A.P.

PHYSICS NOTES
2009-2010 Reflections
SEMESTER 1: MECHANICS
UNIT ONE: KINEMATICS
UNIT TWO: FORCES & NEWTON’S LAWS
UNIT THREE: WORK, ENERGY, AND POWER
UNIT FOUR: LINEAR MOMENTUM & CENTER OF MASS
UNIT FIVE: ROTATIONAL MECHANICS
UNIT SIX: UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION & SHM
SEMESTER ONE REVIEW (JANUARY)

SEMESTER 2: ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM

UNIT ONE: ELECTROSTATICS (COULOMB & GAUSS)
UNIT TWO: POTENTIAL & CAPACITANCE
UNIT THREE: DC CIRCUITS (RC & KIRCHOFF)
UNIT FOUR: MAGNETIC FIELDS & FORCES (BIOT-SAVART & AMPERE)
UNIT FIVE: ELECTROMAGNETIC INDUCTION (FARADAY)
SEMESTER TWO REVIEW—MECHANICS
SEMESTER TWO REVIEW—ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM

READING SEMINARS
PEDAGOGY NOTES
(6/11/10) This past year (2009-2010), I tried to incorporate some new strategies into instruction. These
included textbook reading guides. We received brand new University Physics texts. I put together a reading
guide at the beginning of each unit that students would complete while reading the entire chapter. There
were usually two per unit, so one would come mid-unit. I collected after one night (sometimes two or a
weekend), and tried to use responses for class discussion points. The idea was to reduce lecture, as
recommended by Knight. Most units, I moved from reading guides to cooperative learning activities based on
the Knight workbook. I liked the questions, but the lack of structure on my part probably prevented these
activities from being effective for the students. Students had a QUEST (online homework) assignment to
complete for each chapter. It took a bit of time to select appropriate problems from the QUEST bank, and I
did not complete all of the assignments myself. Here and there I had clicker lessons based on conceptual
questions (mostly from Mazur’s book). These were usually towards the end of a two chapter unit. Also at this
time, students had a ~10 question unit assignment more along the lines of past years’ assignments. These
primarily came from University Physics.

In lab, we completed most of the past labs, but probably did less AP problem solving. The void was filled with
two newer activity types: Reading seminars—Using What’s the Matter, edited by Lightman, I asked students
to read short-ish (often dry) passages from authentic sources. Over the course of the year, we progressed
from Aristotle to modern physicists of the 20th century. There was nothing graded here*, it was just another
activity designed to target different intelligences than those typically pursued. I did not do a great job of
managing effective discussions, so I hope to look at Socratic Seminar materials as I prepare for next year. An
ideal outcome of the activities would be both an enriched understanding of textbook content and an invitation
to the wonder of the ‘new stuff’—relativity and quantum. I also added some mechanics labs based on video
analysis. We carefully measured frames of video motion and analyzed the data using EXCEL to determine
behaviors. I hope to add to this experience next year by shooting our own video and importing it into
LoggerPro software (if we get it). *One graded outcome that could perhaps be based on the reading seminars
was the ‘Physics is…’ essay completed during the first two quarters. Students were supposed to write what
physics was based on at least three classroom experiences, at least one of which had to be a reading and at
least one had to be a lab. I provided little to no coaching here, so I was relying on their training from other
classes. There was some variation in the effectiveness of that training.

Moving forward, I hope to add to these additions to instruction and make them more effective. University of
Minnesota has an online book about non-traditional group problem solving. This would be a resource worth
pursuing this summer. I need to incorporate more of Louis Bloomfield’s How Things Work course into both
semesters to make the concepts concrete before they are abstract. This would require reviewing both the
text and the video lectures. I’ve spent some time grabbing images from the digital textbook. Each chapter
needs 1-2 Promethean lectures, but these must be interactive. I plan to go back and grab all of the conceptual
checks from each chapter. This means that all students participate in the lectures with the clicker eggs. The
other ambitious undertaking would be to revisit tests and quizzes. I need a revolving test bank that is matched
to objectives so that I can give two test versions and also feel like they are secure from year to year. These
steps would have me feeling pretty good about the lecture component. Lab is another story. Lab needs to be
more coherent and organized. I should look for one more effective lab per unit and build lab unit organizers
the way I do the lecture ones.
 UNIT ONE: KINEMATICS

The purpose of this unit is to get students to really understand the meanings of the basic motion terms: position,
displacement, velocity, and acceleration. Traditionally, lessons focus on distance vs displacement or speed vs velocity,
and while those are important, I have come to recognize that so much of later mechanics is hindered if students
UNIT TWO: FORCES & NEWTON’S LAWS
UNIT THREE: WORK, ENERGY, AND POWER
UNIT FOUR: LINEAR MOMENTUM & CENTER OF MASS
UNIT FIVE: ROTATIONAL MECHANICS
UNIT SIX: UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION & SHM
SEMESTER ONE REVIEW (JANUARY)
UNIT ONE: ELECTROSTATICS (COULOMB & GAUSS)
UNIT TWO: POTENTIAL & CAPACITANCE
UNIT THREE: DC CIRCUITS (RC & KIRCHOFF)
UNIT FOUR: MAGNETIC FIELDS & FORCES (BIOT-SAVART &
AMPERE)
UNIT FIVE: ELECTROMAGNETIC INDUCTION (FARADAY)
SEMESTER TWO REVIEW—MECHANICS
SEMESTER TWO REVIEW—ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM
READING SEMINARS
PEDAGOGY NOTES