Category: ap physics 1 (Page 1 of 4)

My Top AP Physics 1 Resources

December 29, 2021 / dina

Teaching AP Physics can be a challenge, especially if you are just starting out. Fortunately, there are a TON of AP Physics 1 resources, free and paid, to help you and your students have the best AP Physics experience. Here are ten of my tried and true top AP Physics 1 resources.

1. Covering the Basics: AP Central

Though you’ve probably already been to AP Central if you teach AP Physics 1, it’s a resource worth mentioning as it is the official source of information about AP Physics. Here you can find the Course and Exam Description, along with the most recently released free-response questions.

I highly recommend combing through the Course and Exam Description and setting up your AP Physics 1 curriculum before doing anything else when starting to design your course. Read more about setting up your AP Physics 1 curriculum here with my updated for 2021 curriculum guide.

The CED also breaks down the course by unit, the percentage each is covered on the exam, and topics within each unit you need to cover.

2. AP Classroom – another official source of information

Another obvious choice, but AP Classroom has been a true goldmine addition to College Board’s resources. AP Classroom is only available to registered teachers and students, so if you aren’t officially teaching the course yet you will not have access to this.

On AP Classroom, you can find previous exam questions, practice questions sorted by topic, and you can create assessments for students. I am honestly not fond of the assessment feature, so I typically take the questions and create my own paper or online assessments. However, their question bank is populated from real previous exam questions, so these are how I generally make my tests and quizzes.

3. Flipping Physics – top tier videos

I wrote a whole post about my fondness for Flipping Physics, but Mr. P keeps making it better and better. This is a top-tier review source for teachers and students. While the videos may be corny at times, they are MUCH more engaging than other review videos.

Image showing an example of the types of videos Flipping Physics has on their website. — These 5-15 minute review videos on each topic are amazing – great quick overviews for students before the AP national exam!

I use Flipping Physics’ content videos throughout the year as supplemental resources. During our AP exam review time, I typically begin each class period with one of the topic review videos.

4. Albert.io – the best AP Physics 1 problems

Another resource I have mentioned previously, Albert is the best resource I have found for practice questions. Albert requires a paid license and it looks some convincing to get my school to buy in, but it is the BEST out there. Their practice questions are plentiful and have a wide range of difficulties. Outside of the AP Classroom questions, they are the most aligned to the actual national exam questions I have found.

Sample Albert question from their dynamic systems section. These questions are one of the best AP Physics 1 resources out there. — Albert has a plethora of questions on each AP Physics 1 topic, ranging in difficulty from easy to difficult. It is extremely well organized and the questions are a good representation of the AP Physics 1 exam.

I like to use Albert as supplemental practice questions, as well as assign a set of questions each week for practice. Remember that these are AP-style questions, so I highly recommend grading students for completion or on an AP-style scale.

5. Labs and Simulations – favorite three

I’m cheating by combining a few resources in this category, but labs and simulations are invaluable to your course. The AP Physics 1 course relies heavily on students having hands-on experience with Physics. Since many students and courses are still at least partially online or budgets might constrict your lab offerings, simulations are a great way to incorporate more labs.

My personal favorite simulations come from PhET, oPhysics, and SimBucket. You are probably already familiar with PhET – their simulations really set the standard for virtual labs. I love that they are transitioning most of their simulations to HTML5 so they work on any device.

Image depicting a simulation from oPhysics on moment of inertia. Several objects of different shapes are rolling down an incline. — A simple oPhysics simulation on moment of inertia. I love using this one as a POE (Predict-Observe-Explain). Students often go into rotation with the misconception that all objects will reach the bottom at the same time.

oPhysics was a blessing during spring 2020 when I had to transition all of my labs to virtual. They aren’t as flashy as PhET, but they have so many great options and they are simple and easy to use.

SimBucket is another excellent collection of simulations. Many of theirs are hosted on Physics Classroom, which I will talk more about later! I find their simulations simple and easy to use, with graphics in between PhET and oPhysics level.

6. APlusPhysics – abundance of all types of AP Physics 1 resources

I purchased a copy of APlusPhysics’s AP Physics 1 Essentials during my first year teaching AP Physics 1. It was a great resource for me, and I recommended it to students as well.

Sample practice problems from APlusPhysics. Practice problems are just one of the great AP Physics 1 resources this site offers! — APlusPhysics has a wide selection of worksheets and sample AP Physics 1 problems. Here is an example of their Impulse and Momentum problems offered on their website.

Since then, they have vastly expanded their offerings and website. It is an excellent source of videos, worksheets, review guides, practice questions, and pretty much any other AP Physics 1 resource you could want.

7. Bozeman Science – videos and concept maps

Bozeman Science is another resource that has done an excellent job of expanding their offerings in the last year. They have videos on pretty much every topic in AP Physics 1. I’m also a big fan of the organization of their website – topics are sorted by Big Idea and include concepts maps and slides to help you and students organize information.

Sample AP Physics 1 resources from Bozeman Science, depicting their videos for AP Physics 1 Big Ideas 1, 2, and 3. — AP Physics 1 video list from Bozeman Science. Love that the videos are sorted by Big Idea.

Bozeman Science also has videos on many other science subjects, so share this one with your other science friends!

8. Teachers Pay Teachers – created by your peers!

While Teachers Pay Teachers contains paid resources, it is a great place to find ideas and resources created by your peers. All stores contain at least one free resource as well, so even if you are on a tight budget you can still find some quality resources.

Teachers Pay Teachers also offers district licenses, so it is worth checking if this is something your district has or is interested in!

While yours truly is just getting started on Teachers Pay Teachers, there are teacher-authors out there with entire an entire course-worth of material. Some of my favorite stores for AP Physics 1 resources:

9. Khan Academy – old reliable

You’re probably familiar with Khan Academy. Your students are probably familiar with Khan Academy. Your grandma is probably familiar with Khan Academy. Heck, Sal’s first videos were on Physics, so it’s trusty old reliable in the Physics world.

However, their videos are still great and the additional features added more recently are pretty neat too. Khan Academy now has the ability to create a classroom, assign videos and problems, check-in on students’ progress, and earn Mastery Points. There are also articles, practice questions, and course challenge quizzes. It’s definitely a tool that keeps evolving and getting better.

Image showing an example of a Khan Academy Course Challenge, a skills based set of problems. — Course Challenges are just one of the newer, more engaging AP Physics 1 resources added to Khan Academy.

I would like to see Khan Academy move away from classic Physics problems and move in a more aligned-with-the-AP-exam direction, but it’s still a tried and true resource.

10. Physics Classroom – a true classic

I mentioned Physics Classroom earlier as they host many of SimBucket’s simulations. The content on Physics Classroom is generally geared more towards a standard or honors level Physics course, but it is still a great supplement to your course content.

When I have students struggling with concepts or more basic Physics content, I usually direct them to Physics Classroom. I have also assigned lessons in Physics Classroom as sub plans, as unit openers, and as concept reviews. They have simulations, worksheets, and videos in addition to their classic tutorials.

Image depicting a section of Physic Classroom's tutorial on projectile motion. — Sample tutorial from Physics Classroom on projectile motion. I find their simple graphics very helpful and easy to understand.

While the tutorials can be wordy and have big blocks of text, I love their images, embedded videos, and simulations. It’s a great “one-stop shop” for a TON of AP Physics 1 resources. If you also teach other levels of Physics, keep this one handy especially handy!

Wrapping up AP Physics 1 resources

Whew. That was a list! Those are my top ten, tried-and-true, I-actually-use resources to help enhance your AP Physics 1 course. Remember that no resource is perfect and should be used exclusively – I find the best results from using a wide variety of resources in my course. Variety is the spice of AP Physics!

If you’re new to teaching AP Physics 1, make sure to check out my 5 Tips for New AP Physics Teachers.

Setting Up Your AP Physics 1 Curriculum – Revised for 2021

December 2, 2021 / dina

One of the most common questions I get about teaching AP Physics comes from new teachers: “Where do I start?!” Setting up your AP Physics 1 curriculum can be a challenge. Let’s take a look at the major content areas in AP Physics 1 and how to organize them into a curriculum plan for your course.

Hopefully, this guide will help you figure out how College Board organizes their course. In addition, I’ll show you how that translates into real timing and order of instruction in a classroom.

AP Physics 1 official units

College Board breaks AP Physics 1 down into seven units. These are, including their approximate weight on the AP exam:

Kinematics (12-18%)
Dynamics (16-20%)
Circular Motion and Gravitation (6-8%)
Energy (20-28%)
Momentum (12-18%)
Simple Harmonic Motion (4-6%)
Torque and Rotational Motion (12-18%)

Previously, AP Physics 1 also included waves and electricity, but as of the 2021 Course and Exam Description, these have been removed from the course to streamline the AP Physics 1 curriculum to only include mechanics.

Also, note that a lot of these topics overlap with each other. Though circular motion and gravitation is only 6-8% of the national exam, you could absolutely see a free-response question on gravitation that also includes parts on energy, momentum, etc. This would make gravitation technically jump up in percentage. I don’t interpret these numbers as hard and fast cut-offs for each topic, but more of a general guide.

Image of 2018 FRQ #5 from the AP Physics 1 National Exam. Copyright College Board. — Many questions, especially the free-response questions, encompass multiple units. This question from the 2018 National Exam incorporated simple harmonic motion, energy, and momentum.

AP Physics 1 curriculum in the classroom

Like most teachers, I tend to have a preferred way of doing things. These unit breakdowns are a little newer to the AP Physics curriculum, so I created my own order of topics. My order of instruction looks more like this:

One dimensional kinematics
One dimensional forces
Dynamics (including two dimensional kinematics and forces)
Circular motion and gravitation
Momentum
Energy
Torque and rotational motion
Simple harmonic motion

This is updated from my previous order of instruction to reflect the 2021 changes. I may move simple harmonic motion to before rotational motion now that the AP Physics 1 curriculum does not include waves. We’ll see after testing it out with students.

I like breaking kinematics and dynamics up into 1D and 2D sections as it eases students into the course with simpler topics. That way, we can also work on how the course is set up, types of FRQs, etc. as we work on the first two units. Then by the time we get to 2D motion, which is typically much more difficult for students, they have a grasp on the course and how questions are structured.

Image titled "Know Your National" explaining the types of questions on the AP Physics 1 National Exam. — Focusing on 1D motion in the first two units helps students also have time to learn the ropes of the course before the content amps up in difficulty. We practice the different types of FRQs in the first couple of months of the year.

Also, I also got into doing momentum before energy as that’s what my textbook did and I decided to try it out. It worked well so I stuck with it! I think momentum and energy *can* be taught in either order, so it is up to your preference.

Timing and pacing your course

My school operates on a daily 50 minute class period. I typically have about 30 weeks of instruction time (taking out 3 weeks for after AP exams and 3 weeks for each quarters’ exam week), or around 8 weeks in quarters 1-3 and 6 weeks in quarter 4. My approximate time breakdown looks like this:

Course introduction and skills – 1 week
- Graphing, math skills, laboratory skills

One dimensional kinematics – 3 weeks
- Motion terms, constant velocity, uniform acceleration, motion graphs

One dimensional forces – 3 weeks
- Force terms, free-body diagrams, Newton’s laws

Dynamics – 4 weeks
- Vectors, forces in two dimensions, dynamic systems, kinematics in two dimensions, projectile motion

Circulation motion and gravitation – 2 weeks
- Circular motion, law of gravitation, gravitational fields

Momentum – 3 weeks
- Momentum, impulse, conservation of momentum, collisions

Energy – 4 weeks
- Mechanical work and power, energy and energy transfer, conservation of energy, collisions extension to energy

Rotational motion – 4 weeks
- Rotational kinematics, torque, rotational dynamics, rotational kinetic energy, conservation of angular momentum

Simple harmonic motion – 2 weeks
- period of simple harmonic oscillations, energy in simple harmonic motion

AP exam review – 4 weeks
- 1-2 class period to review each unit, exam review module, labs to reinforce tying units together, full length practice exam

Removing waves and electricity gives a lot more breathing room in the AP Physics 1 curriculum. Before their removal, I still did 4 weeks of review. It definitely gave me less time on energy and momentum. I LOVE having that extra time for those two very important topics!

Some teachers give more or less (or no!) time for review at the end. However, I feel very strongly about having four entire weeks for review. As I work within a 50 minute period, it takes me four class periods to do a full-length practice exam. I previously wrote a bit about how I structure this review, but typically in weeks two and three, we take two days to do half of the full-length exam. This gives us an entire week right before the national exam to dig deep into their exam scores and make last-minute strategy adjustments.

Putting it all together

In conclusion, I hope this breakdown was helpful to you as you work on setting up or adjusting your AP Physics 1 curriculum. If you are a returning AP Physics 1 teacher, I know that revising your course after the unit removals is both a blessing and a curse. I certainly appreciate the extra time to focus on mechanics and save waves and electricity for AP Physics 2!

Pacing for AP Physics 1: A Basic Timeline for 2021 and Beyond

May 30, 2021 / dinacav

How should you break up your year teaching AP Physics 1? If you are a new or a veteran AP Physics 1 teacher, you may need some guidance on how long to spend on each unit. As I update this in 2021, we are now looking at a refreshed course that has eliminated circuits and waves. In two years, we may have to take a look at this again as College Board plans another refresh. For now, here is my planning and pacing guide for AP Physics 1. It gives an idea of how long I spent on each unit, the order I did units, and the actual units I broke the course into.

Although I have adjusted this over the years, I started by using College Board’s published pacing guide as a reference. It’s definitely difficult to get down the pacing for AP Physics 1 – I will post how I’ve modified it next year (see my revised AP Physics 1 curriculum plan here)

Official units and percentage breakdown of pacing for AP Physics 1 from College Board. — I teach in a slightly different order than College Board recommends in the Course and Exam Description.

Unit 1: Physics Skills – 5 days

Graphing
Laboratory skills

Unit 2: Kinematics – 15 days

Constant velocity
Uniform acceleration
Projectile Motion

Unit 3: Forces – 15 days

Interactions: forces
Newton’s Laws

Unit 4: Forces and Motion in Two Dimensions – 20 days

Applying Newton’s Laws
Circular Motion
Gravitation
Kepler’s Laws

Unit 5: Momentum – 15 days

Impulse and momentum
Conservation of momentum

Unit 6: Energy – 20 days

Energy and energy transfer
Conservation of energy

Unit 7: Rotational Motion – 20 days

Rotational kinematics
Torque
Rotational dynamics
Rotational kinetic energy
Conservation of angular momentum

Unit 8: Simple Harmonic Motion – 10 days

Simple harmonic motion
Mass-spring systems
Simple pendulums

AP Exam Review – About 4 weeks of practice/review time

Hopefully, this pacing for AP Physics 1 is helpful to you. Although it’s not perfect, it gives a realistic idea of how long each unit takes. Note that I teach in a 50 minute period, traditional school year, so these dates would need to be adjusted for block schedule or semester schools. With the removal of electricity and waves from the AP Physics 1 curriculum, I really love having more time for targeted AP review at the end of the year. In 2023, we may be adding fluids over from AP Physics 2, so another revision will need to take place soon. Where will I fit that in and find the time? Only time will tell!

Taking the AP Physics Exam at Home: Top 5 Tips

April 28, 2020 / dina

We are all facing challenges and new territory this year. For the first time, students will be taking a shortened AP exam from the comfort of their homes. Whether you are student preparing to take the AP Physics exam or a teacher guiding students, it is important that we think about how we can be ready.

I previously posted tips for the AP Physics 1 and 2 FRQs, but this post will be more targeted to the unique challenge of taking the exam at home.

Many college exams are open book / open note, so these tips may help you even if you aren’t taking the AP Physics exam this year!

1. Use Student-Created Notes

This will be the very first time that the AP Physics exam is open note! While some students may think this means the exam will be easy and they will be able to find the answers online, that is not the case. You can be sure that College Board will give scenarios that are still challenging and require critical thinking.

Remember that students can still use the AP equation sheet, but they can also use other materials. Class notes and student-created fact sheets will be much more beneficial than internet searches. Students should make sure that they are familiar with the notes they are using, so notes they have taken themselves is the best way to go.

2. Prepare Your Resources

Having a notebook full of class notes might be helpful, but it also might be time consuming to flip through a ton of material. Think smarter when preparing resources to help you.

Remember that resources are there to jog your memory or reinforce what you already know, not give the exact answer. Don’t waste time searching for answers. Here are a few things students can do to help prepare their resources:

Use tabs to mark sections / concepts in a notebook
Rewrite the equation sheet in a more user-friendly manner or how the equations were learned in class
Create one page concept “Cliff Notes” sheets
Create a FRQ checklist of top tips

My sample kinematics review sheet to help students prepare for the AP Physics exam — Here is a sample 1D kinematics “Cliff Notes” I created to help students. Top pitfalls or reminders is a great way to remember those common errors!

3. Have an Exam Day Plan

Students will have the option of typing responses or working on paper and submitting a photo. I recommend for AP Physics that students work on paper – this is more in line with what we have been practicing all year. Make sure your cell phone is charged and the camera works if you are using it to photograph your answers. Practice making sure your images come out clear.

College Board has indicated that they will have a tutorial video before the exam day on how the upload process works. Make sure to watch that and know exactly what you are doing.

4. Familiarize Yourself with the AP Physics Exam Format

College Board has all up to date exam information published here.

The 2020 AP Physics 1 and 2 exams will have two free response questions: one qualitative-quantitative translation and one paragraph length response. Students will have 25 minutes to respond to question 1 and 5 minutes to upload their response. Then, they will have 15 minutes for question 2 and 5 minutes of upload time.

AP Physics C will have the same timing, but slightly different question format. Question 1 will be the long-form question with an increased emphasis on analysis and explanations. Question 2 will be a shortened experimental design question.

Remember that not all of the content taught will be on the exam. Don’t focus on the wrong topics. For example, AP Physics 2 will not have any optics or modern physics.

5. Practice AP Physics Exam Day Conditions

At this point, students have reviewed and reviewed and hopefully have main idea down. Now, we need practice. However, not just any practice will suffice. Students need to practice in a timed setting where they cannot just look up the answer when they are stuck.

A sample of the resources available for the AP Physics exam on College Board's website — The AP Exam pages have previously released exam questions, along with scoring guides and sample responses. The sample responses and chief reader report always have great insight into what makes a good free response!

Here are some tips for practicing smarter:

Use previously released AP Physics exam questions
Set a timer when working on the problem
Do NOT look up the answer if you are stuck. Keep working and try writing something.
Use the scoring guide or a video, such as the ones College Board is producing, to score the FRQ.
Score yourself realistically – no “kinda” points

A review of Albert.io

July 15, 2019 / dina

I discovered the site Learnerator several years ago while looking for good AP style questions for my students. I was blown away by the attention to detail in the questions, and how closely they modeled the questions on the AP exam. But then, it went away. Learnerator became Albert.io, and the site moved to a paid model.

After a few years of begging my school to buy the license, we decided to purchase Albert.io for every AP class offered at our school. Many teachers didn’t really use it this past school year, but I found it one of the most beneficial tools for my students.

My students either loved or hated it. I think the hate stemmed from the difficulty of the questions, which, hello, is the point. The ones that embraced it really got a lot out of the platform.

Implementation

One of the frustrations students had with Albert.io this school year was its implementation. Many teachers assigned 100+ questions at a time. Albert’s questions are in depth, challenging, and require students to go back and review their reasoning for the answers. This simply does not work if students are assigned 150 questions to do in one week.

I implement Albert in two ways.

Albert.io as homework

First, I do use it as homework. When I assign Albert as homework in AP Physics, I usually assign 20 questions to do over a few days. We go over some of the top missed questions in class before the assignment is due. When I grade the assignment, I either grade it for completion or half completion, half correction.

Sample assignment data from albert.io in my AP Physics course — Here is an assignment summary from a homework assignment. I like being able to see the performance breakdown of each question.

Albert.io as extra practice

Second, I use it as supplementary problems. I create optional assignments, or students can work through at their own pace. Sometimes these count as extra credit, sometimes they are purely additional practice.

albert.io snapshot of student data — Here is a snapshot of my dashboard. I removed students’ names. I can see at a glance how each student is doing. This snapshot was taken during a week when I did not assign anything (just optional practice).

A student’s perspective

What really sets Albert.io apart is the results. They have results and testimonials on their website, but I want to share some personal data from my AP exam review period.

I’ve discussed my AP exam review style a little bit here. I like to give students choices in how they prepare for the National Exam. About two months before the AP Physics exam, I surveyed my students to help inform how to best conduct review. First, I asked them about how they prefer to review.

Student feedback on AP review — Actual results from my AP Physics students.

42.1% of students said they get the most out of review when they do practice problems with a group, and another 31.6% said when they take practice multiple choice (and free response) and make corrections on their answers. Both of these are possible with Albert.io, which is why I think this happened:

Student feedback on how albert.io is the most beneficial review tool we have used

Students overwhelmingly selected Albert.io as the most beneficial tool for review we used. Even though they complain about it at times, it really is the best review tool we have at our disposal. The style of questions for AP Physics 1 and 2 are the closest I have seen to the rigor of the AP exam.

If you or your school is able to purchase Albert.io, I highly recommend it. However, don’t overuse it and give students choices on how much they need to do. While I don’t have my pass rate data to share yet, I am excited to see if it made a real difference in exam results. If I am going off of what student’s said, they thought the exam was cake compared to the rigor they were used to on Albert. And that’s the best I can hope for.