Pitt County Schools

306117 AP PHYSICS

Instructional Guide

Notes:

1)  Labs that have an internet reference are printed out in the resource manual.

2)  The AP Physics lab manual may be obtained from www.apcentral.collegeboard.com.

3)  There are more labs listed than can be done in one semester. This is to insure that schools that don’t have equipment for one lab can do another lab.

TIME FRAME: FIRST GRADING PERIOD

SCOS GOALS AND OBJECTIVES / ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS, BENCHMARKS, AND SKILLS / ESSENTIAL TASKS, STRATEGIES, PROJECTS, CONNECTIONS / RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ASSESSMENT
INTRODUCTION TO PHYSICS / TEXTBOOK:
Chapter 1
I. ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM (25%)
A. ELECTROSTATICS
1. Charge, field, and potential
2. Coulomb’s law and field and potential of point charges
3. Field and potentials of other charge distributions
a. Planar
B. CONDUCTORS, CAPACITORS, DIELECTRICS
1. Electrostatics with conductors
2. Capacitors
a. Parallel plate
C. ELECTRIC CIRCUITS
1. Current, resistance, power
2. Steady-state direct current circuits with batteries and resistors only
3. Capacitors in circuits
a. Steady state
D. MAGNETOSTATICS
1. Forces on moving charges in magnetic fields
2. Forces on current-carrying wires in magnetic fields
3. Fields of long current-carrying wires
E. ELECTROMAGNETISM
1. Electromagnetic induction (including Faraday’s law and Lenz’s law) / ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM
What is an electric field?
How does electricity and magnetism relate? / Parallel and Series Circuit Labs
Source->Resource Notebook / TEXTBOOK:
Chapters 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21
II. ATOMIC AND NUCLEAR PHYSICS (10%)
A. ATOMIC PHYSICS AND QUANTUM EFFECTS
1. Photons and the photoelectric effect
2. Atomic energy levels
3. Wave-particle duality / PARTICLE THEORY OF LIGHT, ATOMIC PHYSICS
What is the photoelectric effect? / Determining Planck’s Constant
From Resource Notebook / TEXTBOOK:
Chapters 30,31,32
III. FLUID MECHANICS AND THERMAL PHYSICS (15%)
B. TEMPERATURE AND HEAT
1. Mechanical and equivalent of heat
2. Heat transfer and thermal expansion
C. KINETIC THEORY AND THERMODYNAMICS
1. Ideal gases
a. Kinetic model
b. Ideal gas law
2. Laws of thermodynamics
a. First law (including processes on pV diagrams)
b. Second law (including heat engines) / HEAT
What is the difference between conduction and convection?
What is radiation? / TEXTBOOK:
Chapters 15,16
A. FLUID MECHANICS
1. Hydrostatic pressure
2. Buoyancy
3. Fluid flow continuity
4. Bernoulli’s equation / FLUIDS
Explain density and buoyancy?
What is Archimedes’ Principle?
What is Bernoulli’s Equation? / TEXTBOOK:
Chapter 17,18

TIME FRAME: SECOND GRADING PERIOD

SCOS GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
AP Course of Study and Revised NC SCOS / ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS, BENCHMARKS, AND SKILLS / ESSENTIAL TASKS, STRATEGIES, PROJECTS, CONNECTIONS / RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ASSESSMENT
IV. WAVES AND OPTICS (15%)
A. WAVE MOTION (INCLUDING SOUND)
1. Properties of traveling waves
2. Properties of standing waves
3. Doppler Effect
4. Superposition
B. PHYSICAL OPTICS
1. Interference and diffraction
2. Dispersion of light and the electromagnetic spectrum
C. GEOMETRIC OPTICS
1. Reflection and refraction
2. Mirrors
3. Lenses / WAVE PHENOMENA
What is the wave nature of light?
Compare and contrast reflection and refraction. / Sound Speed
(www.lewport.wnyric.org/mgagnon/pdf/speed ofsound.pdf)
Resonance
(www.lewport.wnyric.org/mgagnon/pdf/resonance.pdf)
Snell’s Law Lab
(www.lewport.wnyric.org/mgagnon/pdf/snellslaw.pdf) / TEXTBOOK:
Chapters 13,14,25,26,27,
28

TIME FRAME: THIRD GRADING PERIOD

SCOS GOALS AND OBJECTIVES / ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS, BENCHMARKS, AND SKILLS / ESSENTIAL TASKS, STRATEGIES, PROJECTS, CONNECTIONS / RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ASSESSMENT
V. NEWTONIAN MECHANICS (35%)
A. KINEMATICS (INCLUDING VECTORS, VECTOR ALGEBRA, COMPONENTS OF VECTORS, COORDINATE SYSTEMS, DISPLACEMENT, VELOCITY, AND ACCELERATION)
1. Motion in one dimension
2. Motion in two dimensions, including projectile motion / LINEAR MOTION
How can motion be described?
What is a vector and how can it be used to describe 2-D motion? / Determining “g” on an inclined plane lab (www.lewport.wnyric.org/mgagnon/pdf/ginclinelab.pdf) / TEXTBOOK:
Chapters 2,3,4
V. NEWTONIAN MECHANICS (35%)
B. NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION INCLUDING FRICTION AND CENTRIPETAL FORCE)
1. Static equilibrium (first law)
2. Dynamics of a single particle (second law)
3. Systems of two or more bodies (third law) / NEWTON’S LAWS
What are Newton’s Laws of Motion? / Addition of Vectors Lab
Air Resistance (w/Coffee filters) Lab *From AP Lab Manual
Static Friction Lab w/ CBL / TEXTBOOK:
Chapter 5,6,12
V. NEWTONIAN MECHANICS (35%)
D. SYSTEMS OF PARTICLES, LINEAR MOMENTUM
1. Impulse and momentum
2. Conservation of linear momentum, collisions
E. CIRCULAR MOTION AND ROTATION
1. Uniform circular motion
2. Torque and rotational statics
F. OSCILLATIONS AND GRAVITATION
1. Simple harmonic motion (dynamics and energy relationships)
2. Mass on a spring
3. Pendulum and other oscillations
4. Newton’s law of gravity
5. Orbits of planets and satellites
a. Circular / PROJECTILE MOTION, MOMENTUM, ANGULAR MOTION
How can circular motion be described? / Internet Lab: Elastic And Inelastic Collisions
(www.explorescience.com/#mechanics)
Period of a Pendulum Lab (www.lewport.wnyric.org/mgagnon/pdf/pendperiod.pdf)
Hooke’s Law
(www.lewport.wnyric.org/mgagnon/pdf/hookeslawlab.pdf) / TEXTBOOK:
Chapters 9,10,11
V. NEWTONIAN MECHANICS (35%)
C. WORK, ENERGY, POWER
1. Work and work-energy theorem
2. Conservative forces and potential energy
3. Conservation of energy
4. Power / WORK, ENERGY, POWER
What is the difference between potential energy and kinetic energy?
What are the laws of conservations of energy? / Work and Pot. Energy Lab (w/Spring)
Power Lab (www.lewport.wnyric.org/mgagnon/pdf/power.pdf) / TEXTBOOK:
Chapter 6,7

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