Review of Physics Curricula Offered by CPO In partial fulfillment of PHY690 Master Project Philip Coburn Department of Physics SUNY Buffalo State College 1300 Elmwood Ave Buffalo NY 14222 pcoburn aol com Acknowledgment This manuscript was prepared in partial fulfillment of requirements for PHY690 Masters Project at SUNY Buffalo State College under the guidance of Dr Dan MacIsaac ABSTRACT Tom Hsu founder of CPO formerly known as the Cambridge Physics Outlet and his colleagues have developed textbooks and lab manuals for courses in physical science early high school physics and late high school physics This review summarizes the similarities and distinguishing features among the three curricula Foundations of Physical Science Physics A First Course and Foundations of Physics Each program offers not only a textbook lab manual and teacher resources but also the distinctive plywood CPO lab equipment with which to conduct the labs Though claiming to be inquiry centered the programs are found instead to be lab based as the lab manuals and equipment do not offer sufficient scope for the level of student initiative implied by inquiry The Foundations of Physics text falls short in its ability to communicate difficult concepts clearly Physics A First Course fails more narrowly to communicate clearly about vectors Though Foundations of Physical Science has simplifications that will have to be later un learned it is found to provide the most coherent basis for an effective lab centered course Coburn Page 1 of 15 INTRODUCTION Every spring physics teachers take stock of the curricular materials they have been using and consider whether better textbooks equipment and lab manuals are out there This review summarizes my findings after examining the offerings from CPO formerly known as the Cambridge Physics Outlet While best known for their plywood physics equipment recently they have developed textbooks and lab manuals as part of cohesive curricular programs I evaluated these materials while teaching physics primarily to 9th graders at a private selective day school in Buffalo NY We have been using Paul Hewitt s text Conceptual Physics 1997 with all levels of freshmen for at least eight years THE PROGRAMS AND THEIR SHARED FEATURES CPO offers three different physics program levels for high school The three programs share names with their associated textbooks Foundations of Physical Science 2nd edition 2005a abbreviated FOPS Physics A First Course 1st edition 2008a abbreviated PAFC and Foundations of Physics 1st edition 2004a abbreviated FOP All three programs have four components student textbooks student lab manuals equipment kits and a teacher s guide and toolkit The textbooks are all authored by CPO founder Thomas C Hsu Each contains eight or nine units detailed in Table 1 which are typically divided into three chapters Most chapters contain three sections Uniquely every individual page in each section is self contained text never carries from one page to the next The textbooks also share a distinctive landscape format that leaves room for a column of figures and graphs on the right and a column of paragraph title phrases on the left of the central text By breaking the text into manageable chunks providing space for related visuals and cuing students with paragraph topic phrases Hsu provides helpful Coburn Page 2 of 15 reading aids Unfortunately some pages are topped off with distracting or confusing filler such as the discussion of g forces on page 98 of FOP but in general the format works well While his writing does not match the folksy readability of Conceptual Physics Hewitt 1997 Hsu s language is generally clear The equipment kits also share similar features Each kit allows one lab group to do all of the investigations in the associated Investigations manual see Table 2 for prices The equipment is beautifully crafted Hubisz 2008 particularly the tracks and support pieces made from heavy duty birch plywood They have the visual and tactile appeal of toys Waugh 1995 while being designed to support a scientific approach to data collection For example the Energy Car track has pre marked locations every 5 cm allowing for repeatable measurements from one trial to another It also simplifies the process of collecting data at regularly spaced intervals such as in an investigation of the speed of an object rolling down a ramp The teacher s guides for the three programs Hsu 2005b Hsu 2008c and Hsu 2009 share a similar design Rather than expanding on the text as most teachers manuals do for instance Hewitt 2009 these guides provide step by step guidance for each page of the lab manual an overview a sample teacher student dialog an image of the Investigations page and examples data and answers The dialogs in particular are designed for teachers new to the subject area as they identify possible student misconceptions and highlight important learning content Hsu 2009 p viii The teacher s guides also include lists of consumable materials for investigations and answers for the end of chapter questions in the textbooks student textbooks do not have any of these answers Finally the programs share a broadly similar price structure see Table 2 for details roughly 70 for the textbook 20 for the lab manual 90 per student for the bundled package Coburn Page 3 of 15 and 2000 for a complete equipment kit Notice that the bundles serve different numbers of students Lab equipment is also available a la carte The cost of outfitting a classroom with the full program varies widely For instance a single Foundations of Physics class of 24 students working in groups of 4 would cost about 12 500 to outfit one program bundle plus five additional equipment kits or 520 per student Five sections of 24 FOP students 120 students taking the same course at different times of day would cost about 13 000 five program bundles plus one additional equipment kit or only 108 per student DIFFERENCES AMONG THE PROGRAMS Though the programs share many features there are also some key distinctions Many of the programs differences spring from their intended audience As stated on the CPO website www CPO com under FAQ s FOPS and PAFC are intended for 8th to 10th graders while FOP is intended for 10th to 12th graders In addition as their names suggest FOPS is designed for a physical science course combining elements of both physics and chemistry while PAFC and FOP are both geared for physics courses While all 3 textbooks cover many of the same
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