Welcome to Physics!
Your Course
in a Nutshell
Hello physics students! My name is Kelly Hicks and I am very excited to be your physics teacher for the 2024-25 school year. This is my first year at St. Andrew’s. Prior to moving to St. Andrew’s, I taught at Germantown High School for 13 years. Before that, I was a mechanical engineer primarily working in the aerospace field.
As a physics student, you will study the laws that govern our physical world while considering matter, motion and energy. Through physics we learn more about the world around us and hopefully come to understand that there are specific principles that help explain the behavior of objects when forces are applied and also the nature of gravitational, electromagnetic and nuclear force fields.
Remember that all of your grades for assignments, quizzes, tests, etc. can be found in MySA. This website is just for you to access content for the course.
Your Course Content by Unit
Unit 1
Newton’s Laws of Motion
Introduction to Physics
Newton’s First Law
Newton’s Second Law
Newton’s Third Law
Unit 2
Kinematics
Kinematics is all about learning
how objects move
how quickly objects move
which direction objects move.
Unit 3
Projectile Motion
We will learn:
apply kinematic formulas to solve two dimensional motion problems
use trigonometry to find horizontal and vertical components of velocity
solve projectile motion problems
Unit 4
Dynamics with Friction and Tension
In this unit we welcome back Isaac Newton to our physics classroom. We will learn more about forces and learn about specific types of forces such as friction and tension. Newton’s Laws of Motion will introduce new methods for investigating real-life situations by considering the external forces acting on an object.
Unit 6
Momentum and Impulse
-define momentum
-calculate momentum using mass and velocity
-understand the principle of conservation of momentum
-understand the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions
-analyze collisions using momentum conservation equations.
Unit 5
Work and Energy
This unit focuses on the ideas of work and energy. We will learn what physicists mean by “work.” and how work changes the energy of an object though the Work-Energy Theorem we will use the Law of Conservation of Energy to show how energy is always conserved in a system but can change forms.
Unit 7
Uniform Circular Motion
BY THE END OF THIS UNIT, you should be able to:
Identify scenarios involving uniform circular motion (UCM).
Calculate centripetal acceleration.
Explain the concept of centripetal force.
Calculate centripetal force.
Solve problems related to uniform circular motion.
Unit 11
Circuits
In this unit we will learn about Direct Current Circuits. We will learn how current moves through parallel and series circuits. Students will be able to calculate voltage drop, resistance and current by investigating the properties of DC circuits.