Physics Boot Camp Part 2a of 3: Essential Force Concepts

This is a three session class designed to prepare students to excel in a future high school physics course.  The class consist of three 90-minute face-to-face sessions and assigned Minds on Physics© game modules played outside of class. Minds on Physics© functions as homework for practice and assessments for feedback. Students and parents will receive weekly progress updates. Access to a one-year subscription for Minds on Physics© is provided for all students.

Face-to-face, synchronous learning, will be an inquiry-based discovery of physics concepts through the creation and analysis of visual, graphical, and mathematical models. Experiments will be designed and data will be collected through virtual web-based interactives. Google Sheets will be used to create graphical models of data collected. Students will present the models to each other for peer review, then test the models for their predictive abilities. [This process meets the curricular competencies of: questioning and predicting; planning and conducting; processing and analyzing data and information; evaluating; applying and innovating; and communicating.] Students will be supplied with resources to explain and support the physics concepts developed and tested during the inquiry portion of class time.

Homework and Assessments of Understanding will be done asynchronously through the Sudden Death (for credit) mode of the Minds on Physics©  application (MOPs).  Test it out by clicking on this link:  https://www.physicsclassroom.com/mop/Kinematic-Concepts/Scalars-and-Vectors/Mission-KC1

Part 2a: Force Essentials
Big Idea: Forces influence the motion of an object.
Inquiry Questions:
  How can forces change the motion of an object?
  How can Newton’s laws be used to explain changes in motion?
Content:
  contact forces and the factors that affect magnitude and direction
     for example, normal force, spring force, tension force, frictional force
  mass, force of gravity, and apparent weight
  Newton’s laws of motion and free-body diagrams
     First: the concept of mass as a measure of inertia
     Second: net force from one or more forces
     Third: actions/reactions happen at the same time in pairs
  balanced and unbalanced forces in one-body systems
    
Syllabus:

First Class - 
Face2Face: 
  Introduction to force and motion
  Magnitude and direction
  Force diagrams as visual models
  Mass vs force of gravity vs weight
Concept review: 
  Contact forces - Normal, Friction, Tension, Spring, Applied
  Non-contact (field) forces - Gravity, Electrical, magnetic
MOPs: 
  Mission NL2: Balanced Forces and the State of Motion
  Mission NL4: Types of Forces
  Mission NL5: Force Diagrams
  Mission NL6: Mass vs. Weight
Concept Checkers:
  Free-Body Diagrams 
  Free-Body Diagrams ... The Sequel 

Second Class - 
Face2Face: 
  Deep dive into force diagrams and systems analysis
  Mass as a measure of inertia (Newton’s first law)
  Forces are interactions that always occur in pairs
Concept review: 
  Horizontal and vertical net force from a force diagram
  Net force and motion
  Identifying third-law pairs in multi-bodied systems
MOPs: 
  Mission NL1: Inertia and Newton's First Law
  Mission NL10: Free Fall Acceleration
  Mission NL11: Air Resistance
  Mission NL12: Newton's Third Law
Concept Checkers:
  Rocket Sled

Third Class - 
Face2Face: 
  Balanced vs unbalanced forces and acceleration
  The mathematical relationship between force, mass, and acceleration
Concept review: 
  Applying Newton’s second law to determine force, mass, or acceleration
  Mathematical analysis of force diagrams
  Simple Newton's Law Problem
MOPs: 
  Mission NL3: Unbalanced Forces and Acceleration
  Mission NL7: Newton's Second Law
  Mission NL8: F = m•a Calculations
  Mission NL9: Force Analysis
Concept Checkers:
  Force