INTRODUCTION

You are a student at Parish Episcopal School enrolled in the AP Physics B class. You thought it was a good idea to take the course because you've heard Physics is an important subject but you don't know exactly why.

On the other hand, you really want to get a good grade since your transcript will be sent to various colleges and you do not want to risk your chance of admission.

This PhysicsQuest is designed to unburden you of these dark, deep doubts.

TASK

By the end of this PhysicsQuest you will have learned about the importance of studying Physics and you will be familiar with our classroom website, an essential tool for success in our class.

PROCESS AND RESOURCES

You will be given a series of questions and various links to Internet sites that will help you answer the questions. Visit the websites, look for the information and type your answers.

CONCLUSION

At the beginning of this exercise you were promised that you would be unburdened of any dark, deep doubts you might have had about the importance of studying physics in high school.

11. Please write an evaluation of this exercise including any changes in your thinking about studying physics that occurred as a result of the PysicsQuest. Include your impressions at this early point in the year of the helpfulness of the materials you've discovered along the way.

PhysicsQuest

MY AP PHYSICS CLASS

PART I.

Read the article: "Eight Reasons Why No Student Should Go Through High

School Without Taking Physics" 

1. Enumerate the eight reasons.

2. Select two of the reasons and write a short paragraph about them using

your own words.

PART II.

Test your Physics knowledge by answering the questions on the column titled:

"The Cultural and Economic Impact of Physics"

3. Name two facts that surprised you.

PART III.

In order to be successful in class you have to check your assignments on

a weekly basis.

4. Write an annotated link (*) to the weekly assignments on the AP Physics website.

* Annotated Link: Consists of three parts:

- NAME of the website,

- URL (web address) of the site and a

-  BRIEF (one or two sentences) description of the contents.

Imagine that you've got the flu and you were not able to go to class. The topic covered that day was Projectile Motion from the Kinematics in Two Dimensions unit. While you are recovering at home you visit the Physics Tutorials page.

Part 1 shows which site is appropriate for each Physics level. On Part 2 you'll find Index by Topic. Go to Part 2 and select the Kinematics in Two Dimensions topic.

5. Write annotated links of  two sites with relevant AP Physics level information about Projectile Motion.

You have a test on Newton's Laws and you would like to be sure that you understand what the objectives are for this particular chapter.

6. Write the annotated links of each site that would take you to find such information starting from the AP Physics website.

Your class is going to Six Flags and you need to write a paper about the history of Roller Coasters.  You visit the Physics Quests site.

7. Write an annotated link of each site that would take you to find such information starting from the AP Physics site.

On a Sunday night you are doing your homework on Bernoulli's Principle. You are not sure about how to solve the problems so you visit the Problem Solving Skills site and you search for the information under the Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Physics Section.

8. Write down an annotated link for the webpage that contains the exact information on problem-solving.

9. Write down the steps needed to solve problems involving Bernoulli's Principle.

Imagine that you are reviewing for a test on Geometric Optics and you need to know what kind of images are formed by convex mirrors and concave lenses. You visit the AP Physics website and you click on the Physics Facts link.

10. Write down the URL of the Physics Facts website and answer the question about the kind of images formed by convex mirrors and concave lenses.