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)
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!