Australian Senior Physics Curriculum

Neil ChampionBuckley Park College

ACARA Writer14 February 2014

www.Edmodo.comOz Senior Physics Curriculum

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Design features of the curriculum

Equivalent strands

Science understandingScience as a human endeavour

Science inquiry skills

Science Understanding

• Key knowledge required for a survey course that begins a student’s engagement with the

physics discipline

What do physicists want in schools?

Open letter to the President

Science Inquiry Skills

• Data driven• Evidence based

• Informed by, and informs, theory• Qualitative• Quantitative• Mathematical

Method and measurement:(i) Method

• Data• Cause/effect• Representations and models• Algebra and graphs as models• Quantitative relationships• Law• Theory

Method and measurement:(ii) Measurement

• SI units• Data types: qualitative and quantitative• Data analysis: raw, derived• Uncertainty and error• Error bars• Carrying uncertainties through calculations

Science as a Human Endeavour

• Conceptual

• Representational

• Communal

Models• Models are central to science because scientists use them to describe,

explain, relate and predict phenomena.

• Models can be expressed in a range of ways – via words (with language that is commonly metaphorical), images (actual or imagined), mathematics (numerical, algebraic, geometric, graphical), or physical constructions (including some machines).

• Models help scientists to frame physical laws and theories, and these laws and theories are also models of the world.

• Models are not static – as scientific understanding of concepts or physical data or phenomena evolves, so to do the models scientists use to describe, explain, relate and predict these.

Communal

• Collaborative– Local– National

– International

• Debate and peer review– Conferences, posters, papers, learned

journals

Design features of the curriculum

CanonicalMethodological

Narrative structureContinuity

Equivalent strandsAchievement standards

Design features of the curriculum

Canonical

The major features of any modern physics curriculum are covered.

Unit 1Thermal, nuclear and electrical physics

• Heating processes

• Ionising radiation and nuclear reactions

• Electrical circuits

Unit 2Linear motion and waves

• Linear motion and force

• Waves

Unit 3Gravity and electromagnetism

• Gravity and motion

• Electromagnetism

Unit 4Revolutions in modern physics

• Special relativity

• Quantum theory

• The Standard Model

Design features of the curriculum

Methodological

Explicit and implicit attention is drawn to the way physics, as a discipline, is undertaken.

Design features of the curriculumRepeated ideas with increasing complexity

• Particles• Particles and energy• Energy and waves• Particles, space and time• Particles and forces• Forces and energy• Particles and energy• Forces, energy and fields• Fields and spacetime• Energy, particles and waves• Particles, waves and energy• Particles, waves, energy, force, spacetime …

Design features of the curriculum

Narrative structure

Key themes of observation, organisation and explanation recur in increasing complexity as the

story unfolds.

Design features of the curriculum

Continuity

Senior physics completes an F-12 physical science curriculum for Australia

Segue from F-10 to Senior

The Senior curriculum builds on, and assumes competence in F-10 standards (SU, SHE SIS)

Achievement standards

Separate rubrics for Year 11 and Year 12(5 taxonomical categories)

Physics concepts, models and applications

Physics inquiry skills

ACARA Senior Physics Achievement Standards

Examples in context

Each Unit is supported by a set of descriptive statements related to the Science as a human

endeavour strand:

• Speculative• Poorly coupled to Science Understanding

• Profound ignorance of current knowledge and methodological issues in related fields

Detailed studies?Unit 1 and Unit 2

• Heating processes– Energy from the nucleus

• Ionising radiation and nuclear reactions– Medical physics

• Electrical circuits– Sustainable energy resources• Linear motion

– Flight• Waves– Sound

– Astronomy

Detailed studies?Unit 3 and Unit 4

• Gravity and motion– Materials and structures• Electromagnetism– Further electronics• Special relativity

– Synchrotron and applications• Quantum theory

– Photonics• Standard Model

– Astrophysics