[OpenStax, College physics 2e, Introduction: the nature of science and physics] The nature of science and physics: Introduction to science and the realm of physics, physical quantities, and units
Teacher's manual - The nature of science and physcs
Teacher's manual for The nature of science and physics
Introduction
This course is suitable for high school students, at which level it is appropriate for blended learning, as well as for early college or applied university students, at which level it can also be employed in a remedial or flipped classroom setting.
Description of the course: this module is the first part of a dynamics course and comprises a general introduction to physics. It offers a broad motivation and contextualization for the study of physics and covers important concepts such as units, physical quantities, notions of precision and accuracy, and significant figures.
Study load: 0.25 ECT.
How to organise your course
In the tab below, you can find a selection of suggested exercises for classroom demonstration and for student practice. Later in this document, you can also find a sample diagnostic test. Assuming a four hour per week class load, this module (including its introductory chapter) can be covered in three weeks.
In the tab below, you can find a selection of exercises that are suitable for diagnosing a student's level in the contents of this module. Since the tools learned in this general introductory chapter are applied throughout all physics modules, only three exercises from this chapter were selected, focused on uncertainty and unit conversion. Note that knowledge of significant figures is required to solve most exercises in subsequent modules.
Teacher's tools and resources
For the general introductory chapter, the most crucial concepts are those of significant figures, physical quantities, and units, all of which can be trained and tested in the exercise packages provided. Significant figures become particularly important afterwards as most exercises in the one-dimensional (and subsequent) chapters require numerical answers given with a pre-specified number of significant figures.
This chapter is adapted from the first chapter of the OpenStax book College Physics 2e. Our exercise packages contain adapted exercises from the OpenStax book as well as original SOWISO exercises. Further practice material can be found in the OpenStax page of the College Physics 2e book.
This module only requires basic mathematics knowledge as a prerequisite. These can be found in chapters 1 through 8 of SOWISO's Basic Math course. In particular, no differentiation or integration is needed to complete this module.
Or visit omptest.org if jou are taking an OMPT exam.
