AP Physics Quest Worksheet: Energy
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that how a physics worksheet looks really impacts how students feel about it.
Physics worksheets are hard to make, because they require diagrams, or they try to depict physical situations in text. Students not only have to work with the concepts, but they have to decipher the diagrams and translate the descriptions to images. I’ve watched a lot of students get intimidated and struggle to solve problems, simply because the diagrams look complicated or confusing.
Now, breaking down complex or confusing information is an important skill, like trying to decipher IRS forms. But we usually learn new skills best when we’re learning one at a time. Having engaging and beautiful physics worksheets means students can focus on the actual physics concepts.
Not only that, but there’s a lot of research that even after students have taken physics classes, their fundamental understanding of the real world doesn’t actually change. It’s like sometimes in physics classes we’re teaching some arcane set of rituals rather than an actual understanding of the real world. Getting students to re-examine their beliefs and correct their misconceptions is incredibly hard. (I mean, it’s hard for all of us!)
The first step is grounding a discussion of a concept in a real-world situation. That’s the thinking behind these worksheets. Yes, they look silly and I joke around in them a lot, and that’s intentional. Physics has this reputation for being a subject that only geniuses can understand, and it intimidates and stresses out many extremely bright, capable, and creative students.
In these worksheets, I’ve had them professionally illustrated so that they not only look beautiful and fun and entertaining, which decreases stress and increases engagement and motivation, but I’m grounding the practice problems in real-world scenarios in order to have the best chance possible for students to see real uses behind these concepts.
Physics should be fun. It makes for a much better and more effective learning experience for everyone.
Here’s the content this worksheet covers:
Identifying Types of Energies:
Kinetic
Gravitational Potential
Thermal
Sound
Nuclear
Electrical
Chemical
Describing Energy Changes in a Scenario (e.g., Potential to Kinetic)
Converting between Joules, calories, and Calories
Calculating Energy:
Gravitational Potential
Kinetic
Using Energy Conservation to solve for height
And here’s what’s in the worksheet:
19 pages of content
26 total word problems
Answer Key Included
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that how a physics worksheet looks really impacts how students feel about it.
Physics worksheets are hard to make, because they require diagrams, or they try to depict physical situations in text. Students not only have to work with the concepts, but they have to decipher the diagrams and translate the descriptions to images. I’ve watched a lot of students get intimidated and struggle to solve problems, simply because the diagrams look complicated or confusing.
Now, breaking down complex or confusing information is an important skill, like trying to decipher IRS forms. But we usually learn new skills best when we’re learning one at a time. Having engaging and beautiful physics worksheets means students can focus on the actual physics concepts.
Not only that, but there’s a lot of research that even after students have taken physics classes, their fundamental understanding of the real world doesn’t actually change. It’s like sometimes in physics classes we’re teaching some arcane set of rituals rather than an actual understanding of the real world. Getting students to re-examine their beliefs and correct their misconceptions is incredibly hard. (I mean, it’s hard for all of us!)
The first step is grounding a discussion of a concept in a real-world situation. That’s the thinking behind these worksheets. Yes, they look silly and I joke around in them a lot, and that’s intentional. Physics has this reputation for being a subject that only geniuses can understand, and it intimidates and stresses out many extremely bright, capable, and creative students.
In these worksheets, I’ve had them professionally illustrated so that they not only look beautiful and fun and entertaining, which decreases stress and increases engagement and motivation, but I’m grounding the practice problems in real-world scenarios in order to have the best chance possible for students to see real uses behind these concepts.
Physics should be fun. It makes for a much better and more effective learning experience for everyone.
Here’s the content this worksheet covers:
Identifying Types of Energies:
Kinetic
Gravitational Potential
Thermal
Sound
Nuclear
Electrical
Chemical
Describing Energy Changes in a Scenario (e.g., Potential to Kinetic)
Converting between Joules, calories, and Calories
Calculating Energy:
Gravitational Potential
Kinetic
Using Energy Conservation to solve for height
And here’s what’s in the worksheet:
19 pages of content
26 total word problems
Answer Key Included
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that how a physics worksheet looks really impacts how students feel about it.
Physics worksheets are hard to make, because they require diagrams, or they try to depict physical situations in text. Students not only have to work with the concepts, but they have to decipher the diagrams and translate the descriptions to images. I’ve watched a lot of students get intimidated and struggle to solve problems, simply because the diagrams look complicated or confusing.
Now, breaking down complex or confusing information is an important skill, like trying to decipher IRS forms. But we usually learn new skills best when we’re learning one at a time. Having engaging and beautiful physics worksheets means students can focus on the actual physics concepts.
Not only that, but there’s a lot of research that even after students have taken physics classes, their fundamental understanding of the real world doesn’t actually change. It’s like sometimes in physics classes we’re teaching some arcane set of rituals rather than an actual understanding of the real world. Getting students to re-examine their beliefs and correct their misconceptions is incredibly hard. (I mean, it’s hard for all of us!)
The first step is grounding a discussion of a concept in a real-world situation. That’s the thinking behind these worksheets. Yes, they look silly and I joke around in them a lot, and that’s intentional. Physics has this reputation for being a subject that only geniuses can understand, and it intimidates and stresses out many extremely bright, capable, and creative students.
In these worksheets, I’ve had them professionally illustrated so that they not only look beautiful and fun and entertaining, which decreases stress and increases engagement and motivation, but I’m grounding the practice problems in real-world scenarios in order to have the best chance possible for students to see real uses behind these concepts.
Physics should be fun. It makes for a much better and more effective learning experience for everyone.
Here’s the content this worksheet covers:
Identifying Types of Energies:
Kinetic
Gravitational Potential
Thermal
Sound
Nuclear
Electrical
Chemical
Describing Energy Changes in a Scenario (e.g., Potential to Kinetic)
Converting between Joules, calories, and Calories
Calculating Energy:
Gravitational Potential
Kinetic
Using Energy Conservation to solve for height
And here’s what’s in the worksheet:
19 pages of content
26 total word problems
Answer Key Included
