Physics

Course summary

WHY STUDY PHYSICS? Physics is crucial to understanding how the world around us works, from light bulbs to driverless cars; from earthquakes and tsunamis to leptons, quarks and quasars. From the prosaic to the profound. Physics helps us to see the connections between seemingly disparate phenomenon. Physics gives us powerful tools to help us to express creativity. It provides quantitative and analytical skills needed for analysing data and solving problems in the field of science, engineering and medicine as well as in economics, finance and law. CONTENT OF COURSE: The course aims to develop understandings that connect factual, procedural and metacognitive knowledge and recognizes the importance of connecting learning with conceptual understanding. This includes a non-linear, ongoing process of adding new knowledge, evolving understandings and identifying misconceptions. The IB Physics curriculum is organised into 5 broad themes: A: Space, time and motion, B: the particulate nature of matter, C: Wave behaviour, D: Fields and E: Nuclear and quantum physics. Each theme is subdivided into topics, some of which are common to both Higher and Standard Level.