Essential Physics: An Integrated Curriculum for High School Physics
Essential Physics is a new high school physics curriculum combining a fresh treatment of physics with strong pre-engineering and technology focus. The program includes both printed and electronic curriculum, custom-designed set of laboratory apparatus including software, and a specially-configured laptop computer. The curriculum has been built with many features that are technologically and pedagogically innovative:
- Inquiry-based high school physics textbook. Our instructional philosophy is rooted in "learning by doing" through guided inquiry. The book reinforces learning through a spiral content structure. Strong connections are made between conceptualizing physical principles and full mathematical rigor.
- Expanded e-book embedding rich multimedia content. Animations, videos, simulations, and investigations are all embedded directly into the text of the e-book, placing the multimedia content directly into its proper context. Students access expanded content by clicking the "more" button, providing an experience customized to their interests and abilities. The printed and electronic versions have a page-for-page compatibility.
- Hands-on investigations. Central to the Essential Physics curriculum is the wide-range of integrated investigations. Students first confront a physical concept through experience, allowing them a conceptual understanding prior to formalized instruction.
- Physics curriculum integrated with mathematics, engineering, and technology. Connections between physics, mathematics, engineering, and technology are drawn within each chapter and through in-depth chapters collected at the end of the book.
- Customized laboratory equipment deepens conceptual understanding of physical concepts. Students access the investigations in the e-book from included netbook computers, connect customized laboratory equipment (such as the ErgoBot) into the computer through the ErgoDAQ device, and acquire and analyze data directly from the netbook using customized investigations run through National Instruments' award-winning software LabView.
- Real-world applications with design projects. Each chapter will include an optional, progressively more challenging, design project where students apply physics to tackle a real-world problem in engineering or technology.
- Professional development for educators. Key to improving science instruction is professional development for educators. Workshops focus on how to use practical, hands-on investigations to deepen understanding of abstract physical concepts. The Essential Physics curriculum is currently undergoing field testing in Delaware through primary funding from the Delaware Department of Education and the Delaware Science Coalition. Feedback from the field testing is also incorporated throughout the text.
Inquiry-based high school physics textbook
Students learn best with hands-on activities
_Learning by doing. This
is not just one of our core instructional methodologies, it is also the
translation of the Greek name of our company, Ergopedia ("ergo"=work or doing, "pedia"=learning). We believe that students learn
best by engaging in hands-on activities through a process of guided inquiry.
From structured to guided inquiry. Science investigations in the early chapters of Essential Physics follow the structured inquiry approach, where the curriculum defines the problem, procedure, and materials. As students develop the tools of problem-solving in science, the instructional methodology deepens to guided inquiry, where the students devise the procedure to address a problem posed by, and with materials provided by, the teacher.
Underlying an inquiry-based approach to learning science is the IDEAL model of Bransford and Stein (1984):
Spiral content. Students will learn a topic and remember it best when the instruction spirals back onto it throughout the year in ever-increasing depth and from different perspectives. Essential Physics is structured with six introductory chapters that span the full content of high school physics from mechanics to electromagnetism and the atom, but focuses on conceptual comprehension rather than mathematical rigor. The main part of the course returns to these topics in increasing depth and by developing more sophisticated mathematical tools. The curriculum then spirals onto the content once more with a series of chapters connecting physics with engineering and technology. We previously used the spiral content concept in A Natural Approach to Chemistry.
Full list of chapters of Essential Physics
From structured to guided inquiry. Science investigations in the early chapters of Essential Physics follow the structured inquiry approach, where the curriculum defines the problem, procedure, and materials. As students develop the tools of problem-solving in science, the instructional methodology deepens to guided inquiry, where the students devise the procedure to address a problem posed by, and with materials provided by, the teacher.
Underlying an inquiry-based approach to learning science is the IDEAL model of Bransford and Stein (1984):
- Identify the problem;
- Define and represent the problem;
- Explore alternative approaches;
- Act on a plan; and
- Look at the effects.
Spiral content. Students will learn a topic and remember it best when the instruction spirals back onto it throughout the year in ever-increasing depth and from different perspectives. Essential Physics is structured with six introductory chapters that span the full content of high school physics from mechanics to electromagnetism and the atom, but focuses on conceptual comprehension rather than mathematical rigor. The main part of the course returns to these topics in increasing depth and by developing more sophisticated mathematical tools. The curriculum then spirals onto the content once more with a series of chapters connecting physics with engineering and technology. We previously used the spiral content concept in A Natural Approach to Chemistry.
Full list of chapters of Essential Physics
Expanded e-Book embedding rich multimedia content
Animations, videos, and interactives are embedded directly into the e-book
The e-book format and its embedded multimedia content expands the possibilities for student investigations. Integrated videos introduce a new activity and define the problem. Computer interactives can show students graphically how vector quantities add or subtract. Simulations can turn an abstract concept of electric fields into a realistic visualization of the phenomenon--or allow the student to conduct an important experiment, such as the Millikan oil drop experiment, that requires equipment few high schools can afford. Interaction between physical devices and the graphical collection of data shows students the intuitive differences between position, velocity, and acceleration.
Additional content is provided in the e-book throughout Essential Physics via expanding paragraphs. When a student or teach wants to learn more about a topic, or address it with more mathematical rigor, we provide integrated content that expands (or hides) in-place within the e-book itself. Ergopedia's technology enables ever-expanding, contributed content that is reviewed, curated, and integrated by on-staff content experts.
Additional content is provided in the e-book throughout Essential Physics via expanding paragraphs. When a student or teach wants to learn more about a topic, or address it with more mathematical rigor, we provide integrated content that expands (or hides) in-place within the e-book itself. Ergopedia's technology enables ever-expanding, contributed content that is reviewed, curated, and integrated by on-staff content experts.
_Hands-on investigations
Hands-on investigations are at the core of the Essential Physics curriculum. When students experience a physical phenomenon--rather than only reading about it in a book--they gain a deeper understanding of the content and remember it longer. The process of guided inquiry brings those investigations to the forefront: students gain an intuitive grasp of the concept prior to the traditional, formal presentation of the material.
Ergopedia develops customized equipment for the investigations to be an integral part of the curriculum. Investigations shouldn't be a weekly chore on a topic that isn't always related to the content covered in class. When students are beginning to learn about the equations of motion, students can move the ErgoBot and watch graphically how position, velocity, and acceleration change over time. As a technology extension, students program the ErgoBot to navigate a maze. When starting the topic of harmonic motion, students create oscillations in a string using the ErgOscillator. When students learn about electricity, they see the effects of a changing voltage on the current across a resistor. A key advantage of our educational technology is the integration of interactive simulations directly into the e-book. Students can zero in on key physical concepts in a simulation, rather than being distracted by competing, complicated phenomena in the laboratory equipment. Important historical experiments--such as Millikan's oil drop experiment or the Rutherford scattering experiment--requiring expensive equipment beyond the reach of most schools can be simulated instead with an interactive allowing students to explore modern physics. And interactive learning can extend beyond the walls of the classroom to be anywhere students can access their e-book. |
Customized equipment seamlessly integrated with the investigations
_Fully integrating the investigations, e-book, student netbook computer, and equipment is at the core of the Essential Physics
curriculum. Students and educators should be able to focus on
the physics concepts, rather than struggling to get pieces of
equipment to work together--or to install device drivers or software
on their computer.
As part of the equipment kit developed alongside Essential Physics, students read the e-book on netbook computers, plug laboratory equipment directly into the same computers, collect data electronically, and then graph and analyze the results. The ErgoDAQ is Ergopedia's technological innovation that provides the interface between the laboratory equipment--such as the ErgoBot, a mechanical oscillator, or a temperature probe--and the student's netbook. Students acquire data on the computer using custom investigations developed with National Instruments' LabView software. |
Physics curriculum integrated with mathematics, engineering, and technology
Kevlar's development connects physics and technology
_The fundamental strength of our economy rests on our development of science and technology. Yet the 2007 report of the National Academy, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, concluded that "without a renewed effort to bolster the foundations of our competitiveness, we can expect to lose our privileged position" of leadership in science and technology.
Science education can be improved at the K-12 level by integrating the curriculum with the other STEM disciplines--technology, engineering, and mathematics. A 2009 report from the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council concluded that "the teaching of STEM subjects must move away from its current siloed structure, which may limit student interest and performance, toward a more interconnected whole." Just as mathematics instruction is enriched by including connections with science, physics instruction reaches the student more effectively by drawing connections with engineering, technology, and the tools of mathematics. Essential Physics draws STEM content into each chapter--as well as in applied science chapters at the end of the book--and highlights the interdisciplinary content throughout with dynamic indexing. Physics is relevant because it impacts life and decisions we all make every day. Essential Physics is being developed in partnership with science and engineering companies like DuPont and National Instruments, because these applications can make the physics real to the student. |
Real-world applications with design projects
An example of a design project is constructing a speaker out of cardboard, a magnet, and a coil of wire.
As part of the engineering and technology applications included in Essential Physics, throughout the curriculum students engage in design projects. The goal is for students to apply physics to create a solution to a real-world design problem. At least one optional design project is included in each chapter.
Student teams identify real physics constraints, construct prototypes to make observations and measurements, and then use physics to refine their design. The design problems become progressively more challenging throughout the year.
An example is a project to design a speaker using a coil of wire, magnet, and cardboard disk. The LabVIEW software and compatible instrumentation allows students to excite the speaker with different frequencies and then use a commercial microphone to measure the response. Students modify design parameters--such as mass, diaphragm size, and magnet location--in order to improve the performance.
Student teams identify real physics constraints, construct prototypes to make observations and measurements, and then use physics to refine their design. The design problems become progressively more challenging throughout the year.
An example is a project to design a speaker using a coil of wire, magnet, and cardboard disk. The LabVIEW software and compatible instrumentation allows students to excite the speaker with different frequencies and then use a commercial microphone to measure the response. Students modify design parameters--such as mass, diaphragm size, and magnet location--in order to improve the performance.
Professional development for educators
Central to any curriculum are the supports to educators for maximizing the impact of the program in their schools. Dr. Thomas Hsu has led professional development programs that have trained 15,000 educators over the past two decades.
Ergopedia is currently partnered with the Delaware Department of Education and the Delaware Science Coalition in implementing the curriculum to meet Delaware's science standards. Teacher coordination, training, and implementation are being done through the DDOE; the first training workshop was held in July 2011. Field testing of individual units from the Essential Physics curriculum began in Fall 2011 and will continue into 2013. Educators participating in the program have provided key feedback that is being integrated into the curriculum.
Ergopedia has also partnered with the Texas ___ in order to provide physics teacher training workshops at the ___ beginning in September 2012.
Ergopedia is currently partnered with the Delaware Department of Education and the Delaware Science Coalition in implementing the curriculum to meet Delaware's science standards. Teacher coordination, training, and implementation are being done through the DDOE; the first training workshop was held in July 2011. Field testing of individual units from the Essential Physics curriculum began in Fall 2011 and will continue into 2013. Educators participating in the program have provided key feedback that is being integrated into the curriculum.
Ergopedia has also partnered with the Texas ___ in order to provide physics teacher training workshops at the ___ beginning in September 2012.
This project is supported by the Delaware Department of Education, the DuPont corporation, and National Instruments.