Standards

Evidence that a Standard has been Met:

The following criteria can provide increasingly more rigorous evidence that a given
lesson, activity, or unit will make it possible for students to develop the understanding called for in a given standard. It is not necessary to meet all the criteria to claim alignment, but the more criteria that can be met, the greater the likelihood that a student can achieve the understanding.

The outcomes of the unit, lesson, or activity are substantially the same as the
fundamental concepts in the standard

There is an explicit instruction outline containing activities that provide the
students an opportunity to meet the stated outcomes

Adequate time is provided in the instructional unit and by the classroom teacher
to ensure adequate opportunity for the ideas or concepts to be learned

Assessments that measure the stated outcome are included with the instructional
activities

Assessment data are available to indicate that students actually achieve the
outcomes

Example: Science Learner Competencies
Assessments for Physics and Physical Science - Physics Component

The following assessments of competence will integrate the general and process competencies in each of the assessment tools for the specific subject area of Physics and Physical Science.

Physical Science (Physics Component)
1. a. Give definitions of a vector and of a scalar quantity as used in Physics.
b. By using a clearly labeled diagram describe an experiment to determine the nature of motion due to gravity. Explain the conclusions that you are able to draw from this experiment.
c. (i) A car traveling from rest with a uniform acceleration reaches a speed of 30 m/s after 10 seconds. What is its acceleration?
(ii) If it continues to accelerate at the same rate after how long will its speed have doubled?


2. a. Describe a quantitative experiment which demonstrates that heat can be produced from mechanical energy.
b. Draw a clearly labeled diagram of the apparatus and show how the results demonstrate the relationship between heat and energy.
c. A piece of metal of specific heat capacity 0.4 kJ / kg- Ko and a mass of 0.1 kg is placed into 0.5 kg of water at 20 degrees Celsius. If the final temperature of the water is 25 degrees Celsius what was the original temperature of the metal? Assume no heat loss and that the container is perfectly insulated, and has no heat capacity.

3. a. State four postulates of the simple kinetic theory of gases.
b. Sketch in one clearly labeled diagram the distribution of the kinetic energies of a gas for a temperature T1 and for a temperature T2 > T1
c. Describe qualitatively the main features of these graphs.
d. Give an interpretation of the meaning of the area under the graph and compare this for both graphs.
e. What changes do you expect in the graphs from above, if we change to a gas whose particles have twice the mass? Qualitative arguments only.

4. a. An ideal gas, starting at A, undergoes the four step process shown in the figure below


b. Calculate the work done by the gas in terms of Po and Vo for each of the four steps and the total process.
c. Explain how the net work is represented in the diagram above.
d. Draw the P-V diagram for a Carnot Cycle and explain the main difference between the Carnot Cycle and the cycle sketched above.

5. A ball rolls off the edge of a horizontal table at 4 m/s. The ball hits the ground 0.4 secs later. Assuming g=10 m/s-s
a. What is the velocity of the ball at impact
b. What is the horizontal distance of the ball from the edge of the table
c. What is the height of the table

6. An object with a mass of 10 kg is at rest at the top of a frictionless inclined plane ( 2.0 m high and 10 m long). The body slides down this incline. What is the speed at the bottom?

7. A bullet is fired by a gun. Compare the momentum of the bullet and gun.

8. What would be an example of a nearly perfectly elastic collision and explain.

9. Positive charges are placed at the four corners of a square, as shown in the diagram


A negative charge placed in the center of the square experiences a force (F). What is the direction and magnitude of this force?

10. a. We almost instinctively expect electrical conductors to obey Ohm's law. To what extent can this expectation be fulfilled?
b. By consideration of the structure and properties of typical metals, semi conductors and insulators, show how far the conduction of electricity through solid substances can be explained by modification of a single model.

11. With respect to a gravitational field define
a. a conservative field
b. field intensity
c. equipotential surface

12. Describe, with essential experimental detail, how you would verify the validity of Newton's second law of motion in a school laboratory

13. A car, of mass 1000 kg, free-wheels with its engine shut off down a slope of 1 in 50, and it is found to accelerate at 0.15 m/s-s. If the force of resistance to motion remains constant, calculate the power required to take the car up the same slope at a constant speed of 60 km/hr.

14. In order to stop a car, frictional forces equivalent to a horizontal external force of 2400 N act on the car. After what distance will the car stop?

15. Explain in the context of mechanics, energy, kinetic and potential energy.

Physics ( One Year )

1. Explain concisely, but with full explanation of the principles involved in the following:
a. The outer rail on a curved section of a railway track is raised with respect to the inner rail.
b. A passenger is less likely to slide outwards when the vehicle goes around a bend if the driver accelerates the car.
c. Constant speeds for rotation in engines and motors can be achieved through the use of a governor.
d. Cream can be separated from milk in a device known as a centrifuge.

2. A car traveling on a horizontal road rounds a curve of radius 200 m. The distance between nearside and offside wheels on the car is 1.5 m, and the center of mass of the car is at a height of 1 m above the surface of the road. Assuming that no skidding occurs, at what speed would the car theoretically overturn when traveling around the bend? Why will the actual speed at which overturning occurs in practice be different from this?

3. a. Explain the meaning of weight and average acceleration
b. Two masses m1 = 0.1 kg and m2 = 0.2 kg are hung a string over a pulley. (see diagram)
c. After releasing the pulley, what is the tension in the string and what is the accelerating
force?
d. Calculate the acceleration of the system.
e. What is the distance moved by m2 during the first two seconds, assuming that v=0 at t=0 ?

4. a. Explain the concept of conservation of momentum.
b. Describe any suitable experiment to demonstrate the conservation of momentum.
c. A body of mass m1 = 3 kg is moving at constant velocity v1 = 10 m/s. It performs an inelastic collision with a body of mass m2 = 2 kg initially at rest. Calculate the velocities of both of the bodies after collision. What are the kinetic energies of the bodies before and after collision? Discuss the results of the kinetic energies.


5. a. With the help of suitable example taken from mechanics, explain the terms, potential energy and kinetic energy.
b. A block of mass m = 6.0 kg is projected with an initial velocity of V1 = 12 m/s up an inclined plane set at 45 degrees to the horizontal. It comes to rest after covering a distance of 5 meters. Calculate
(i) the energy dissipated through friction
(ii) the magnitude of the average frictional force
(iii) Compare the maximum of the kinetic energy with the maximum of the potential energy
(iv) Plot in one diagram the graphs of kinetic energy versus distance traveled
and potential energy versus distance traveled

6. a. What is meant by gravitational field strength, gravitational potential.
b. For the surface of the moon calculate the gravitational field strength and the gravitational potential
c. What is the distance from the earth of that point where the gravitational potential of the earth equals the gravitational potential of the moon?
d. Draw a qualitative diagram indicating the variation of the gravitational potential along the line Earth-Moon
e. Explain with the help of this diagram how speed of a spaceship on its flight from the Earth to Moon is influenced by the gravitational potential of the Earth and the Moon.

7. a. Explain the results from an experiment clearly indicating the sound is a wave phenomenon.
b. Describe two major differences between sound waves and electromagnetic waves.
c. A flute has two open ends. Sketch the first three modes of vibration of the air column in the flute using clearly labeled diagrams.
d. A tenor flute (both ends open) has a length of 56 cm. Calculate the frequency of the lowest note that can be played with this flute. Since a temperature increases cause an increase in the speed of sound. How will the note be changed?
e. When playing the lowest note of the flute in the above, the musician moves toward a wall. At which points will stationary waves be set up between the open end of the flute and the wall?

8. Starting from the laws of conservation of energy and conservation of charge derive a formula giving the effective resistance if two resistors are connected in series and if two resistors are connected in parallel.

9. Explain by means of a diagram the optical characteristics of a telescope and the concept of magnification.

10. a. State the main properties of leptons and hadrons.
b. Explain the reasons leading Fermi to the idea of the existence of the neutrinos

11. The rest mass of a proton is 1.6725 x 10-27 kg. It is moving at 1.2000 x 105 km/s, calculate its kinetic energy using the laws of classical mechanics and relativistic mechanics.

12. Assume the earth suddenly becomes one-half its original diameter, but its mass remains unchanged. What would the strength of the earth's gravitational pull on the moon be?

13. Waves in a ripple tank are formed by a dipper touching the water surface periodically with the period T. What is the relationship between the wavelength lambda, velocity v, and frequency f of the waves?

14. Describe the superposition principle and Huygen's principle with respect to wave propogation by giving examples in diagram form.

15. The speed of sound in air is 340 m/s. A source has a frequency of 680 Hz. What is the wavelength of the sound in the air?

16. a. Which of the electromagnetic radiations contain photons of the highest energy?
b. Rutherford's scattering experiment leads to what conclusions?
c. What does Debroglies theory show?
d. What is half-life?

17. a. What is the speed of propagation of light in glass of refractive index 1.57
b. A ray of light is incident on an air / water interface at an angle of 30 degrees to the normal. Determine the angle of refraction. At what angle will total internal reflection occur of light in the water? n = 4/3
c. How does Huygen's wave theory explain the laws of refraction?

18. a. Indicate the main ideas of the electromagnetic spectrum and list the properties of each of the sections identified.
b. Draw a simple labeled diagram of Hertz's spark transmitter and explain its method of operation. How is the radiation detected?
c. Explain the difference between amplitude modulation and frequency modulation as used in radio transmission. Compare the advantages of these two systems.

19. a. Describe an experiment to demonstrate the phenomenon of photoelectricity.
b. What are the factors which affect the number and energy of the photoelectrons which are liberated during this experiment?
c. What is the threshold frequency for the liberation of electrons?
d. What is the maximum kinetic energy of liberated electrons?

20. The first law of thermodynamics is often stated in symbols, what are the symbols and explain them with respect to the meaning of the law.

21. a. Define electrical resistance and state Ohm's law
b. Sketch any suitable circuit to determine the unkown resistance of a resistor

The assessments written are content competencies with the integration of the process and general competencies. The process and general competencies that related to Physical Science and Physics are listed below:

Systems - identify the entity considered a functional unit
Energy/Matter - understand energy and the properties of matter
The interactive relationships of science, technology and society
Computer applications as applied to science and technology
Develop explanations based on observations and hypothesis which can be tested
Use International System of units to quantify scientific phenomena and understand inherent uncertainties in quantitative data
Use appropriate scientific and mathematical symbols