This work by Andrew Shauver – Ingham Intermediate School District is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
From time-to-time, I am called upon to teach a very conceptual (non-mathematical) physics course to support overflow in our science department. What it lacks in math, it makes up for in writing, drawing, and discussing.
I have taught this course twice. The last time was during the 2011-2012 school year. I mention this because my Geometry Course has been run through (give-or-take) a dozen times by at least three different teachers. There’s been a lot more debugging, quirk-finding, and strategic additions and eliminations.
This course is a little raw, but I encourage you to offer any feedback. Improve anything. Update where you see fit. Please send me back anything you make better. If you need .doc files, let me know. I can shoot those at you, too. andrew.shauver@gmail.com is the way to get ahold of me.
Keep in mind, this course runs without any textbook support. You may notice reference to some standards. At the time, we were using the Michigan High School Content Expectations. Michigan (along with other states) has since moved to the Next Generation Science Standards. So, this offering is really starting to show it’s age. Do what you can with it and let me know if there’s anything else I can do to be helpful.
Unit 1 – Motion (Position, Speed, Acceleration in one dimension)
Intro: I would try to find a way to use the video from Physics, a Helicopter, and Cameras as soon as it makes sense to. I, personally, found the perplexity level quite high.
Handout 1 – The Look of Fast
Handout 2 – Position-Time Graphs
Handout 3 – The Look of Fast, Part II
Handout 4 – Pers Like A Kitten
Handout 5 – Strobe Pictures
Handout 6 – Velocity-Time Graphs
Handout 7 – Acceleration Math
Handout 8 – V-T and P-T Graphs
Collaborative Project – Tennis Ball Graphs
Handout 9 – Motion Diagrams
Handout 10 – Graph Matching
Handout 11 – Unit 1 Study Guide
Collaborative Project – Egg Drop
Unit 2 – Intro to Forces
Handout 12 – Force Focus Questions
Handout 13 – Net Force Focus Questions
Handout 14 – Newton’s Second Law of Motion
Handout 15 – Seatbelts and Bungees
Handout 16 – Net Force Problems
Handout 17 – Gravity Focus Questions
Handout 18 – Net Force Problems II
Handout 19 – Newton’s Third Law Focus Questions
Handout 20 – Unit 2 Review I
Handout 21 – Unit 2 Review II
Demo Handout – Broken Strings
Collaborative Project – Mass in Motion
Unit 3 – 2-D Motion
Handout 22 – Classifying Motion
Handout 23 – Simple Harmonic Motion
Handout 24 – Centripetal Force Focus Questions
Handout No # – Earth’s Rotation and Revolution
Handout 25 – Unit 5 Recap
Unit 4 – Kinetic and Potential Energy
Handout 26 – Centrifugal Force? – (references article from HowStuffWorks.com)
Handout 27 – Work Focus Questions
Handout 28 – Roller Coaster Physics
Handout 29 – Calculating Work
Handout 30 – Energy of a Pendulum
Handout 31 – Centripetal Student Errors
Handout 32 – Rube Goldberg Energy – (Might be a good time for OK Go – This Too Shall Pass)
Spring-Pendulum demo uses of Handout 33a – Spring-Pendulum and Handout 33b – Spring-Wave Demo Questions
Handout 34 – Energy Exploration
Handout 35 – Unit 6 Review
Handout 36 – 6 Questions from Unit 4
Collaborative Project – Catapult
Unit 5 – Mechanical Waves
Handout 37 – Waves Focus Questions
Handout 38a – Waves Exploration (a bit of number-crunching)
Handout 38b – Mechanical Waves Exploration
Sound Waves with The Blue Man Group
Handout 39 – Sound Focus Questions I
Handout 40 – Sound Focus Questions II
FiveThirtyEight Article – The Loudest Sound in the World Would Kill You on the Spot
Handout 41 – Real Life Sound Math
Handout 42 – Sound Intensity Focus Questions
Handout 43 – Welcome Back Warm-Up (Christmas Break landed here the last time I taught this course)
Handout 44 – Slinky Focus Questions
Handout 45 – The Fishing Bobber Problem
handout 46 – 7 Questions from Unit 5
Unit 6 – Electromagnetic Waves
Handout 47 – Light Focus Questions
Handout 48 – Sounds vs. Sights
Handout 49 – Visible Light Webquest
Handout 50 – Reflection and Refraction Focus Questions
Handout 51 – Reflection Practice Sketches
Handout 52 – Gamma Rays Webquest
Handout 53 – Radio and Microwaves
Handout 54 – UV Webquest
Handout 55 – X Rays Webquest
Handout 56 – 8 Questions from Unit 6
Unit 7 – Electricity
Handout 57 – Electricity Word Splash
Handout 58 – Static Electricity Focus Questions
Handout 59 – Current Electricity Focus Questions
Handout 60 – Circuit Exploration (done with a current generator and a circuit board)
Lab Exploration – Electric Circuits
Handout 61 – Mid-Unit Review
Handout 62 – Energy Conversions
Handout 63 – Electric Cars Webquest
Handout 64 – 9 Questions from Unit 7
This work by Andrew Shauver – Ingham Intermediate School District is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Mr. Shauver - Learner Educator 