Semester A | science

Unit 1: Scientific Inquiry

OK, this unit is basically the same for all of my classes. It is the information that I put into the General Science section of this web site. Why do I have it seperate? Because it is the same for each class (so why double it up?) and, it is good material that I expect my students to be proficient at, thus they should be using it all the time! Therefore, keeping it in a place that is easy to find and navigate directly to the topic of interest was appealing to me.

Physics - A Semester

Unit 2: One Dimensional Motion

We explore the ideas of velocity and acceleration. Think driving a car. You accelerate when you hit the gas (or, for that mater, hit the break, but that is often called deceleration). Your velocity is what speed you are traveling at! Easy.

Introduction

There are 3 web resources that I use for my classroom. If you are struggling with a concept, please go direct to the source and see if that helps you out. I know that the reason most of my students struggle is that, to be honest, they don't read. They don't read material, directions or even the questions half the time. So, perhaps a video would be better. Try these all out, and see what works best for you:

The Physics Classroom (readings & examples) http://www.physicsclassroom.com
Kahn Academy (videos) https://www.khanacademy.org
CK-12 (readings) http://www.ck12.org/

Unit 3: Forces & Newton's Laws of Motion

Usually considered the meat of classical physics. Explanations of what force is and how newton changed the world's (and your) perception of how reality works!

We also delve a bit away from "physics" and deal with a linear algebra concept called vectors. Vectors are just a way we use arrows to visually represent forces in physics; but we follow certain mathematic principals.

Unit 4: Work & Energy

Potential and Kinetic energy, mechanical advantage, springs and Hooke's Law.

Unit 5: Two Dimensional Motion

Back in unit 1 we looked at single dimensional motion. Now, we advance it a bit, and add in a second dimension. This lets us look at projectiles and circular motion (things like satalites that orbit the earth, letting your cell phones and GPS work), gravity and if we have time we look at bit at momentum: or how things like billiard balls act when they hit each other.

The fact that this unit happens right after the Holiday Break is just a coincidence..... really, it is!