PHYSICS

Textbook: Conceptual Physics Grade Level: 11-12
ISBN#: 0130542547 Length of Course: Year
Publisher: Prentice-Hall Credit:1
Prerequisite: Completion or currently enrolled in Algebra II

                                                                                                                                                                                

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is designed to prepare students for an entry-level college physics course.  Each student will be provided the opportunity to develop their study skills with weekly homework assignments, experiments (guided and individual investigations), and quizzes.  Hour exams will be given approximately each three to four weeks.  Although the focus will be on the basic ideas and concepts of physics, and understanding of elementary algebra is required.

 

The focus for the first semester will be on mechanics.  Students will learn to make observations and measurements of force, mass, velocity, and acceleration.  The second semester will examine the properties of electricity, sound, light, and magnetism.

 

Physic students will apply scientific knowledge, skills, and technology to make reasoned decisions about the use of science and scientific innovations.

·        Know that there is no fixed procedure called “the scientific method,” but that investigations involve systematic observations, carefully collected, relevant evidence, logical reasoning, and some imagination in developing hypotheses and explanations

·        Investigate and understand how to plan and conduct investigations in which the components of a system are defined

·        Select and use instruments to extend observations and measurements of mass, volume, temperature, heat exchange, energy transformations, motion, fields, and electric charge

·        Select and use appropriate tools and technology to perform tests, collect data, analyze relationships, and display data

·        Solve scientific problems by using quadratic equations and simple trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic functions

·        Record and present information in an organized format

·        Analyze situations and solve problems that require combining and applying concepts from more than one area of science

·        Investigate and understand how applications of physics affect the world

·        Recognize potential hazards within a science activity

·        Practice safety procedures in all scientific investigations

 

 

 

 

Alaska Content Standards

 

Standard A.  A student should understand scientific facts, concepts, 

                        principles, and theories.

Standard B.  A student should possess and understand the skills of

                        scientific inquiry.

Standard C.  A student should understand the nature and history of

                        science.

Standard D.  A student should be apply scientific knowledge and skills

                        to make reasoned decisions about the use of science and

                        scientific innovations.

 

 

 

 

Alaska Science Performance Standards

 

A 4.  Students explain tides, weather, seasons, and phases of the moon including the appropriate concepts of gravity, the Coriolus effect, role of the atmosphere, and Earth’s rotation and revolution.

A 5.  Students explain how gravity and electromagnetic forces operate according to simple principles and how they can be used in applications such as mineral resource prospecting, satellites, space travel and affect natural phenomena such as the aurora.

A 6.  Students explain common examples of linear and rotational motion using Newton’s Laws of Motion.

A 8a.  Students explain how the absorption or emission of energy is related to physical, chemical, and nuclear reactions and explains how these reactions can be quantitatively accounted for in terms of changes in arrangements of neutrons, protons, electrons, atoms or molecules.

A 8b.  Students measure energy transfers that take place around them and use the data to examine The Law of Conservation of Energy.

A 8c.  Students explain entropy and its affect on energy availability.

A 16.  Students describe how studying radioactive decay, nuclear fission, and fusion can provide evidence confirming the Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy.

B 1.  Students collect, analyze, and interpret qualitative and quantitative data, develop models, and suggest further experimentation to investigate and explain everyday phenomena in their world.

B 2.  Students conduct primary scientific research and use sophisticated instrumentation technology to design, modify, and conduct a series of experiments related to a multifaceted problem in the natural or designed world.

B 3.  Students conduct research and media searches that highlight multiple forms of inquiry and multiple solutions to complex problems.

B 4.  Students work in collaborative groups to collect and analyze their experimental results.  They conduct media searches and use the information to support their experimental design.

B 5.  Students discuss the validity of assertions made in primary and secondary scientific sources by analyzing and critiquing the data used as evidence to support those assertions.

B 6.  Students examine laboratory and community safety procedures, identify how an individual affects the safety of the group, and practice safe behavior in the classroom and laboratory.

C 1.  Students can differentiate between facts, observations, concepts, principles, laws, and theories, as used in science publications.

C 2.  Students evaluate the validity of experimental findings.

C 3.  Students describe how human society, culture, history, and environment have influenced the development of scientific thinking.

C 4.  Students investigate societal (non-scientific) beliefs of multiple communities cultures regarding a phenomenon.

C 5.  Students use personal and group experiences as well as media searches to synthesize data derived from multiple perspectives to study a multifaceted problem related to state, regional, or global concerns and post their results for review.

C 6.  Students describe how current research is changing accepted scientific theories.

C 7.  Students identify the research, contributions, discoveries, and collaborative efforts currently underway to solve a scientific, industrial, mechanical, agricultural, or medical problem.

C 8.  Students analyze the evidence used to support current or historic scientific understanding of an issue as well as the evidence used to support ideas contrary to current scientific understanding.

D 1.  Students investigate a regional or global issue; identify and evaluate the current solutions.

D 2.  Students research a current problem and conduct a cost and benefit analysis associated with both the problem and potential solutions.

D 3.  Students conduct independent research investigations about a community issue and propose a solution based on their original data.

D 4.  Students evaluate scientific and societal impacts of developing technologies.

D 5.  Students propose a scientifically or technologically based change to public policy at the local, state, or national level and share their proposal with the audience of those affected by the issue as well as those involved in policy-making decisions.

D 6.  Students work collaboratively to design a solution to a problem, develop an evaluation tool to measure the effectiveness of their solution, and make revisions to the original solution based on the information collected.

 

CORE CONCEPTS

MEASUREMENT

·        Identify and utilize measuring devices

·        Compare and contrast measuring systems

·        Interpret and summarize data

·        Conduct error analysis

·        Distinguish between accuracy and precision

·        Explain fundamental and derived units

·        Identify limitations in measurement (i.e., paradox and uncertainty principle)

 

MOTION and FORCE

·        Solve problems that involve constant speed and average speed

·        Know that when forces are balanced, no acceleration occurs; thus an object continues to move at a constant speed or stays at rest (Newton’s first law)

·        Recognize the significance of Newton’s second law of motion and use it to solve motion problems

·        Recognize that when one object exerts a force on an second object, the second object always exerts a force of equal magnitude and in the opposite direction (Newton’s third law)

·        Explain the relationship between the universal law of gravitation and the effect of gravity on an object at the surface of the Earth

·        Explain how circular motion requires the application of a constant force directed toward the center of the circle

·        Recognize that Newton’s laws are not exact by provide very good approximations unless an object is moving close to the speed of light or is small enough that quantum effects are important

·        Solve two-dimensional trajectory problems

·        Know how to resolve two-dimensional vectors into their components and calculate the magnitude and direction of a vector from its components

·        Solve two-dimensional problems involving balanced forces

·        Solve problems involving forces between two electric charges at a distance (Coulomb’s law) or the forces between two masses at a direction (universal gravitation)

·        Use Einstein’s equations to show how mass and time dilate when objects travel speeds close to the speed of light compared to the Newtonian understanding of mass

·        Measure and assess heat, thermal energy and temperature as they relate to kinetic theory

MATTER

·        Compare and contrast matter and energy in inorganic and organic systems

·        Compare and contrast inertial mass and gravitation mass

·        Probe and report on matter waves

·        Measure properties of matter

·        Investigate sub-atomic particles that are created by particle accelerators

·        Explain how Gell-Mann’s eight foldway makes sense of the particle garden

·        Describe how fluids create pressure and relate Pascal’s principle to some everyday occurrences

·        Compare solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas at a microscopic level, and relate their properties to their structure

HEAT and THERMODYNAMICS

·        Describe the nature of thermal energy

·        Define temperature and distinguish it from thermal energy

·        Investigate and understand the internal energy of an object includes the energy of random motion of the object’s atoms and molecules

·        Use the Celsius and Kelvin temperature scales and convert one to the other

·        Explain that most processes tend to decrease the order of a system over time and that energy levels are eventually distributed uniformly

·        State the first and second laws of thermodynamics

·        Define heat engine, refrigerator, and heat pump

·        Solve problems involving heat flow, work, and efficiency in a heat engine and know that all engines lose some heat to their surroundings

ENERGY and MOMENTUM

·        Compare and contrast energy and entropy

·        Conduct an experiment to validate conservation of energy

·        Create a lab to measure energy transfer and transformation

·        Solve problems involving elastic and inelastic collisions in one dimension by using the principles of conservation of momentum and energy

·        Solve problems involving conservation of energy in simple systems with various sources of potential energy, such as capacitors and springs

·        Measure and deduce the difference between momentum and energy

·        Know an unbalanced force on an object produces a change in its momentum

·        Inquire and measure how momentum is always conserved

·        Investigate the historical development of the concept of momentum being more basic than mass

·        Demonstrate and recommend how momentum can be used for practical applications in design and investigation

·        Select and categorize real and virtual particles using momentum conservation and Feynman diagrams

·        Solve problems involving conservation of energy in simple systems, such as falling objects

WAVE MOTION

·        Identify how waves transfer energy without transferring matter

·        Know waves carry energy from one place to another

·        Compare and contrast particle motion with wave motion

·        Measure and probe the medium and the mediums effect on a wave’s behavior

·        Compare and contrast mechanical, electromagnetic and matter waves

·        Deduce the energy and content of a wave from the wave’s structure

·        Identify transverse and longitudinal waves in mechanical media, such as springs and ropes, on the earth (seismic waves)

·        Solve problems involving wavelength, frequency, and wave speed

·        Identify the characteristic properties of waves: interference (beats), diffraction, refraction, Doppler effects, and polarization

·        Describe how waves are reflected and refracted at boundaries between media, and explain how waves diffract

ELECTRICITY and MAGNETISM

·        List and apply safe electrical practices

·        Compare and contrast DC with AC electricity

·        Predict the voltage or current in simple direct current (DC) electric circuits constructed from batteries, wires, resistors, and capacitors

·        Use Coulomb’s law to solve problems relating to electrical force

·        Compare and contrast electrical and magnetic fields and how they act to produce a force on charged particles

·        Solve problems involving Ohm’s law

·        Describe the properties of magnets and the origin of magnetism in materials

·        Relate magnetic induction to the direction of the force on a current-carrying wire in a magnetic field

·        Know plasmas, the fourth state of matter contain ions or free electrons or both and conduct electricity

·        Apply the concepts of electrical gravitational potential energy to solve problems involving conservation of energy

·        Evaluate and give arguments to support or refute the statement that Maxwell’s laws constitute “the most important scientific event of the 19th century”

·        Evaluate historical contributions of Gauss, Faraday, Ampere, Coulomb, etc. to our understanding of electromagnetism

MODERN PHYSICS

·        Investigate the historical development of the Quantum Theory and the Theory of Relativity and general Unifying theories

·        Demonstrate and explain the non-intuitive consequences of Quantum Theory and Relativity, and how these theories impact our modern technological society

·        Debate recent developments and theories in physics

·        Evaluate the evidence for/ and the consequences of the Big Bang Theory

·        Explain how time and distance are measured in space

·        Evaluate the evidence for such things as: Black Hole, Quasars, Singularities, Gravitational Waves, White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, Dark Matter, and the Nature of Space