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Honors Physics 1 Syllabus

Appoquinimink High School ~ 2019-2020

Teacher: Ms. Parker, Room A219

Email: christina.parker@appo.k12.de.us

Phone: 449-3840 ext 241219

Course Website: Schoology

AHS Vision: Developing critical thinkers and effective communicators for a global society.

Core Values: Achievement ~ Honor ~ Service

Course Description:

This is an introductory course focusing on energy and its relation to motion, electronics, heat and light. Emphasis will be on constructing explanations through computational thinking by analyzing and interpreting data. Students will plan and conduct investigations throughout the course to explore experiences in the physical world. Capstone projects will be used to connect cross-cutting themes throughout the curriculum. Completion of the course will develop a foundation for continuing college level studies in Science, Technology, Math and Engineering. *Prerequisite – Integrated Math II*

Course Outline:

• Topic 1 – Kinematics (motion): Kinematics focuses on the relationships between position, displacement, velocity, acceleration, and time in one and two dimensions. Activities will include investigating the motion of sliding blocks, cars, and projectiles.

• Topic 2 – Forces and Momentum: Students will apply Newton's Laws of Motion to various types of forces including friction, normal forces, forces that cause circular motion, gravitational forces and electrostatic forces. An extension into the conservation of momentum will also be investigated.

• Topic 3 – Transfers of Energy: Energy can be transferred between objects and transformed between different types of energy. This unit will investigate the different forms of energy and how they are related. This includes gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy, elastic potential energy, and thermal energy. This unit will tie into the remainder of the course.

• Topic 4 – Electricity and Magnetism: The connection and interaction of electric and magnetic fields is an essential component of our modern technology. Students will start by investigating electricity and circuits, and extend into generation of AC due to a changing magnetic field.

• Topic 5 – Wave Properties and Phenomena: Students will investigate wave properties and their relation to sound and light such as frequency, amplitude, wavelength, and velocity. Then students will explore phenomena specific to waves including the Doppler Effect, refraction, reflection, diffraction and interference.

Resources:

• Online Simulations - PhET, SERC at Carleton College,

• Schoology Class Website

Student Expectations:

• Students are expected to abide by the Appoquinimink School District Code of Conduct at all times.

• All students are expected to be prepared for class, including bringing a calculator daily

• All students are expected to be actively engaged during class and should refrain from using electronic devices unless being used as part of the lesson

• All students are expected to explain their thinking & justify their conclusions

• All students should respectfully challenge each other’s thinking

• All students should take initiative to explain another student’s thinking, including respectfully suggesting how they may have made an error.

• Students who “get it” more quickly are expected to take responsibility for assisting others who are struggling.

Grading Policies:

As per our school district policy, each marking period grade is divided into 70% summative and 30% formative assessments. The following are lists of types of assignments that fall under each category:

• 30% Formative: Homework assignments (conceptual questions and problem sets), classwork (summarizing activities), and informal lab summaries

• 70% Summative: Unit exams (some topics may be broken into multiple summative assessments) and formal lab reports.

Conceptual Questions and Problem Sets:

At the beginning of each unit, students will be given two separate assignments. The first assignment is a set of “conceptual questions” which are designed to assess a student’s qualitative knowledge of physics. The second assignment is a “problem set” which will assess a student’s ability to apply their conceptual understanding of physics to problem solving situations. The due dates for these assignments will vary based on length of the assignments and progress of class discussions.

Laboratory Assignments:

In order to have a strong conceptual understanding of physical phenomena in our everyday lives, it is important to create situations where we can investigate the phenomena. Investigations will be a focus of this course occurring often relating to the current topic of discussion. Many will be open-ended in nature with students coming up with procedures to investigate an objective with a pre-determined list of materials. Some investigations will require a quick summary that will be due the following class. These are labeled as “informal lab summaries” in the grading policy above (formative grade). Other investigations will require a formal lab report as a summative grade.

Exams:

There will be an exam at the end of each unit. Exams will focus on the current unit of study, but may include prerequisite knowledge from previous units of study.

Late Work:

Assignments are due on the date listed online on our class website and/or on the classroom board. All assignments are expected to be handed in at this time unless discussed by both the student and Ms. Parker ahead of time. IF YOU ARE ABSENT YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR FINDING AND COMPLETING ALL MISSED WORK. If you are absent, immediately upon return it is expected that you will turn in all work due on the day(s) you missed otherwise it will be considered late. "I didn't know it was due" is NOT an excuse. For excused absences, the student will have one day for every day absent to make up the work you missed on the day you were out as per the Appoquinimink School District attendance policy. Assignments turned in late will be accepted for 25% off one day late and 50% off after that until the end of the next unit. It is the teacher’s discretion if assignments can be turned in after the unit; this will only be considered for extenuating circumstances.

Plagiarism and Copying:

All assignments that are handed in for grades must be done by the student handing in the assignment. Any evidence of copying or plagiarism will result in an assignment that is not accepted for a grade and be given 0% of the total possible points. This includes group assignments and investigations. During group investigations some parts of the formal report may be the same (data collection and data analysis), but other parts will have to be individually completed (introduction, materials procedure, experimental improvements, and conclusion.

Final Thoughts:

I hope to make this a fun and successful class. Many students enjoy studying physics because of its application to everyday life. I hope through this course that we can ignite an interest in the scientific process and have a better understanding of the world around us.

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