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guitarnan
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| Posted: May 20 2014 at 12:26pm | IP Logged
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I need to find a physics text for my daughter that is not Apologia Physics (which, of course, we already own). She is doing precalculus now, so the math level isn't as important as the overall content.
I did a search of the previous threads on physics, and didn't see too many recommendations. Has anyone found a high school physics text that worked well for their student(s)?
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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SeaStar
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| Posted: May 20 2014 at 12:49pm | IP Logged
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Life of Fred has an elementary physics book... from what I have read review-wise it is more suitable for older kids with higher math skills.
It may be too young/easy for your dd and not enough to qualify for a whole class or credit, but it may be a fun extra to work through, especially if you are a Fred fan.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: May 20 2014 at 1:06pm | IP Logged
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Nancy,
My senior just finished Physics. For the year we used:
Physics the Easy Way (just for quizzes on terminology and concepts)
Khan Academy Physics Lectures - these are excellent!
Instant Physics by Tony Rothman
Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman
Not Physics but a part of her senior science year anyway...
Did Darwin Get It Right by George Sim Johnston
Seven Myths about the Catholic Church & Science (Catholic Courses) by Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D.
The following Physics books are high school level, but were read in other years. They're excellent for consideration for Physics:
The Flying Circus of Physics by Jearl Walker (Excellent!!)
The Forces of Matter by Michael Faraday
The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios
I also encouraged Mythbusters viewing (particular episodes). I used this compilation I came up with for choosing Physics related episodes:
2014-05-20_130442_Physics_Related_Episodes_of_Mythbusters.pd f
....and then I'd ask the older kids viewing the episodes to be able to correctly identify the Physics principle(s) shown in the episode.
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MarilynW
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| Posted: May 20 2014 at 2:26pm | IP Logged
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Nancy - I only have a couple of minutes. I am cutting and pasting the resources that my daughter used for Grade 12 physics. There was also a Coursera or MIT course that she used which was 12 weeks and excellent - taught by a really good professor at UVA.
How Things Work – the Physics of Everyday Life - http://www.amazon.com/How-Things-Work-Physics-Everyday/dp/04 7146886X
The Flying Circus of Physics - http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Circus-Physics-Jearl-Walker/dp/ 0471762733/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336441663&sr=1-1
Hippocampus Physics - http://www.hippocampus.org/Physics;jsessionid=215D6FAE25DF66 5D6579E26D7D68C220
Mad About Physics - http://www.amazon.com/Mad-About-Physics-Braintwisters-Curios ities/dp/0471569615/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=133644204 3&sr=1-1
Thinking Physics - http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Physics-Understandable-Practi cal-Reality/dp/0935218084/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_c
Physics the Easy Way
Can you feel the force ( a little young but fun)
Six Easy Pieces - http://www.amazon.com/Six-Easy-Pieces-Book-CD-Package/dp/B00 71UOSUA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336442386&sr=1-1
Labs – Experiences in Physics http://rainbowresource.com/product/Experiences+in+Physics/01 7710/0f9d4bb3372d603c19ab6ce1?subject=11&category=7606
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: May 20 2014 at 9:47pm | IP Logged
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Is she math inclined? My dd is VEEEEEERY math inclined (just finished first year calc at the local university and aced it). She would have hated doing a more living books physics. She wanted something steeped in math. My ds on the other hand loved living books science and would have liked to have forgone math all together!
Have you looked at Conceptual Physics (Hewitt). It is definitely a textbook but is readable. Reminds me of Jacobs Math (which we love around here). It is more conceptual, but the concepts are explained so well. She would have enough math as the math is not heavy at all in this course.
We found the Khan academy lectures well done but it was hard to really practice the concepts without more problem solving. They did make a nice addition though.
Just my .02 
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Angel
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| Posted: May 21 2014 at 8:42am | IP Logged
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This thread is timely for me. My ds will be doing physics next year, too. He *hates* math and just got done with a very math-heavy chemistry class, but I haven't decided whether we'll be doing entirely living books or using Hewitt's Conceptual Physics as well. I have a copy of it (picked up cheap a couple of years ago), but I don't have any answer keys, teacher's guides, etc. How hard is the book to use?
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SallyT
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| Posted: May 21 2014 at 8:50am | IP Logged
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Following with interest. We'll be outsourcing physics, but I'm looking to build related living books into our reading for next year. Already have Six Easy Pieces scheduled, but am really grateful to see these other titles.
Sally
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KackyK
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| Posted: May 21 2014 at 8:59am | IP Logged
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Marilyn and Jen when you do a living books approach is there any order you have the kids read the books? Are you moms going through and making a syllabus for them or do you say...here are the books you are going to read, pick and choose and away they go?
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Angel
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| Posted: May 21 2014 at 10:22am | IP Logged
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I'm not Marilyn or Jen, but I can speak from experience with other living book-science courses... my kids have needed to have a little more structure than just letting them choose books, although I do try to *choose* books with their individual abilities, talents, and interests in mind.
On the other hand, this year we had a lot of luck with taking a more project-based approach to my daughter's zoology/biology course, so I'm thinking about how to do that for physics, too. We only have done this for the past couple of months, but... what I did was to have my daughter choose a topic she was interested in. (For zoology, this was an animal. She chose monotremes -- like, platypus, echidna?) Then we gathered books for her to research and she also did online research. I gave her a schedule and a goal for completion of the project -- a 5-8 page paper. She read as much as we could find about monotremes, including a great book which she said finally cleared up how the classification process works for her. Then we narrowed down her topic for her paper, she wrote it, I commented on it, etc. Now she's working on a field-based project for the summer. (I got the project idea from the 1st edition of Andrew Campbell's Latin-Centered Curriculum. He totally changed his science recommendations in the 2nd edition to a standard textbook approach.)
*Anyway*, all of that is just a roundabout explanation of what I'm hoping to adapt this year for my son in physics... allowing him *some* choice, but also scheduling in various books. I think it will be a little harder to do in physics, so we'll have a spine syllabus as well -- like, a scheduled reading of books or a living textbook. But with my daughter I found that she understood so much more and was able to cover a lot of general principles through researching a topic *she* was interested in.
Not sure if that's any help or just me thinking out loud! 
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Angela
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MarilynW
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| Posted: May 22 2014 at 8:22am | IP Logged
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KackyK wrote:
Marilyn and Jen when you do a living books approach is there any order you have the kids read the books? Are you moms going through and making a syllabus for them or do you say...here are the books you are going to read, pick and choose and away they go?
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Kacky - depends on the age and particular kids. For everyone I decide on the books for the year, then assign them to quarters. For older ones I have weekly suggestions. For little ones specific daily ones. 9th grade I organize the schedule for them - 10th grade they are supposed to be using the weekly schedule to come up with their own daily assignments - and then by 12th grade really responsible for their schedules. My rising 10th graders are having a struggle organizing themselves, so I need to be patient and work with them.
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MarilynW
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| Posted: May 22 2014 at 8:26am | IP Logged
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Just to say - Physics was not a huge priority for us - my dd is not a math/science major - and she did not want a hugely rigorous program - if she did we would probably have used a textbook as a base supplemented with some living books. DD did use a more formal approach with Biology and Chemistry - and took SAT subject tests and did very well with them.
For my sons - this approach will probably not work. They have chosen more rigorous formats for Chemistry (Grade 9) and they really like Kolbe's Biology which is what they have chosen for 10th grade. Physics we will probably do at the local community college.
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Kelly
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| Posted: May 24 2014 at 4:23pm | IP Logged
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We outsourced Physics for my math-vectored i-want-2b-an-engineer sons, which worked well for this decidedly NON physics-oriented mom. We discovered an acceedited area high school that offers a 3-week intensive physics class for a full year's physics credit. So 15 7hr days days of physics and voila-done! Highly recommended.
We have done this "summer intensive" routine for most of our gang for Algebra 1,2 & geometry, too, and its great. By 9th grade my kids are in precalc and no problems with colleges on applications. Ive found that the comfort zone for accepting highschool credits from homeschoolers-for many colleges- often focuses on maths and sciences. If its an accredited math or science program they dont blink an eye(silly but there u go!) Once they feel comfortable anout ir kids competencies in maths and sciences, they then they tend to accept english, lit & history "mommy-generated" course credits without any question... The irony of course being our home-orchestrated classes tend to be SO much better!!!;-)
Another advantage of the summer intensive routine is that then tje kids have more flexibility with their winter schedule-if ur planning a trip, or due to sports or whatever.
Bizarrely, my kids have rather liked these total immersion programs- maybe because theyve been able to really dig into a topic w out distractions
Im sure there are many other schools that provide such programs. Worth lookin into...yet another way to "skin the cat"! Lol
Kelly in FL
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: May 27 2014 at 8:43am | IP Logged
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I actually am a math/physics mom but it was SO long ago. Outsourcing physics (as my dd was also a 'math-vector' child!) was wonderful. I am sure I could have gotten my brain there if I followed along all of her lessons but with two other kids to teach and my dd doing so much of her work independently, the outsourcing worked wonderfully (although our main reason for outsourcing was that she wanted to apply to engineering at a university that would only accept 'accredited' math, physics, and chem courses for admissions (they didn't even want my book lists for all of the great CM living books stuff we did  ). But she got in (virtual parent brag!).
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Kelly
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| Posted: May 27 2014 at 11:48pm | IP Logged
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Congrats Kristie-no mean feat!Homeschooling Physics Mothers of the World, Unite ;-)
I just wanted to add to a comment someone made about Khan Academy in this thread. One of my boys told me that he has discovered that Khan Academy is an excellent resource to help prepare for his college engineering classes. Before he goes into a class, he checks his syllabus to see what the days lecture is on, and then goes to Khan academy and listens to the KA lecture on the topic. That way, he's not going in "cold" and he has found it really gives him a mental hook on which to hang the new things he learns and he seems to retain more.
Why didn't I ever think of that?!? 
Kelly in FL
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Angel
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| Posted: July 01 2014 at 5:39pm | IP Logged
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Bumping this thread to ask about resources for physics labs? Did any of you use a lab manual?
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Angela
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Angel
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| Posted: July 11 2014 at 4:26pm | IP Logged
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Bumping again and rephrasing my question... if you didn't use a text (Marilyn and Jen), how did you do labs?
I'm theorizing:
*Look through Flying Circus of Physics (or another such book)
*Decide what activities to do.
*Make a list of necessary materials.
Did you decide on labs at the beginning of the year or as you went along?
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Aug 05 2014 at 10:45am | IP Logged
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Ugh - sorry it's taken me a while to get back to this, Angela!
Angel wrote:
if you didn't use a text (Marilyn and Jen), how did you do labs?
I'm theorizing:
*Look through Flying Circus of Physics (or another such book)
*Decide what activities to do.
*Make a list of necessary materials.
Did you decide on labs at the beginning of the year or as you went along? |
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We did labs at home, and I've completed them both ways - purchasing a lab kit with a very set structure and pace, and also letting them spring organically through the living books being read. Other than our Chemistry year, I decided on labs as we went along. My first student wasn't interested in a deep study, so we covered essentials and when I noted an interest, I took that as an opening to explore and often researched/built labs around that. My next high schooler will be a different approach in that I'll have to scale back what he'd like to explore. I'm thinking of providing as much general material for him to explore with as interests are discovered, and then trying to provide a basic structure for completing and communicating about a lab. (And...I wrote all this out and then proofed and realized we're talking on the Physics-without-a-text-thread, and I was writing based on my thinking that we were on the general high-school-science-without-a-text-thread...so I'm going to leave my response because it has the answer to the Physics lab, but just in case the other answers have relevance, too??)
Biology - we used a lab manual that gave us some guidance and completed labs based on several I found online and could duplicate in our home/lab. It was sort of a hybrid of interest-led and lab-workbook-structure. We completed an intensive course in *Natural History/Becoming A Naturalist* that I considered a lab-centered year and that was adequate for Botany and Zoology, so our other labs for our Biology year were more Anatomy/Phys centered.
Chemistry - I purchased a lab kit from Home Chem Lab/The Home Scientist, which came with a lab manual and all the chemicals needed. We used a few apps to predict how a particular lab might turn out, but since my student was really NOT interested in pursuing a science career and we were reading with more general Chemistry emphasis, I wanted the lab a little more structured. It's a good kit, and is honestly a chemistry course all by itself. If you purchased this kit for chemistry, it contains all the chemistry essentials and reading material to cover the why and what of each lab. Not knowing this, I didn't adequately figure it more prominently into her year (planning and scheduling wise), which wasn't really a terrible thing since my first wasn't super passionate about chemistry/science to begin with. But it's a good enough lab that I'll use it again with my next, who is very science passionate, and now I'll plan it with more consideration because I know it will need a chunk of time to be completed adequately.
Physics - This lab is so easy to integrate with the reading and then allow labs and explorations to spring right from the reading. We used Mythbusters episodes for some inspiration for labs, excerpts from Flying Circus, as well as excerpts from Clouds in a Glass of Beer (Atmospheric Physics) and Physics of Superheroes. Since our approach was conceptual Physics, I wasn't really worried about Calc...or even too much math at all. That may change with my next high schooler, and I may go with some different lab options, but my next high schooler thrives on reading and exploring, so I imagine the lab will still look much the same.
Sorry it took me over a month to share our lab approach, Angela!! Let me know if something here doesn't make sense!
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Jen Mackintosh
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MarilynW
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Angela - my dd used virtual labs and simulation. I had planned to use the Castle Heights manual and kit - but they went out of print becore I could get them. Here are some of the simulations that dd used:
Phet
My Physics Lab
For my next two high schoolers I will either have them dual enroll a physics class at the local community college or I will use the Kinetic Books Digital Text and Virtual Labs
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Angel
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| Posted: Aug 05 2014 at 3:35pm | IP Logged
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Don't apologize, Jen; you've got a lot going on this summer! (Me, too; we just got back in town after a two week driving trip out west, so I've only now gotten back to thinking about high school physics anyway.)
Actually, it *was* helpful to see your answers for all the sciences, Jen, because my oldest kind of varies in his interest, too. (Definitely more interested in physics than chemistry.) I'm a little worried about dropping the ball with labs in his senior year if I do it as I go along, but then again, he's not going into the sciences and he's already got two lab credits (possibly three, but I'm not sure we did enough lab-ish stuff in Astronomy to count), so I think whatever we can get done this year will probably be adequate. Marilyn, I had some virtual lab sites bookmarked myself, so it makes feel better that your dd also used them!
I have found some more resources for conceptual physics which I'm still reviewing, but right now I think we're going to use How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life. It *is* a text (written for liberal arts majors) but seems a lot more interesting than your average textbook. (There is a companion book that isn't a textbook, How Everything Works: Making Physics out of the Ordinary.) I also found a free lab manual online that uses ordinary materials and has some neat experiments: Teaching Physics in Remote Places... which I guess qualifies as my house!
And a few more books:
Physics for Future Presidents
First You Build a Cloud
Physics for Poets
Not so sure we'll be using the last one, but anyway, it was a used copy and cheap.
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Angela
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Aug 05 2014 at 3:40pm | IP Logged
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Really interested to hear your thoughts on these as you go along, Angela. My son has already read ALL of the Physics books I provided to his 12th grade sister (ugh -  - and of course, it's great, too), so I'll be brainstorming Physics for a slightly more in depth course for him when we get to Physics with him. Really like the sound of all your books above!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: Physics Again
