Experience Physics – High School Physics Curriculum
Our modern physics curriculum organizes learning around phenomena by engaging students with authentic, real-world experiences. Hands-on and digital activities connect to and excite each learner.
- Process-focused math and stepped-out solutions
- Comprehensive suite of assessments for 3D Learning”
- Interactive tools improve comprehension
Modern Physics Curriculum with Digital Resources
Transform your classroom into a place of curiosity and discovery as students learn physics by doing physics.
Teach with Phenomena
Experience Physics® integrates phenomenon-based learning for deeper student engagement.
Simplify Physics Math
A variety of resources and strategies are provided to promote key math skills for physics.
Unpack Ready-Made Labs
Save time and effort with exclusive, ready-to-use lab kits from our Flinn partnership.
Engage Every Student
Experience Physics® delivers dynamic, hands-on resources to engage all students.
High School Physics Teaching Solutions
-
Educator Resources
-
Student Resources
-
Flinn Scientific® Lab Resources
-
Assessments
Educator Resources
-
Instructional Support PackageInstructors have access to a robust support package with print and digital resources designed to streamline classroom management.
Student Resources
-
Multiple Engagement ApproachesStudents practice a variety of ways to discuss and explain ideas, ask questions and present their findings
-
Math and Physics Skills WorkbookAligned with the curriculum, it provides targeted practice, reinforcing key concepts and preparing students for success in physics
-
Math Support ToolsSeamlessly integrate math concepts into physics instruction for enhanced student comprehension
-
College and Career ReadinessPrepare students for real-world applications and future STEM opportunities.
Flinn Lab Resources
-
Broad Support KitsEngage students in hands-on learning experiences that reinforce key concepts and promote scientific inquiry
-
Curriculum-Aligned MaterialsAccess high-quality, standards-aligned lab activities and resources that foster hands-on exploration, critical thinking, and scientific discovery in your classroom
Assessments
-
FormativeContinuously monitor progress, identify areas of improvement, and inform instruction to ensure student success
-
SummativeEvaluate learning outcomes, track progress, and inform instructional decisions for enhanced student success
-
Performance-BasedAssess student application of knowledge, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking in real-world contexts
Take a deeper look into Experience Physics’s features
Program Overview
Discover how Experience Physics® creates a class environment and structure that helps every student succeed.
Why Can’t We Walk Through Walls?
Experience Physics author Dr. Christopher Moore discusses the physical principles at work in this extended video.
New Digital Technologies for K-12 Ecosystem
Savvas Realize brings our award-winning content to life in an exciting digital experience that students love. For teachers and admins, it includes valuable classroom-management tools like auto-rostering, single-sign-on, and available integrations with many top K-12 LMSs.
A next-generation learning solution that provides an all-inclusive, one-year digital license to our most popular Math, Literacy, Science, and Social Studies national K–12 programs.
School Stories
In these inspirational stories, you'll learn about what schools and districts from across the country are doing to help students succeed and shape the future of education.
Get InspiredFrequently Asked Questions About Experience Physics
-
What is Experience Physics and what are its components?
What is Experience Physics and what are its components?
Experience Physics® is a next generation high school physics program that puts the focus on the student experience. This modern program implements a learning model that organizes learning around phenomena giving students an authentic, real-world experience. Experience Physics includes a variety of hands-on and digital activities designed to reach every learner. Students complete hands-on inquiry labs, virtual labs, simulations, data analysis, claim-evidence reasoning exercises and more on their sensemaking journey. An assessment package with formative, summative, performance-based assessments provide opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding three dimensionally. Instructors have access to a robust support package with print and digital resources designed to streamline classroom management.
Take an Interactive Tour of Experience Physics.
The program components include:
Experience Physics digital courseware on Savvas Realize® includes robust digital tools that give teachers flexibility to use a digital, print, or blended format in their classrooms. Teachers can customize the program to rearrange content, upload their own content, add links to online media, and edit resources and assessments. Program-specific resources, flexible agnostic resources, and assessments are available in one location for easy lesson planning and presentation.Teacher Guide - Available in digital and print, the Teacher Guide provides robust lesson planners based on the 5E learning model, explicit directions and explanations for introducing phenomena, instructional strategies support students as they make sense of the phenomena, and classroom modifications to adjust instruction based on the diverse student needs, skills, and interests in their classroom.
Student Handbook - 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.
Student Math Skills Workbook - This student worktext, available in digital and print, includes four pages of practice for every learning experience. This resource reinforces physics content knowledge and three dimensional learning with visual summaries of the main ideas and interactive prompts that support problem solving skills.
Flinn Scientific Lab Kits - Flinn Scientific is our partner for the Experience Physics curriculums. Optional lab kits are available for each program. Every Flinn Scientific kit supports a classroom of approximately 30 students. Refill kits are also available. -
How does Experience Physics® incorporate science phenomena?
The Experience Physics curriculum is organized around phenomena. The program drives student learning through a series of hands-on and virtual student experiences that support their understanding of the phenomenon under study. Students directly engage with different examples of phenomena that relate to authentic real-world scenarios.
Every Storyline (the unit of instruction) launches inquiry with an Anchoring Phenomenon video and demonstration. This real-world science phenomenon sparks curiosity as students make observations and ask questions while giving students a purpose as they engage in activities to make sense of this phenomenon and connect physics concepts through a unifying unique occurrence. Throughout the Storyline, students revisit the anchoring phenomenon question and discuss the real-world impact of the problem as they propose solutions. By the end of the storyline, students are able to explain the anchoring phenomenon.
A real-world Investigative Phenomenon video and demonstration launches every Investigation (chapter level organization). Students again ask questions, make observations, and track their understanding of the phenomenon in Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) or Modeling exercises. At the end of each Experience students revisit their CER worksheet in a sense-making exercise to review, revise or add to their explanation of how the phenomenon occurs – thus building understanding over time. At the end of the Investigation, students once again are able to explain the phenomenon under study.
The lessons, called Experiences, are where students encounter everyday phenomena through Flinn Scientific Inquiry Labs, PhET simulations, digital interactivities, videos, teacher demonstrations, modeling activities, data analysis activities, peer review and more. This wide variety of real-world experiences builds student understanding using DCIs, CCCs, and SEPs by interacting with phenomena over time.
-
What differentiation support is available in Experience Physics®?
The Experience Physics® program includes a variety of resources and instructional strategies that help teachers address the diverse student needs, skills, and interests in their classroom. There are several techniques which are found throughout the different Storylines and Investigations including:
Hands-on Inquiry Labs are available in four different versions, allowing instructors to differentiate based on student needs and abilities and time constraints. The four versions are open-ended, guided, advanced and short.
Assess on the Spot: Quick formative assessments designed to assess understanding of key points in the lab or lesson.
Differentiated Instruction: In the course of the teacher guide narrative, explicit strategies are provided to support struggling students, students with special needs, and advanced students.
Remediation Suggestions can be found at the Evaluate phase of the learning model to help educators troubleshoot student weaknesses.
Teacher Guide margin notes, like Classroom Modifications include ideas for modifying aspects of the classroom or lesson.
WIDA Support addresses the different levels (Speaking/Writing, Entering, Beginning, Developing, Expanding, Bridging) of English Language Development to support students who are acquiring the English language.
Experience It!: provides teacher support to help connect the kinesthetic activity, Experience It, to an important concept in the experience. Math support is provided to assist those students who struggle with the essential mathematical concepts necessary for physics success and include resources like Math Tutorial Videos.
-
Is the Experience Physics® instructional model research-based?
The instructional model is based on research conducted by the Instructional Leadership for Science Practices (ILSP), a National Science Foundation project whose goal was to develop tools that support educators in the integration of the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) along with the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Per ILSP’s framework, the science and engineering practices provide a pathway for students to engage sequentially in the processes of investigation, sense-making, and critique.
This approach has been adapted by incorporating BSCS 5E Model to round out the five-stage learning progression: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate. The role of phenomena has been intensified in the pedagogy in order to address the need for phenomenon-based learning opportunities as outlined in the NGSS.
-
How do I sign up for an Experience Physics® digital demo?Experience Physics® digital courseware on Savvas Realize™ includes robust digital tools that give teachers flexibility to use a digital, print, or blended format in their classrooms. Teachers can customize the program to rearrange content, upload their own content, add links to online media, and edit resources and assessments. Program-specific resources, flexible agnostic resources, and assessments are available in one location for easy lesson planning and presentation. Click here to sign up for a demo of Experience Physics.
-
What types of science material kits does Savvas provide?Flinn Scientific is our partner for the Experience Physics curriculum. Optional lab kits are available for each program. Every Flinn Scientific kit supports a classroom of approximately 30 students. Refill kits are also available.
-
Table of Contents
Storyline 1 – Forces in MotionInvestigation 1: Describing Position and Motion (or Modeling Motion)
Experience 1- Displacement and Velocity
Experience 2- Acceleration
Experience 3- Circular and Projectile MotionInvestigation 2: Forces
Experience 1- Force, Mass, and Acceleration
Experience 2- Types of Forces
Experience 3- Forces on Systems
Experience 4- Earth Processes and Forces
Storyline 2 – Forces at a DistanceInvestigation 3: Gravitational Forces
Experience 1- Universal Gravitation
Experience 2- Orbital Motion
Experience 3- Kepler’s Laws
Investigation 4: Electric Forces
Experience 1- Coulomb’s Law
Experience 2- Electric Fields
Experience 3- Electric CurrentInvestigation 5: Magnetic Forces
Experience 1- Magnetism
Experience 2- Magnetic Fields
Experience 3- Inducing CurrentInvestigation 6: Forces in Materials
Experience 1- Atoms and Atomic Structure
Experience 2- Attractive and Repulsive Forces
Experience 3- Material Properties
Experience 4- Structure and Function
Storyline 3 – Energy ConversionInvestigation 7: Energy
Experience 1- Classifying Energy and Work
Experience 2- Kinetic and Potential Energy
Experience 3- Conservation of EnergyInvestigation 8: Collisions
Experience 1- Momentum and Impulse
Experience 2- Conservation of Momentum
Experience 3- Collisions in Earth’s CrustInvestigation 9: Thermal Energy
Experience 1- Temperature
Experience 2- Thermal Equilibrium and Heat Flow
Experience 3- Heat Flow Within Earth
Investigation 10: Electromagnetic Energy
Experience 1- Electric Potential
Experience 2- Energy in Electric Circuits
Experience 3- Power Generation
Experience 4- Energy Resources and Conservation
Storyline 4 – Waves and Electromagnetic RadiationInvestigation 11: Waves
Experience 1- Properties of Waves
Experience 2- Wave Behavior and Energy
Experience 3- Wave OpticsInvestigation 12: Electromagnetic Radiation
Experience 1- Electromagnetic Waves and Their Properties
Experience 2- Particle-Wave Duality
Experience 3- EM Radiation and MatterInvestigation 13: Information and Instrumentation
Experience 1- Digital Information
Experience 2- Transmitting and Capturing Information
Experience 3- Transmitting and Capturing Energy
Storyline 5 – From the Nucleus to the UniverseInvestigation 14: Nuclear Physics
Experience 1- Nuclear Forces
Experience 2- Nuclear Particles
Experience 3- Fission and FusionInvestigation 15: Ages of Rocks
Experience 1- Radioactive Decay
Experience 2- Radiometric DatingExperience 3- Exploring Patterns in the Ages of Rocks
Investigation 16: The Universe
Experience 1- Stars
Experience 2- The Sun
Experience 3- The Big Bang