AP Physics C — Course Organization for 2022–2023

Teaching AP Physics C is a fun and rewarding experience, but organizing the course can be challenging — especially if you teach Mechanics and Electricity and Magnetism. This is my eighth year of teaching a combined AP Physics C course, during which I’ve used different course organizations. The course organization is fitted to the schedule and students of the Singapore American School: The school has an alternating 80-minute block schedule; AP Physics C is a second-year course for students. Please keep these constraints in mind when reading the course organization document.

Table of Contents

• Section 1: Course Organization — Page 1
• Section 2: Schedule — Page 3
• Section 3: Scoring System — Page 15
• Section 4: Comparison of Models with Book Chapters and AP Problems — Page 18
• Section 5: Models for Electricity and Magnetism — Page 21
• Section 6: Models for Mechanics — Page 28
• Section 7: Model for a Concept in AP Physics C — Page 42

AP Physics C — Course Organization for 2022–2023

For further reading about the underlying cognitive science and philosophy of the course, here are a few links:

• Learning, Fast and Slow
• Stuck in a Performance Plateau? Use this Guide to Break Through the Plateau and Maximize Your Ability
• Instructional Design for Science Teachers: Using the Idea of Mental Models to Drive Learning

Please share any comments or questions — I would love to know what you think of the course organization!

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash