Syllabus
August 1, 2012
Updated: August 19, 2013
Prepared by:
John Krieger, Rachel Miner, and Scott Powell
ScienceAtOurHouse
Physical Science
Introduction
This syllabus is a summary of the content of an academic year of Physical Science with
ScienceAtOurHouse for the Junior High class. Its purpose is to give parents an overview of what will
be covered during the year, and thus to facilitate the purchase/borrowing of books, planning of projects,
and use of other resources to match with your children’s studies in the program. As per the academic
calendar, there will be breaks for home experiments and projects recommended, and in some cases, designed by the ScienceAtOurHouse team. These projects will come at the end of each of the five main
units and will be presented in detail as the course proceeds.
As a new course, many aspects of the ScienceAtOurHouse program are a work in progress. While Mr.
Krieger, the team's curriculum developer, has taught this curriculum at the VanDamme Academy in
southern California, there have been challenges in adapting it to the on-line forum that the team
continues to address, which include demonstrations via an on-line platform called WizIQ. Students and
parents who will be joining us in this exciting exploration can expect departures from the syllabus as
the year progresses and we learn together. Mrs. Miner, the program's teacher, and the rest of the ScienceAtOurHouse team will be regularly reassessing the nature and precision of the information presented. Our goal with be to provide students with a solid foundation in Physical Sciences from which
they can build further knowledge.
The Physical Science program given in 2012-13 live was the second year of a three year cycle; with
Earth Science being offered live in 2013-14, and a return to Life Science expected next year. For Junior
High students who may be graduating, the ScienceAtOurHouse team also anticipates providing opportunities for science instruction at the high school level.
The ScienceAtOurHouse team is very excited about the year to come as we continue to build the
science component of the LearningAtOurHouse suite, and we look forward to working with you to
make this academic year a terrific success.
Best regards,
Mr. Krieger
Mrs. Miner
© John Krieger and ScienceAtOurHouse
Mr. Powell
ScienceAtOurHouse
Physical Science
Course Outline
PART I: MATTER AND MOTION
Architecture
• Early Construction
• The Age of Stone (Egyptians Greeks, Romans, Castles and Cathedrals)
• The Age of Steel (steel, concrete, catenary, cantilever, modern dams, bridges, & skyscrapers)
• The Geometry of Architecture (Archimedes, the center of gravity, the law of the lever)
• Boats and Buoyancy (Archimedes’ principles of buoyancy)
Machines and Motion
• Ropes and Pulleys (block-and-tackle, spanish burton, mechanical advantage)
• Levers (load/fulcrum/effort, leverage, the range and classes of lever, the law of the lever again)
• Wheels (the invention of the wheel; gears and other working wheels that give leverage)
• Ramps and Wedges (uses of ramps and wedges, the Archimedean screw, nuts-and-bolts)
• The Geometry of Machines (Hero and the classical five simple machines, laws of
mechanical advantage, the universal Law of the Machine)
Fluid Machines
• Hydraulics (Running water, pipes, Plumbing, How we provide civilization with fresh water.)
• Pneumatics (Hero’s air and water gadgets, modern hydraulic and pneumatic devices.)
• The Mathematics of Pressures (Stevin, the column rule, Pascal, fluid pressure, vacuum)
PART II: SPECIAL POWERS
Acoustics
• Musical Instruments: horns, strings, reeded instruments, flutes and whistles
• Harmonics: consonance and dissonance, musical scales
• Acoustics: listening devices, echos, acoustics of buildings, soundproofing
• Measuring sound: noise vs. tone; pitch, volume, timber; notes and music
• Sound Waves: the medium of sound, the speed of sound, sound as a compression ripple in air
Optics
(and other materials)
• Drawing Pictures: pigments, color mixing rules, perspective rules, picture-making technology
• Visual Instruments: reflections, perfect mirrors, perfect windows, curved mirrors and lenses
• The Theory of Light: vision rays, Newton’s synthesis, ray-tracing
Electricity
• The Electric Fluid: electric and magnetic stones, accumulating and storing electricity,
detecting and measuring electricity
• Man-Made Electricity: Faraday and his motor and dynamo, the modern distribution system
Chemistry
• Potions and Juices: acids, bases, solvents, solutions, salts
• Cooking: making fire, measuring temperature, the effects of heat
• Elements; States of Matter
© John Krieger and ScienceAtOurHouse