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Physics B Course Perspective
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by HughHenderson
Director of Science Curriculum
Plano Senior High School
Plano, Texas
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| | Please note: The official College Board® Course Description is available below in "More."
On the first day of school I ask my students what they think is the most important word in the English language. After we discuss a few possibilities, I suggest that the word is "relationship." Every thought and action carried out in our minds and lives boils down to a relationship between two things. We're never interested in just one thing; always in how that one thing relates to another thing. Then I suggest that the second most important word in the English language is "change." Once we establish a relationship between two things, like displacement and time giving us velocity, we want to know how that relationship changes, in this example, acceleration. Physics is the study of relationships, which we sometimes call equations, and how those relationships change.
AP Physics B is a non-calculus based physics course that covers a very wide range of topics, including mechanics, fluids, thermodynamics, fluids, waves and optics, electromagnetism, and atomic and nuclear physics. The percentage of the exam corresponding to each of these topics is included in the Course Description for AP Physics published by the College Board. All the objectives for the course and helpful hints on pacing, homework, and labs are included in the AP Physics Teacher's Guide, also published by the College Board. These and many other helpful publications and information can be here at AP Central.
It can be overwhelming to look at all the topics to be covered in an AP Physics B course. Both AP Physics B and C are intended to be second-year courses, meaning that the students have hopefully already had a year of introductory physics. Some teachers, however, have no choice but to offer AP Physics B as a first-year course. In any case, it is important to plan out a schedule to cover the topics and stick with it. This may mean moving on to the next topic even when you don't quite feel the students have mastered the current one. I have found that under pressure the students eventually do catch on and catch up. I tell my students that learning physics is a yearlong process.
If the students have already had a year of introductory physics, they have probably done all the typical first-year labs. There is less time in AP Physics to do labs, since so much time is spent on conceptual development and problem solving, so when you have the students do labs, make them count. The students need to be able to take data, with or without high-tech probes and software, organize the data, analyze the data and sources of error, draw conclusions, and explore ways to improve or extend the experiment. I guide my students in such a way that they design the procedure of the labs themselves. I tell them what equipment they have available to them and what it is I want them to measure, and let them go. I have found my students really enjoy the freedom to be creative in the lab. Many of the usual first-year introductory physics labs can be refitted for an AP class by extending them and letting the students decide how the measurements will be made. In addition to problems on the AP Exams, there are also lab-based questions that ask the students to design and analyze a procedure to measure something. Examples of these lab-based questions as well as the last five years' free-response problems can be found on AP Central. Currently, a lab guide is available that discusses the types of labs that have been helpful to the students' understanding of physics and success in introductory college-level courses.
Finally, don't try to develop an AP Physics course all by yourself from scratch. There are many resources to help you find the pacing and methods that work best for you and your students. The AP Physics Teacher's Guide, AP Central, and the College Board Regional Offices are very helpful, but colleague support is invaluable. You should attend one-day and two-day workshops and five-day institutes, where you can find experienced AP Physics teachers who are happy to help you develop or update your course, along with other participating teachers who may be at the same point you are in developing the course. There's no better support team than other physics teachers, and you'll find that they'll go the extra mile to help a colleague. The content in AP Physics can be very difficult, and it may take you a few years to feel comfortable with the material, as it has me, but don't get discouraged. Develop a good relationship with your students; let them know that you don't have all the answers, but you care about their progress and you're willing to work with them if they are willing to work with you.
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