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Choosing your AP Physics 1 textbook

June 24, 2019 / dina

One of the first questions new teachers ask is, “Which AP Physics 1 textbook should I use?” Sometimes, as a teacher, you have a choice to purchase a certain book, and sometimes you are locked into using a book adopted by your school district. I was fortunate enough to be a part of my school district’s textbook adoption process. This means I have spent a lot of time analyzing some of the book available.

Please note that the opinions I am sharing are from my personal use and my students’ use of the textbooks. These opinions do not represent my school district, school, or College Board. I am sharing what I have learned as an AP Physics 1 teacher.

The three AP Physics 1 textbooks I have in my personal collection are:

College Physics: Explore and Apply – Ekina, 2nd edition
College Physics: A Strategic Approach – Knight, 3rd edition
College Physics – Serway & Vuille, 10th edition

My personal copies of the top 3 AP Physics 1 textbooks — My copies of the three AP Physics 1 textbooks we are analyzing. These are a small selection of my Physics library!

The first thing you may notice is a big gap in the age of these titles. For example, Ekina and Knight are relatively new books, written specifically for and since the AP Physics 1 course was designed. Serway and Vuille have been around for much longer, with this textbook being the most popular for the old AP Physics B course.

However, when I started teaching AP Physics 1, my school only had Serway and Vuille. While this book may have been an excellent choice for AP Physics B, here are a few reasons I am not the biggest fan of it for AP Physics 1 and 2.

Why I moved away from Serway and Vuille as my AP Physics 1 textbook

AP Physics 1 and 2 are courses that demand in-depth analysis, writing, and concept development. While there are definitely some classic Physics problem-solving skills needed, the focus of these courses is deep evaluation and synthesis. Here are the AP science practices to demonstrate the types of skills students need.

Serway and Vuille does not always foster those skills. The content of the book is great for a more classical Physics course. However, the AP Physics 1 textbook should focus on the skills needed for the AP Physics 1 exam. S&V frequently has long blocks of texts, a focus on equations, and pure calculation problems. While there are conceptual problems at the end of the chapters, they are not of the rigor and higher level thinking required by the AP Physics 1 exam.

Taking a look at Knight

I was fortunate that my school let me purchase new books that first year. I immediately purchased a class set of Knight (College Physics: A Strategic Approach). My class did not have enough books for students to take them home. This was a disadvantage, but I don’t require my students to use the textbook at home a ton anyway. Here is why I immediately gravitated towards Knight:

Every example includes pictorial and graphical analysis
The same thorough problem-solving strategy is used the entire book
The number of pictures, graphics, vector diagrams, energy bar charts, etc. on each and every page to deepen understanding
Clear and concise end-of-chapter summaries with strategies, concepts, and applications
The alignment of the problems with the AP Physics 1 exam

I highly recommend this AP Physics 1 textbook. All of these features, plus the general user friendliness, make this an excellent choice for students.

After three years of my courses using this textbook, however, my school district changed to Ekina (College Physics: Explore and Apply). I have only used this book for one year, but let’s take a look at how this book compares to Knight.

Thoughts after one year of Ekina

Ekina is generally a comparable book to Knight. Their intentional approach and redesign to align with the AP Physics 1 course definitely makes these books stand out against their competitors. Flipping through the pages of Ekina shows the focus on multiple representations, rather than blocks of text.

Additionally, I like the problem sets at the end of the chapters. There is a good mix of multiple-choice, conceptual questions, and problems.

I prefer Ekina’s order of instruction to Knights. For instance, this textbook influenced my decision to move 1D forces before projectile motion and momentum before energy. These changes seemed to aid students’ understanding of 2D motion and energy. (I outlined some of my pacing changes here!)

However, Ekina falls short on the end of chapter summaries, as well as the solved examples sometimes. Maybe this is just my preference for Knight showing, but I really like Knight’s problem-solving strategies better.

All in all, Ekina is another great choice for your AP Physics 1 textbook. I will revisit my thoughts on this book after another year of using it in my courses. I am excited to have enough books this school year for students to have a home copy. This means I will be using and analyzing it more in the coming months.

Final thoughts on my AP Physics 1 textbook

Ultimately, the best book depends on how you use it. You can make whatever resources you have available work for your class – a textbook does not make or break it. However, a good textbook can be a valuable resource for students and teachers.

I need a textbook with excellent problem solving strategies to aid students, great visuals to help with multiple representations, and problem sets that model the AP Physics 1 exam. All of those requirements are met by Knight, and are mostly met by Ekina. Your program will have a valuable tool if you are able to get one of those books.

I hope this reflection helps you decide on the best AP Physics 1 textbook for your needs!

I did a new thing! Cavic Physics is now on Youtube.

March 13, 2019 / dina

Hey all! Just checking in to let you know that I have been working on a new way to bring you Physics and Astronomy content. I love this site and all of the people that have contacted me through it, so I decided to expand to Youtube!

You can find me at Cavic Physics. The first video is up now, with more coming soon! My first video is a solution to the AP Physics 1 free response question #1 from the 2016 released questions.

Let me know what you think!

Kanban Boards for Teachers: Making business productivity work in the classroom

December 30, 2018 / dina

Time management is my biggest challenge as a teacher. I used to stay after school every single day for 2 hours or more, as well as grade and lesson plan at home. I burned out. Work consumed my life.

I have done everything I can to make myself never feel like that again. A huge part of this career is managing your time. I have a very strict after school policy, as well as a personal philosophy about taking work home.

But come the end of the quarter, I STILL end up with a million last minute things to do. Enter my latest idea.

Kanban Boards

Kanban is extremely popular in the business world right now, especially in software development. This method helps to visualize the steps of a process. Generally, the process is categorized into, “To Do,” “Doing,” and “Done” or something similar. This can be virtual or a physical board displayed in the workplace. Tasks are moved through the stages until they are completed. It provides evidence and visualization for productivity.

Last year, I had the idea that Kanban boards can be used for teachers. I decided to do lesson planning on the virtual platform, Trello. Trello is one of the most versatile productivity tools I have ever used – I have boards for my website, lesson plans, cooking, and home to-dos. I love my lesson planning board, but I also like to hand write my lesson plans. I enjoy having physically to-do lists. Additionally, I wanted students to be able to contribute to-dos. Like I said in an earlier post, I want my classroom to be student-driven.

My personal lesson planning Trello board. I love being able to drag and drop the days if I need to adjust my lesson plans.

My New Board

I came up with a solution in a fit of frustration as my grading pile got larger and students kept reminding me of more to do. I made a physical Kanban board, put everything I needed to do on sticky notes, and invited students to add to it. Simple.

Excuse the messiness and unwashed board – I do not joke when I say I had the idea and implemented it within about 10 minutes.

It is messy – I will clean my board until it’s white again and redo the title cards. However, within minutes of setting this up, I felt my stress level decrease. If a student asked me to do something, I handed them a sticky note and put it in the to-do section. As I graded, I felt gratified as I got to move each sticky note to the “done” section.

What do you think? Are you as unorganized as I was? Do you think this method will help keep you on track? I hope the idea of Kanban boards for teachers will help get you thinking on how to organize your teaching!

AP Physics 1 Pacing: Reflection and Revision

December 23, 2018 / dina

I shared my pacing in AP Physics 1 last May, based off of my 2015-2016 school year plans. I made this guide after two years of teaching AP Physics 1, and needless to say, it’s changed quite a bit.

Though it hasn’t changed drastically, I took a good look back at it this summer and tried to find areas in need of improvement. Here is my basic order of instruction:

Physics Skills
Kinematics in 1D
Forces in 1D
Forces and Motion in 2D
Momentum
Energy
Rotation
Waves
Electricity

I am going to focus on semester one, and reflect on semester two in a couple of weeks as I plan for the coming months. Here is my revised AP Physics 1 pacing for the first semester!

Unit 1: Physics Skills – 6 days

I still begin my year with Physics Skills, which includes some introductory mathematics, graphing skills, and laboratory skills. However, I begin basic motion definitions and introduce motion graphs during this unit. These additions make Physics Skills bleed more seamlessly into Kinematics.

Proportional reasoning is an essential skill to focus on early in the year.

Unit 2: Kinematics in One Dimension – 15 days

This includes constant velocity motion and uniformly accelerated motion in one dimension. I begin kinematics earlier than I used to, and try to infuse some of the graphical analysis skills and laboratory skills necessary for AP Physics 1 during this unit. I also specifically focus on the Qualitative/Quantitative translation FRQs as our first type of FRQ.

Unit 3: Forces – 15 days

In this unit, we focus on types of forces and basic usage of Newton’s Laws. This was a major change for me – moved forces up to before 2D kinematics (projectiles, motion on inclined planes). This gives students more of a conceptual basis of forces before we get into more complex problems. I also introduce vectors and vector operations at the end here as a precursor to 2D motion. I specifically focus on the experimental design FRQs.

2017 FRQ #2 is a great experimental design question to use in this unit.

This new layout for the first quarter gives me on average 4 full days for review and/or a full multiple choice + FRQ mini AP test.

Unit 4: Forces and Motion in 2D – 15 days

Two dimensions is a dense unit, and possibly somewhere that I need improving. I include 2D forces, projectiles, circular motion, and gravitation. My circular motion treatment is a little light, as I know we will get back to it in the rotation unit. Holding off with projectiles until after the first quarter lessens their scariness and gives them a better explanation once we understand forces. I also specifically focus on the experimental design FRQs.

Unit 5: Momentum – 10 days

This is another big change for me – momentum before energy. When I did energy here, we would usually not finish or rush to finish before Thanksgiving Break, and then somehow forget energy existed afterwards. I moved momentum up, knowing that if I took out in-depth collision analysis and moved that to the energy unit, we could easily finish momentum before break. I also like that this is heavy on the vectors, which we are jumping off from in forces. This unit includes impulse, momentum, conservation of momentum, and a basic knowledge of collisions. We also focus on short answer FRQs, especially the paragraph length response.

A sample collision lab using PhET simulations — The Collisions Lab from PhET is a great way to introduce collisions and conservation of momentum!

Unit 6: Energy – 15 days

Finally, we are closing out the first semester. We round out semester one with energy transfer, conservation of energy, and energy in collisions. This switch lets us take energy into the home stretch, and use it as a good spiral of every topic already covered.

AP Physics 1 Pacing – tl;dr version

I changed my order to do kinematics and forces in 1D before doing both in 2D. I did momentum before energy. I liked it, would recommend.

Getting back to it – AP Physics 1 Learning Goals

December 19, 2018 / dina

I haven’t updated this site in a year and half. 18 months later, my AP Physics 1 pacing guide is still ranked 3rd on Google. This realization boggles my mind and gives me new motivation. I will admit – after working on this site for only a few months, I felt unmotivated to continue. Particularly, I spent so much time in the classroom, it felt like a chore to continue outside the classroom. However, your views and comments and emails show that teaching Physics is important and new teachers need help.

Am I famous yet? No, just proud to be helping so many teachers with their course pacing! I will have to update this guide to reflect changes I have made.

To get us started back up, here is a bonus topic – learning goals for AP Physics 1!

AP Physics 1 Learning Goals for each unit

My school district requires teachers to have a learning goal for each unit displayed and referenced throughout the unit. For more day to day plans, I use the College Board learning objectives for AP Physics 1, but I struggled with coming up with overarching unit goals. In addition, I felt the Big Ideas from College Board were too broad and not student friendly.

Here is the AP Physics 1 Course Description from College Board, just to illustrate how cumbersome this process can be.

Example from the AP Course Description – these objectives drive the instruction, but I need more overarching goals for my classroom.

However, during our teacher preplan this year, I sat down and created AP Physics 1 learning goals for each unit, mostly based off the learning objective I thought most encompassed the entire unit. These are the goals displayed on my board every single day, and together we dissect what they mean and how we can achieve them.

My classroom hub, with our unit learning goal. I need to figure out how to condense this to be even more student friendly.

Learning Goals by Topic

Physics Skills: The student is able to express the motion of an object using
narrative, mathematical, and graphical representations.

Kinematics: The student is able to analyze experimental data describing the
motion of an object and is able to express the results of the analysis using
narrative, mathematical, and graphical representations.

Forces: The student is able to represent forces in diagrams or mathematically
using appropriately labeled vectors with magnitude, direction, and units during
the analysis of a situation.

Dynamics: The student is able to analyze a scenario and make claims (develop
arguments, justify assertions) about the forces exerted on an object by other
objects for different types of forces or components of forces.

Momentum: The student is able to analyze data to characterize the change in
momentum of an object.

Energy: The student is able to apply the concepts of Conservation of Energy to
determine qualitatively and/or quantitatively that work done will change the
kinetic energy, the potential energy of the systems, and/or the internal energy of the system.

Rotation: The student is able to describe a representation and use it to analyze a
situation in which several forces exerted on a rotating system of rigidly
connected objects change the angular velocity and angular momentum of the
system.

Waves: The student is able to design an experiment to determine the relationship between periodic wave speed, wavelength, and frequency and relate these
concepts to everyday examples.

Electricity: The student is able to apply Kirchhoff’s rules to the comparison of
electric current in various segments of an electrical circuit with resistors in series and in parallel and predict how those values would change if configurations of the circuit are changed.

What do you think? Are these learning goals a good representation of each unit? How do you decide your overarching learning goals?

Cavic Physics