A. INQUIRY SKILLS

Students will design and conduct scientific investigations

Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations

Use appropriate tools, technology, and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data

Organize and maintain a journal showing all phases of investigations

Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence and logic

Use mathematics to explain, interpret, and improve investigations and communications

Construct logical relationships between evidence and explanations

Identify and analyze alternative explanations, models, and predictions

Demonstrate understanding about scientific inquiry

Use fair test procedures

Students will communicate scientific procedures and explanations

Demonstrate effective methods to organize and display scientific concepts

Present investigative procedures and results to others verbally, graphically, and in writing

Communicate science concepts accurately and clearly, using scientific vocabulary

B. PHYSICAL SCIENCE CONTENT

Students will apply the principles of motions and forces

Investigate interactions portraying Newton’s Laws

Explore examples of the Law of Universal Gravitation

Explain basic principles of kinematics applied to human performance

Analyze the principles of dynamics as applied to transportation

Determine how electricity is used in home, industry, and the community

Explain how simple machines and theories are used in the design of complex devices (examples: screws, levers, pulleys)

Students will apply principles related to the conservation of energy and describe the associated increase in disorder

Explore methods of electricity generation, efficiency, and transfer

Conduct investigations demonstrating principles of thermal energy in design

Demonstrate potential, kinetic energy, and energy in a field

Students will explain the interactions between matter and energy

Investigate wave characteristics

Investigate the nature of light and sound

Distinguish between a mechanical wave and light

Apply basic principles of sound to listening environments and other everyday experiences

Apply principles of geometric optics to modern applications and everyday experiences

Explore applications of transverse and longitudinal waves

Explain the characteristics of radioactive materials

C. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Students will demonstrate abilities of technological design

Design and build conceptual or physical models of a technology for an identified problem in physics (example: circuits using modern electronic components)

Evaluate outcomes based on selected criteria and possible consequences

Communicate the nature of the problem, processes used, and solutions

Student will understand the interdependence of science and technology

Document scientific investigations that require coordination and interaction among several different disciplines

Summarize how new technologies often extend scientific knowledge

Evaluate the impact of new technologies

Determine how creativity, imagination, and knowledge are required in developing new theories and devices in science and technology

D. SCIENCE IN PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES

Students will understand the need for personal and community health

Model appropriate laboratory techniques, procedures, and behaviors

Apply the laws of dynamics to transportation safety

Students will evaluate factors related to physics that impact on community and quality of life

Analyze the application of appropriate technology to environmental hazards and future development

Students will develop an understanding of human induced hazards

Assess real and perceived problems associated with emerging technology

Students will integrate science and technology in local, national, and global challenges

Determine benefits and costs required to develop new technologies

Evaluate the social, economic, and political impact of current research in physics and technology

E. HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE

Students will know that the human dimensions of science provides a context for scientific knowledge

Research examples of current science projects that are conducted by individuals in the field as well as by teams

Examine the ethical considerations of using new technologies (example: fusion in weaponry versus domestic power production)

Use peer review as part of the laboratory experience

Identify societal issues that are related to physics (examples: effects of electromagnetic radiation associated with high tension power lines, color televisions, microwave transmitters)

Investigate science careers in engineering, lasers, and other related fields

Students will understand that science is an explanation of the natural world through the use of empirical observations

Contrast knowledge of the natural world that is personally useful and relevant but not scientific, with experimental or observational evidence

Validate that scientific knowledge is constantly growing and changing

Students will understand that science builds on previous knowledge

Explain ways that scientists share knowledge and build on the work of previous scientists

Create a historic time line for the development of a physics-related topic and explain how the theory and concept changed (examples: Aristotelian, Newtonian, relativity)