Amy Johnson's AP Physics 1 Workbook: Use it. I will.

By now most AP Physics 1 teachers are aware of the new “Workbook”, available as a free download from a teacher's College Board course audit page.  If you’re not, get aware right away! Amy Johnson of the College Board spearheaded the production of a 350 page set of scaffolded activities.* All of them, of course, are perfectly aligned with the content, depth, and skills demanded on the AP Physics 1 exam.  They’re classroom-ready - once students have some exposure to the underlying facts and general problem solving approaches, these activities can be handed out and used without edits, even by the most persnickety AP teachers.**

* Oops, buzzword alert!  The workbook is in typical class coverage order - kinematics, then forces, etc.  The “scaffolding” means that the early units give lots of guidance, assuming less facility with the various skills we expect AP students to develop throughout the year.  For example, an early worksheet might present a justification in paragraph form but ask students to fill in the blanks; a late worksheet would just say “answer in a clear, coherent, paragraph-length response” as the exam does.

** i.e., me.

The workbook is for new or out-of-subject teachers.  We all know it’s common for people to be asked to teach AP Physics when they’re not confident in their own physics skills, let alone in their ability to choose, solve, assist students with, and evaluate practice problems. Or more bluntly: too many AP Physics teachers don’t know much about physics, and know nothing about physics teaching… yet they’re assigned to teach physics anyway.  What can these poor folks do, other than follow the poorly-written, six-decade-old* textbook?

*Yet in the 30th revised edition because the numerical values in end-of-chapter problems have been changed regularly, like diapers.

Now, they can use Amy’s workbook. A student who goes diligently through each page over the course of a year will be guided to develop a solid background in the necessary content AND skills required on the AP exam.

The workbook is also for experienced teachers.  I’ve taught physics for a quarter-century.  I’ve developed my class activities and practice problems piecemeal over that time, creating or revising one thing at a time.  

And, so has Workbook author Amy Johnson.  She’s a real physics teacher - plucked out of the trenches of the classroom, not out of the gilded halls of academia.  She’s also an experienced AP reader.  Thus, Amy has a tremendous sense of her audience.

The workbook certainly is inspired by the same best practices of physics pedagogy that underlie the AP Physics 1 exam itself.  Worksheets guide students to become fluent in multiple representations, to use verbal reasoning, to approach semi-quantitative and experimental problems.  None of the worksheets could possibly have been plucked out of the 1988 edition of Giancoli or Serway.  

Of course, there’s no shortage (anymore) of problems and activities that use best practices of physics pedagogy.  Released AP questions (on Collegeboard.com or via AP Classroom), TIPERS, The Physics Classroom, Vernier’s Pivot Interactives, and even the “Elite Student Edition” of the 5 Steps to a 5: AP Physics 1 book.  Why use the Workbook, then?

(1) It’s free.  The Physics Classroom website is free; the other items above all cost varying amounts.

(2) It’s aligned to the AP exam.  (TIPERS, The Physics Classroom, and Pivot are not explicitly aligned to AP.)

(3) It’s scaffolded.  (Even though the 5 Steps Elite Student questions are aligned to AP, they are not scaffolded.  5 Steps is intended as a review book.  The Workbook is intended to be used more like a textbook.)

How am I using the Workbook?  See, I already have a set of assignments and activities for each topic that are well-vetted.  That doesn’t mean I’m happy with all of them!  In particular, while my students end up doing fine with waves and sound, I know my assignments can be improved.  So, I’ll replace my in- and out-of-class waves/sound assignments with a bunch of the Workbook activities.  

Similarly, my colleague teaches an “honors physics” class that is close to AP, but doesn’t manage the entire breadth of the AP Physics 1 content.  Every year he has a few students who want to take the AP exam, but who need to learn about waves and rotation on their own.  Enter the Workbook - since my colleague has developed strong skills in these students, they will have little difficulty working through the Workbook to get themselves an appropriate background on these topics.

How are YOU using the Workbook?  I’d love to know.  Post a comment below...