Conceptual Physics Course Package
We will be beginning a project during the 2024-25 school year in which we create a package of materials to support teachers teaching a Conceptual Physics course. The downloadable package will include slide decks, think sheets, labs, quizzes, and tests. Answer keys will be provided. This will be a for-sale item that is offered to teachers. We hope to have the project completed before the start of the 2025-26 school year.
In creating our Lesson Plans and Learning Outcomes for this course we have referenced several of the items that we intend to place in the package. We have used
red text in our Lesson Plans wherever we have made such a reference. These items will only be available by purchase of the course package. All labs provided in the Package will be provided as Lab Sheets that can be distributed to students. On our Labs page for each unit, we describe the lab in the form of a question and a purpose. If a lab is similar to a lab included in
our Laboratory section, then we have included a link to the Teacher's Guide for that lab.
Labs for 1D Kinematics
Lesson Plans || Learning Outcomes and Activities || Teacher Notes || Labs
We have a collection of ~150 labs in the Laboratory section of the website. Each lab was intended to be used with a lab notebook where students report their data and findings and state their conclusion with supporting evidence and reasoning. The intent was to provide a relatively clear purpose (or question) to students that they would need to address AND to limit the amount of directions. The hope is that the purposes and students' ability to design a procedure would drive the lab activity (in contrast to a detailed set of step-by-step procedures being the driving force of students' activity). As such, each of our labs comes with a Question and Purpose and a short paragraph describing what should be included in students' lab report. On occassion, students are also provided a graphic organizer, data table, or other item to be taped into their notebook. The following pages may be useful for those teachers who wish to adopt or simply trial our Labs with a Purpose approach:
Our Thoughts on the Approach || About Lab Notebooks || Teacher Guides for All Labs
Lab 1: Physics 500 Lab
Question:
With what speed can each member of the group, when walking their unique walking pattern, complete the specified race?
Purpose:
To determine the speed of each member of the lab group as they complete the race course with their own unique walking pattern.
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, a Conclusion and a Discussion of Results. The Data section should include distance and time data for all members in the lab group. Calculated values of speed should be reported in the data table; units should be clearly stated. At least one sample speed calculation should be shown. The Conclusion should respond to the question raised in the Purpose of the lab.
Teacher's Guide not Available
Lab 2 – Position-Time Graphs
Question:
How can the following types of motion be described with a position‐time graph? (moving in the positive direction versus moving in the negative direction; moving fast versus moving slow; moving with a constant speed versus moving with a gradually changing speed; speeding up versus slowing down; etc.)
Purpose:
To contrast the shape and slope of the position‐time graphs for the following types of motion:
- moving in the + direction versus moving in the ‐ direction
- moving fast versus moving slow
- a constant speed motion versus a gradually changing speed
- a speeding up motion versus a slowing down motion
- combinations of the above
A complete lab write‐up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, and a Conclusion/Discussion. The Data section should include one graph for each contrasting set of two motions; axes should be labeled; labels or color coding or some other method should be used to distinguish between the two motions. The Conclusion/Discussion section should provide a thorough discussion of the differences in the position‐time graphs for the variety of motions under study.
Lab 3 – Velocity-Time Graphs
Question:
How can the following types of motion be described with a velocity-time graph? (moving in the positive direction versus moving in the negative direction; moving fast versus moving slow; moving with a constant speed versus moving with a gradually changing speed; speeding up versus slowing down; etc.)
Purpose:
To contrast the shape and slope of the velocity-time graphs for the following types of motion:
- moving in the + direction versus moving in the - direction
- moving fast versus moving slow
- a constant speed motion versus a gradually changing speed
- a speeding up motion versus a slowing down motion
- moving in the same direction versus changing directions
- combinations of the above
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, a Conclusion and a Discussion of Results. The Data section should include one graph for each contrasting set of two motions; axes should be labeled; labels or color coding or some other method should be used to distinguish between the two motions. The Conclusion/Discussion section should provide a thorough discussion of the differences in the velocity-time graphs for the variety of motions under study.
In addition to the above labs, we have also suggested
Pace Tracer 1 and
Pace Tracer 2 activities. Each is essentially a hands-on motion lab that utilizes the camera on a phone, tablet, computer, etc. as a motion-sensing tool. More directions on how to set up the lab with ArUco markers can be found on the Pace Tracer pages.
Also Available ...
Physics teachers may find the following
for-sale tools to be useful supplements to our Lesson Plan and Pacing Guide section:
- Task Tracker Subscription (annual purchase)
A subscription allows teachers to set up classes, add students, customize online assignments, view student progress/scores, and export student scores. Task Tracker accounts allow your students to begin assignments in class or at school and to finish them at home. View our Seat and Cost Calculator for pricing details.
- The Solutions Guide
We publish a free curriculum with >200 ready-to-use Think Sheets for developing physics concepts. The Solutions Guide is a download containing the source documents, PDFs of source documents, and answers/solutions in MS Word and PDF format. An expanded license agreement is included with the purchase. (Cost: $25 download)
- Teacher Presentation Pack
This is a large collection of downloadable content packed with nearly 190 Microsoft PowerPoint slide decks, the corresponding Lesson Notes (as PDF and fully-modifiable MS Word format), about 170 animations (in .gif, .png, and .mp4 file formats), a countless number of ready-to-use images (including the original source documents that would allow for easy modification of those images), and a license that allows teachers to modify and use all the content with their classes on password-protected sites (such as course management systems). (Cost: $40 download)
- Question Bank
We distribute a Question Bank that includes more than 9300 questions neatly organized according to topic. The Question Bank is the perfect tool for busy teachers or new teachers. Even if you don't use the website with your classes, the Question Bank will assist you in quickly putting together quizzes, tests and other documents with high-quality questions that target student's conceptions of physics principles. And if you do use The Physics Classroom website, the Question Bank is the perfect complement to the materials found at the website. (Cost: $25 download)