Tag: ap physics 1 (Page 1 of 2)

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!

The Experimental Design FRQ: Rethinking Labs

July 8, 2019 / dina

I previously discussed my tips of the AP Physics 1 and 2 FRQS, but I realize I didn’t really touch on the experimental design FRQ. I will write out some tips for that beast, but I want to discuss how I prepare my students for this throughout the school year.

The experimental design FRQ is probably the most daunting to students and teachers. The first time I had my students do one in class, it was truly abysmal. How can teachers prepare students for the experimental design FRQ?

I think the number one answer to this question is by flipping the way we do labs. So many of us are used to traditional labs with instructions that tell the students exactly what to do.

Sample student response from the 2017 experimental design FRQ — Check out the amount of writing required on these FRQs! Here is the full sample from 2017.

Labs are the ultimate exercise in inquiry for science classes. Many teachers struggle with having the time for inquiry, but inquiry labs don’t have to take any longer than traditional “cookbook” labs. Let’s look at the four levels on inquiry, with an example lab in AP Physics 1. If my explanations aren’t enough, here is some more detail on the four levels of inquiry from Inquiry in Education.

Level 1: Limited

Limited tends to require the least amount of critical thinking. Students prove something using a prescribed procedure. For instance, students prove the acceleration of gravity by dropped a picket fence through a photogate for 10 trials, average them, and find a percent error. Bad? No. Does this prepare students for the experimental design FRQ? Also no.

Sample lab setup using a Vernier photogate and picket fence — Image courtesy of Vernier. How could you kick a lab like this up to the next level?

Level 2: Structured

Most of the labs I did in high school and college were structured. This is where our more traditional labs lie. The teacher provides the question and the procedure, and the students work through it. Higher order thinking may come in during the analysis portion of a structured inquiry lab, but the actual lab is fairly straight forward.

An example of this would be investigating the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration. Students are instructed to vary the force pushing a cart and a the mass of the cart, and derive Newton’s 2nd Law.

Level 3: Guided

Guided inquiry is really the sweet spot for preparing students for the experimental design FRQ. In guided inquiry, the teacher provides the problem and the students must come up with the procedure, data, and analysis to answer the problem.

Oriental Trading popper toys used for an energy lab — I bought these poppers from Oriental Trading for a guided inquiry lab on energy!

This format most closely matches the types of questions students see on the experimental design FRQ. Through doing guided inquiry labs, students become used to figuring out their own procedure. Of course, every lab can’t be guided inquiry. However, this is a great tool to use during each unit. I will share some of my own examples below.

Level 4: Open

Open inquiry takes the student generated process a bit further. Students come up with the question, in addition to the procedure. I think that open inquiry is a great end-of-year review tool, but I don’t really use open inquiry for labs during the school year.

5 guided inquiry labs you can do next school year to prepare for the experimental design FRQ

So, now that you know a little bit about the types of labs, let’s look at how you can use structured inquiry labs to prepare students for the experimental design FRQ.

Projectile motion
- Where will the marble land? A marble is shot out of a marble launcher, and students must place a cup so that the marble lands in it on the first try. Students can use whatever tools needed to figure this out, but they can not launch the marble during the procedure phase. I combat “cheating” by launching the marble early by not giving them the angle the final trial will take place at until the end.
Coefficient of friction
- Does the coefficient of friction depend on the mass of an object? Students are given force sensors, various masses, rulers, and are able to gather additional materials if necessary.
Energy conversions
- What is the spring constant of a popper toy? Students can use any lab materials available to them to determine the spring constant. The stipulation is that they must do it using energy, not Hooke’s Law. Most students choose to use video analysis using their phone, which I why I like not giving them set materials.
Rotational kinetic energy
- An object rolls down a ramp. Does its percentage of translational versus rotational kinetic energy depend on its shape? Students are given a ramp, meter stick, and various objects (hoop, sphere, cylinder). They determine how much of each object’s initial gravitational potential energy is rotational kinetic energy at the end of the ramp.
Pendulum
- What factor determine the period of a pendulum? Students must test at least four factors and derive an equation for the period of a pendulum.

Final thoughts

Of course, the goal of all labs is not just to prepare students for one FRQ on the National Exam. However, giving students genuine experiences in experimental design will prepare them and push their critical thinking skills. A good lab course uses a mix of different types and styles of labs, with guided inquiry being one part.

Also, don’t think you have to reinvent the wheel to push your students. How can you kick labs you already do up a level?

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!

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.