California High School Physics Standards:

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This page is an experienced teacher's discussion of each of the California High School Physics Standards.

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To obtain a copy of the original California Standards, simply type "California Science Standards" into your browser and probably the first listing will be a PDF copy of the entire document.

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The original California Science Framework is a more complete discussion of the Standards.† As with the Standards, you can obtain a copy of the Framework by typing "California Science Framework" into you browser and the 310 paged PDF document can then be easily downloaded.

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The original California Science Standards document simply states each Science Standard.† The Framework states each Science Standard for grades K--12 and includes a more detailed discussion of the content of each Standard.

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What this web page attempts to do:

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The content of this web page was inspired after several careful readings of the High School Physics section of the California Science Framework.† Although the presentation there seems quite clear, some new teachers have suggested that perhaps a document should be created that includes more information on how to teach the content of each Standard.† This web page attempts to be a collection of documents that discusses each California Physics Standard with ideas that might be useful to the new or inexperienced physics teacher.

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In the following, each physics Standard is addressed separately with attention to possible misconceptions, ideas for presenting the topic, including suggested demonstrations and activities.† Every effort was made to make the presentation as brief as possible with just enough information to guide a teacher's thinking when preparing to teach the particular Physics Standard.

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Guiding principles used here for addressing each California Physics Standard:

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1.† We will focus the discussion on a particular Standard and confine the discussion to about two pages.† (Sometimes cramming the required material into two pages was too difficult.† However, five pages/standard is a maximum.)

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2.† A crude illustration is better than no illustration.

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3.† Specific and detailed lesson plans should be left to the individual teacher.

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4.† Detailed lab and activity descriptions, with student directions, will be addressed in a later version of this web page, through links.

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5.† An experienced physics teacher will probably find little of value here.† However, we are very willing to receive corrections and better suggestions on how to present the material from all experienced teachers.†

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Send these suggestions to: Bill Laytonlayton@physics.ucla.edu.

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Notes to students who might come across this page:

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1.† Each Standard has been discussed briefly.† However, you must read and think about what is being said.† This material cannot be explained in a "tweet".

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2.† Physics is more than memorizing formulas.† Formulas highlight relationships but should not be a substitute for understanding.† Use formulas more as guides to help you understand the physics and less as something to plug into while solving problems.

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3.† Although physics may require less memorizing than other sciences, there is a certain minimum material that must be memorized and kept handy in your brain in order to understand other material.

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Table of Contents:

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This table will list each of the Standards and give a link to our discussion of this standard.† These will be links to our MS Word documents that can be downloaded and edited for individual use.† At the beginning of each major Standard Set, there will be a link to a composite PDF document that will include all of our individual MS Word documents in a single PDF document.

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Standard Set 1.† Motion and Forces.†† Link to PDF copy of entire Standard Set 1.

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††††††††††† 1a.† Constant speed and average speed.†† Link to MS Word document 1a

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††††††††††† 1b.† Balanced forces lead to no acceleration.† Link to MSWord document 1b

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††††††††††† 1c.† F = ma and one-dimensional constant force problems.† Link to MSWord document 1c

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††††††††††† 1d.† Forces of interaction and Newton's third law.† Link to MSWord document 1d

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††††††††††† 1e.† Law of gravity acting near the Earth's surface.† Link to MSWord document 1e

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††††††††††† 1f.† A perpendicular force changes velocity but not speed.† Link to MSWord document 1f

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††††††††††† 1g.† Perpendicular forces and circular motion.† Link to MSWord document 1g

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††††††††††† 1h* Limitations on Newton's laws.† Link to MSWord document 1h*

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††††††††††† 1i* Two dimensional trajectory problems.† Link to MSWord document 1i*

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††††††††††† 1j* Vectors, components and sums.† Link to MSWord document 1j*

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††††††††††† 1k* Two-dimensional problems involving balanced forces.† Link to MSWord document 1k*

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††††††††††† 1l* Problems in circular motion.† Link to MSWord document 1l*

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††††††††††† 1m* Coulomb's Law and Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation.† Link to MSWord document 1m*,

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Standard Set 2.† Conservation of Energy and Momentum.†† Link to PDF copy of entire Standard Set 2

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††††††††††† 2a.† Calculating Kinetic Energy.† Link to MSWord document 2a

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††††††††††† 2b.† Calculating Potential Energy near the Earth's surface.† Link to MSWord document 2b

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††††††††††† 2c.† Problems involving the conservation of energy.† Link to MSWord document 2c

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††††††††††† 2d.† Calculating momentum as the product of mv.† Link to MSWord document 2d

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††††††††††† 2e.† Momentum and Energy are separately conserved.† Link to MSWord document 2e

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††††††††††† 2f.† Unbalanced forces produce changes in momentum.† Link to MSWord document 2f

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††††††††††† 2g.† Elastic and inelastic collisions.† Link to MSWord document 2g

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††††††††††† 2h* Conservation of Potential energy in springs and capacitors.† Link to MSWord document 2h*

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The following is not a California Standard but has been added since we deem it to be important.

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††††††††††† 2i** Energy and Power.††††††††† Link to MSWord document 2i**

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Standard Set 3.† Heat and Thermodynamics,† Link to PDF copy of entire Standard Set 3.

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††††††††††† 3a.† Heat and work are forms of energy transfer.† Link to MSWord document 3a

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††††††††††† 3b.† Work done by heat engines working in a cycle.† Link to MSWord document 3b

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††††††††††† 3c.† Thermal energy related to random motion and temperature.† Link to MSWord document 3c

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††††††††††† 3d.† Heat energy distributes over time to uniform levels.† Link to MSWord document 3d

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††††††††††† 3e.† Entropy and the measure of order and disorder.† Link to MSWord document 3e

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††††††††††† 3f* Entropy as a statement of statistical probability.† Link to MSWord document 3f*

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††††††††††† 3g* Problems involving heat flow, work and heat engines.† Link to MSWord document 3g*

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Standard Set 4.† Waves†† Link to PDF copy of entire Standard Set 4.

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††††††††††† 4a.† Waves carry energy from place to place.† Link to MSWord document 4a

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††††††††††† 4b.† Transverse and longitudinal waves.† Link to MSWord document 4b

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††††††††††† 4c.† Problems involving wavelength, frequency and wave speed.† Link to MSWord document 4c

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††††††††††† 4d.† Sound is a longitudinal wave.†† Link to MSWord document 4d

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††††††††††† 4e.† Electromagnetic waves.† Link to MSWord document 4e

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††††††††††† 4f.† Interference, diffraction, refraction, Doppler effect, polarization.† Link to MSWord document 4f

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Standard Set 5.† Electric and Magnetic Phenomena. Link to PDF copy of entire Standard Set 5.

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††††††††††† 5a.† Voltage and current in simple DC electric circuits.† Link to MSWord document 5a

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††††††††††† 5b.† Using Ohm's Law.†† Link to MSWord document 5b

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††††††††††† 5c.† Resistive elements and power dissipation in DC circuits.† Link to MSWord document 5c

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††††††††††† 5d.† Properties and role of transistors.† Link to MSWord document 5d

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††††††††††† 5e.† Electrostatic charge and electric fields.† Link to MSWord document 5e

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††††††††††† 5f.† Sources and effects of magnetic fields.† Link to MSWord document 5f

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††††††††††† 5g.† Currents in wires and coils produce magnetic fields.† Link to MSWord document 5g

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††††††††††† 5h.† Changing magnetic fields produce electric fields.† Link to MSWord document 5h

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††††††††††† 5i.† Plasma basics.†† Link to MSWord document 5i

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††††††††††† 5j* The vector nature of magnetic fields.† Link to MSWord document 5j*

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††††††††††† 5k* Calculating forces on charges in E fields.† Link to MSWord document 5k*

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††††††††††† 5l* Calculating E field from a point charge.† Link to MSWord document 5l*

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††††††††††† 5m* Calculating E fields from several point charges.† Link to MSWord document 5m*

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††††††††††† 5n*† Forces on charge particles moving in B fields.† Link to MSWord document 5n*

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††††††††††† 5o*† Energy calculations in Electric and Gravitational fields.† Link to MSWord document 5o*

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This completes table of contents to the links of our discussion of the California Physics Standards.† The primary intent is to provide a little more discussion of what a teacher might consider when preparing to teach the standards.† We welcome suggestions from all teachers on how we can improve our presentations.†

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The following quote from the historian and philosopher Ronald Aronson has been an inspiration to us in preparing this web page:

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"Knowing is a matter of humility.† It entails allowing oneself to enter into discussion, to submit what one says to the judgment of others, to be proven wrong at times, to be seen as fallible, and thus to realize that any particular piece of knowledge is always tentative, always subject to revision, always demanding verification.† This in turn implies a commitment to a communicative process in which we are always in dialogue with others, and in which they are always looking over our shoulders and commenting on what we claim to be true."¹

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Please e-mail your comments to:† Bill Layton:layton@physics.ucla.edu

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1† Aronson, Ronald†† †The Reason "Everything Happens for a Reason"† The Humanist† May-June 2009.

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