AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based with Virtual Labs and Sims

Table of Contents

COURSE OBJECTIVE

Similar to a first-semester, algebra-based college physics course, AP Physics 1 teaches students foundational physics principles. These topics include:

• Kinematics (Unit 1)

• Dynamics (Unit 2)

• Circular Motion and Gravitation (Unit 3)

• Work, Energy and Power (Unit 4)

• Momentum (Unit 5)

• Simple Harmonic Motion (Unit 6)

• Torque and Rotational Motion (Unit 7)

Through these concepts, students learn how to use algebra-based math to solve physics problems, interpret models, analyze data, formulate a hypothesis, and design an experiment.

Students will spend a minimum of 50% of virtual in-person instructional time engaged in inquiry-based hands-on virtual lab explorations, interactives, and simulations during which they will make observations and predictions, design experiments, analyze data, define relationships between physical qualities, and support claims with evidence in a collaborative setting.

The AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 courses contain similar content to what is taught in AP Physics C: Mechanics and AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism. However, both AP Physics C courses are calculus-based, and therefore more advanced than AP Physics 1 and 2.

While it is possible to do so, taking all four AP Physics classes is not necessary to reach your long-term career or college goals. Students who intend to pursue life sciences, pre-medicine, or general interest studies are best off taking AP Physics 1, and AP Physics 2 if they enjoy it or are especially successful in this area. Students who are interested in careers or majors in the physical sciences or engineering are best off taking the AP Physics C classes, especially if they can manage to take both within a single school year, thereby streamlining the process.

Connect Course to College Majors and Careers

AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based provides a foundation for success in a wide range of fields. Explore how this course can prepare you for 18 college majors and the 60 careers it could lead to.

It will also fuel your imagination if you're an aspiring creative writer, filmmaker, game designer or developer.

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COURSE FORMAT

The class meets 90 minutes twice a week (M/W or T/Th) for 20 weeks.  Like all other courses in our curriculum, AP Physics 1:  Algebra-Based with Virtual Labs and Sims consists of two components:  asynchronous and synchronous learning.

1. We use the AP Physics 1:  Exam Prep course for the asynchronous flipped classroom portion of the course. This makes up 50% of your overall grade.

2. Your academy instructor will facilitate the virtual in-person synchronous portion of the course. This makes up 50% of your overall grade.

Asynchronous Learning

AP Physics 1:  Exam Prep course on Study.com was created by a panel of expert instructors who break down concepts with bite-sized, animated video lessons organized into topical chapters that improve comprehension and retention, making learning fun and engaging.  Each video is approximately 5-10 minutes long and comes with a quick quiz to help you measure your "first exposure learning" during the pre-work phase before the actual class. At the end of each chapter, you will complete a chapter test to see if you're ready to move on or have some material to review.

You should expect to spend 50-70 minutes per week on these homework assignments. The academy intentionally schedules no classes on Fridays to provide dedicated time for homework assignments and out-of-class projects.

Synchronous Learning

Our academy instructor, who will also serve as your Gamemaster, will facilitate the live, virtual classroom sessions, which will supplement and build upon the AP Physics 1: Exam Prep course. Additionally, they will answer any questions you may have about the asynchronous material.

Our primary online textbook is the College Physics for AP® Courses by OpenStax, a resource approved by the College Board's AP® Learning List. This resource, specifically designed for AP Physics students, features content aligned with the AP curriculum framework and extends into modern technology and sciences. It emphasizes inquiry-based learning and critical thinking skills, preparing students for success in AP Physics exams. To further enhance understanding, each chapter includes clear learning objectives, exam-focused content, AP Connections highlighting relevant material, Real World Connections, and Applying the Science Practices features.

In addition to the textbook, we'll utilize a treasure trove of online resources from CK-12 Interactive Physics for High School - FlexBook 2.0 Textbook, such as videos, simulations, PLIX, adaptive practice problems, and Flexi 2.0 (a powerful AI tutor). This FlexBook is aligned with national standards like CSS, NGSS, and TEKS, and more.

Our in-person sessions are designed to make learning fun and interactive! Here's what you can expect:

• Interactive discussions:  We will delve deeper into key concepts from the asynchronous material and address any common misconceptions.

• Team-based activities:   You'll work collaboratively with your fellow students to earn points and badges, and climb the leaderboard as you embark on scientific edventures!

• Labs and Simulations:  We will conduct virtual labs and simulations to provide hands-on experience with key physics phenomena, like kinematics, circular motion and gravitation, energy, momentum, harmonics, and more!

• PLIX: Play, Learn, Interact, and eXplore activities allow students to explore physics concepts interactively, adjusting variables and observing the effects to gain a deeper understanding.

• Adaptive Practice Problem Sets:  Sharpen your skills with challenging questions that adjust their difficulty, offering real-time feedback, AI support, and progress tracking for mastery.

Exams

During both the Fall and Spring semesters, there will be a comprehensive mid-term exam over all content covered during the first quarter and a comprehensive final exam over all content covered during the second quarter of the semester. Each of these four exams is weighted equally.

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COURSE TOPICS

This course is designed to prepare you for the AP Physics 1 exam, covering all of the topics outlined in the official test materials provided by the College Board. This comprehensive course was created by professional instructors to help you master these objectives. Some of the topics covered in this course are listed below:

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COURSE CONTENT

Chapters: 15; Lessons 152

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INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION BOARD

Each chapter features an interactive discussion board powered by Discussion Hero, a gamified platform developed by Northwestern University. Students choose between "hero" and "villain" roles and avatars, earning points for their contributions. This fosters a sense of competition and engagement, making discussions even more rewarding.

Benefits of Participating in Discussions:

1. Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills:  Go beyond memorization and passive learning by analyzing information, evaluating different perspectives, and forming your own conclusions.

2. Enhance communication skills:  Practice clear communication, learn to articulate your ideas effectively, and develop respectful listening and rebuttal skills.

3. Fosters a collaborative learning environment:  Learn from each other, share knowledge, and collaborate on problem-solving, creating a dynamic and enriching learning community.

4. Deepen your understanding of the content:  Actively engaging with the course material through discussion solidifies and expands your understanding beyond lectures and readings.

5. Provides diverse perspectives:  Discussions expose you to different viewpoints and interpretations, encouraging critical thinking and broadening your understanding of the subject matter.

6. Offers opportunities for self-reflection:  Examining your own thoughts and arguments in response to prompts and engaging with others' perspectives helps solidify your learning and identify areas for further exploration.

7. Apply knowledge to real-world scenarios:  Apply course concepts to real-world situations through discussions, enhancing the material's relevance.

8. Build a digital learning portfolio:  Discussions serve as a reference for your learning journey, allowing you to revisit key concepts and track your progress.

9. Develop digital literacy:  Discussions provide a platform to practice online communication etiquette, including respectful disagreement, constructive argumentation, and responsible information sharing.

To actively engage in meaningful learning and reap the benefits mentioned above, participation in each chapter's discussion board is expected and will contribute to your overall grade. Your instructor will provide a clear rubric within Discussion Hero outlining the expectations for participation and how your contributions will be evaluated. This ensures consistent and transparent assessment while allowing you to showcase your understanding and critical thinking skills throughout the course.

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VIRTUAL LABS

Lab Sessions: 14 each semester

The lab component is meant to test the application of the skills and knowledge you learned within the lessons. Our lab component is conducted through our online provider, Labster.

Learn about matter and its motion and behavior through space and time in our physics lab simulations. Study the most fundamental measurable quantities in the universe, and find relationships between them to explain and predict their behavior.

Your instructor will choose your labs from the following options:

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FORTNITE VIRTUAL LABORATORY

Calling all physics enthusiasts and gamers! This course incorporates Fortnite Creative, a 3D sandbox environment within Fortnite where you can design your own game experiences. It serves as a virtual learning lab, allowing you to design and conduct experiments to explore real-world physics concepts in a fun and engaging way.

Benefits of Fortnite Creative Labs:

• Apply Physics in Action:  Experiment with physics concepts in a virtual world, solidifying your grasp of theoretical principles.

• Hands-on Learning:  Design and conduct experiments, actively engaging with the scientific process.

• Data Analysis Skills:  Collect and interpret data from your experiments, honing critical analysis skills.

• Collaboration:  Work with classmates to design, build, and analyze your virtual experiments, fostering teamwork and problem-solving.

Throughout the course, you'll participate in a series of Fortnite Creative Labs focused on specific physics principles:

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CK-12 PLIX INTERACTIVES AND SIMULATIONS

This course takes physics exploration to a whole new level with cutting-edge interactive simulations! Built upon real-world scenarios, not just lab models, these simulations bring physics concepts to life. Interactive sliders and responsive graphs allow you to manipulate variables and observe the effects in real time, fostering a deeper understanding of the physical world.

Aligned with Next Gen Science Standards (NGSS), these simulations empower you to actively engage with the material and solidify your grasp of key physics principles. PLIX (Play, Learn, Interact, and eXplore) further enhances your learning by providing an interactive environment to explore concepts, test your knowledge, and discuss ideas with your peers.

During this course, you'll delve into a wide range of physics phenomena through dozens of these interactive simulations and PLIX experiences.

Key Concepts Explored Include:

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ADAPTIVE PRACTICE PROBLEM SETS

This course incorporates cutting-edge CK-12 Adaptive Practice to take your learning to a whole new level.  This innovative system utilizes machine learning to create a personalized learning experience that adapts to your individual needs. 

Here's how CK-12 Adaptive Practice empowers you:

• Targeted Practice:  In addition to CK-12's vast library of practice questions ensuring the practice problems directly reinforce what you're learning in class.

• Adaptive Difficulty:  As you answer questions, the system adjusts the difficulty level, offering more challenging problems as you progress and providing support with easier questions when needed.

• Diverse Question Formats:  Expert-crafted questions, including multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, and drag-and-drop, solidify your grasp of physics concepts.

• Personalized Guidance:  Your built-in AI tutor, Flexi 2.0, offers hints, identifies knowledge gaps, and recommends resources like videos or targeted reading to solidify your understanding.

• Real-time Progress Tracking: Monitor your progress through a user-friendly dashboard that visually displays your skill level in various areas (Beginning, Exploring, Developing, Proficient, Mastery).

• Detailed Practice Summary:  After completing practice sets, review a detailed summary that includes the time spent, streak (number of correct answers in a row), and the difficulty level of the questions answered.

• Avoid Guesswork:  The system detects random guessing and provides resources like videos or text passages to help you learn and understand the concepts.

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INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY IN SCIENCE INQUIRY

The Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry (ITSI) program brings physics activities to life through cutting-edge technologies like modeling, computational thinking, and real-time data acquisition.

Throughout the course, you'll work collaboratively in teams of four in virtual breakout rooms, engaging in interactive activities designed to deepen your understanding of key physics concepts. You'll explore simulations, draw prediction graphs, construct models, analyze data, and draw conclusions, all while fostering critical thinking and communication skills. Every activity is meticulously designed around the 5E model, ensuring you Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate your scientific understanding.

At the end of each activity, your team will create a 2-3 minute screencast summarizing your solutions. Everyone should contribute and be clearly audible. Don't stress about perfection—screencasts are a relaxed, engaging way to showcase your work. Detailed instructions and rubrics will be provided, and you can edit and resubmit for your best explanation. The activities will also include specific questions you'll need to address.

Explore the specific ITSI activities below:

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PEER-REVIEW CAPSTONE PROJECT

You’ve grasped an important and challenging scientific theory, concept or principle.  Now it’s time to share your insight into this big breakthrough idea.  In this project, you'll transform your scientific knowledge into an engaging video, honing your communication, creativity, and critical thinking skills. You'll also have the opportunity to compete in the Breakthough Junior Challenge (BJC), a prestigious global science competition for high-school students with exciting prizes!

As long as your subject relates to physics or mathematics in some manner, you are encouraged to also submit your final capstone project to the BJC!

If your video is selected as the Winner, you will receive:

If you’re looking for guidance, you can see some of the prior years’ top-scoring entries here and the playlist below. But remember, to show ‘creativity’ your film should be as original as possible.

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COURSE OUTCOMES

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Interpret and describe representations and models

• Use mathematics to solve science problems

• Formulate a scientific question or hypothesis

• Design an experiment to answer a scientific question or to test a hypothesis

• Analyze data and evaluate evidence

• Work with scientific explanations and theories

• Analyze motion using concepts like position, velocity, and acceleration.

• Apply Newton's Laws of Motion to solve problems involving forces, inertia, and momentum.

• Explain the relationship between centripetal force and circular motion.

• Describe the concepts of gravitational fields and how they govern the motion of celestial bodies.

• Apply the principles of conservation of energy and conservation of momentum to various physical situations.

• Analyze the motion of objects undergoing simple harmonic motion.

• Explain the concept of torque and its role in rotational motion.

• Solve problems involving torque, angular momentum, and rotational inertia.

• Demonstrate an understanding of vectors and their applications in physics.

• Describe the characteristics of different forms of energy (kinetic, potential, thermal) and how they can be transferred and transformed.

• Explain the concept of work and power in relation to energy transfer.

• Analyze the behavior of direct current circuits.

• Identify and describe the properties of mechanical waves.

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PREREQUISITES

Students should have completed Geometry and be concurrently taking Algebra II or an equivalent course. Although the Physics 1 course includes basic use of trigonometric functions, this understanding can be gained either in the concurrent math course or in the AP Physics 1 course itself.

The following are the minimum specifications for running Labster simulations:

COLLEGE COURSE EQUIVALENT

A first-semester introductory college course in algebra-based physics

COURSE CERTIFICATE

Earn a Certificate of Completion which shows that you have completed the course. However, this course is not eligible for college credit / dual-credit unless you pass the College Board AP exam.

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