Experience Physics transforms the traditional textbook into a modern interactive handbook that students will actually use. With Experience Physics, students DO physics first, by interacting with phenomena and completing hands-on and virtual inquiry activities. Then students complete readings, formative assessments, and math practice in their Student Experience Handbook.
Explore THEN Explain.
By reading after they’ve explored, students now have a real-world context for their readings, and the background knowledge necessary to tackle more elaborate activities such as engineering design workbenches and peer review. The Student Experience Handbook is an interactive tool that promotes scientific understanding and anchors phenomena-based, experiential learning.
Does this sound too familiar?
“I haven’t used a physics textbook in years, students won’t read them.”
Interactive tools in the Student Handbook improve comprehension.
Mental Model Construction
Strong focus on constructing deep and useful mental models allows students to relate new physics concepts to prior knowledge
Students develop their own models by recognizing patterns in the content, leading to deeper understanding
Students feel more confident in their ability to connect physics equations to the phenomenon under study
Use of Multiple Representations
Physics concepts are represented in multiple ways (equations, text, models, graphical representations and more) to increase comprehension
Different representations allow students to interact with concepts repeatedly to build connections and see patterns
Students practice a variety of ways to discuss and explain ideas, ask questions and present their findings
Process-Focused Math
General math process is highlighted through flowcharts
Students recognize patterns between problems, reducing cognitive load
Math problems are used as a tool to understand physics concepts
