VISTA RIDGE
HIGH SCHOOL​
LINEAR PHYSICS​
Units of Instruction
1st Semester
Nature of Science - this unit covers basic science skills students will need to master to help them be successful in future units (e.g., graphing, scientific notation, significant figures, scientific process, writing defendable conclusions).
Kinematics - this unit analyzes the positions and motions of objects as a function of time, without regard to the causes of motion. It involves the relationships between the quantities displacement (d), velocity (v), acceleration (a), and time (t).
Dynamics - this unit is concerned with the study of forces and their effect on motion.
Momentum and Collisions - this unit looks at the correlation between mass and motion and what it takes to get a mass moving and what it takes to stop it from moving. Additionally, this unit explores what happens when two (or more) objects in motion collide.
Cyclical Motion - this unit deals with motion that repeats - hands on an analog clock, mass on a spring, pendulums, oribiting objects (introdution to gravitational attraction)
2nd Semester
Energy - this unit covers what energy is and where it comes from. Energy may exist in potential, kinetic, thermal, electrical, chemical, nuclear, or other various forms.
Work & Power - this unit covers how the change in energy results in work being done and looking at the rate at which work is done.
Waves, Sound, & Light - this unit covers the basic properties of waves and how those are applied to sound and light.
Curriculum - What Students Will Learn in Linear Physics
Colorado Science Content Standards
Physical Science Standard 1 - Newton's laws of motion & gravitation describe th relationships among forces acting on and between objects, theirm masses, and changes in their motion - but have limitations.
Physical Science Standard 5 - Energy exists in many forms such as mechanical, chemical, electrical, radiant, thermal, and nuclear that can be quantified and experimentally determined.
Physical Science Standard 6 - When energy changes form, it is neither created nor destroyed; however, because some is necessarily lost as heat, the amount of energy available to do work decreases.
Earth Systems Science Standard 2 - As part of the solar system, Earth interacts with various extraterrestrial forces, and energies such as gravity, solar phenomena, electromagnetic radiation, and impact events that influesnce the planet's geosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere in a variety of ways.
Earth Systems Science Standard 3 - The theory of plate tectonics helps explain geological, physical, and geographical features of Earth.
Earth Systems Science Standard 4 - Climate is the result of energy transfer among interactions of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere.