Is Physics at VCE level really NOT Physics?
I know you can use calculus and all, at higher levels of Physics, but how different?! I don't know why all the hate. 
edit: Might be time for a topic split with the physics stuff.
I don't claim to have a very good understanding of all this and also I also don't claim that VCE Physics is anywhere near perfect, but hopefully somehow I manage to get my opinion of the issue explained well enough here.
tl;dr:
- VCE Physics is fairly standard along with it's international counterparts
- I don't think that lack of calculus isn't the main issue here, it really isn't necessary to teach physical concepts.
-
By no means do they introduce us to 'fake' physics concepts.- Physics concepts are cool
- breadth vs. depth in physics courses
My opinion is probably going to be different to everyone elses, I dunno how it is I approached VCE Physics differently to everyone else, but overall I enjoyed the hell out of the subject. There definitely is a lot of flaws with VCE Physics, and there definitely is a flaw with high school physics as a whole (including year 10 physics etc.) something that isn't particular to VCAA alone (you can pick a random equivalent international course and then be likely to see that they're also getting quite similar criticisms).
I've largely ignored the negatives of VCE Physics here - the main one I have something to say about is the exams - the 'plug and chug' thing is the main issue, being too easy etc. to pull a random quote off the internet (I googled 'high school physics quality drop' - article was talking about A-Level Physics), which seems agreeable for VCE Physics
Students are more or less guided through the answer. Not very much careful reasoning is required.
The others on here will probably provide enough elaboration on those negatives, so I better put in some positives:
I will say that I don't think that lack of calculus isn't the main issue here, it really isn't necessary to teach physical concepts. the fact that you can't use calculus on the exams doesn't really have much bearing on the physics/explanation of how the world works to be understood here - which I guess is my limited understanding of what the subject is about.
The lack of calculus also has the advantage of having a broader range of students be able to undertake the subject, which, from what I understand, is the a pretty high priority for high school physics - get people interested in physics (seems that the complete opposite has happened here lol).
There's nothing wrong with non-calculus based physics courses in my opinion.
By no means do they introduce us to 'fake' physics concepts. (okay I probably could have cut down my post to those two sentences there, but after having written all that, I'm not getting rid of the rest of the post). Personally, I think it's these concepts/ideas/attempt to explain the world that are the core part of the course, and that's where the emphasis should be placed.
Looking from Units 1 to 4, VCE Physics is one of those introductory physics courses that try to introduce students to the very broad range of main topics in Physics. International physics courses seem to be quite similar in the content that is covered, take a look at AP Physics B, IB Physics, A-level Physics etc - e.g. the same broad topics/non-calculus approach.
These international courses might cover things here and there a bit differently (slightly more depth for topic A, slightly different topics covered etc.), however, they still take the same approach where a broad range of topics are covered. Mostly the core content of the courses will be similar, the concepts such as: Newtonian Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Waves/Optics, Development of the Quantum Model of the Atom, Nuclear Physics - they all seem fairly standard topics to cover, which VCE Physics does.
There is also a few courses like "AP Physics C" I think it's called, one of which looks just at electromagnetism and the other that just looks at (Newtonian) mechanics - e.g. depth over breadth. These are also calculus based and aimed directly at 'advanced' students. Simply just a different approach to teaching physics, it is debatable which approach is better though (that's a question beyond me). What I am trying to get at is that VCE Physics isn't as much of a train wreck as it's portrayed to be.
As an aside:
http://www.vicphysics.org/documents/teachers/Physics.pdfThe (now out-of-date) 2010 Australian Curriculum draft for VCE Physics was
packed with content, it went even more further with the breadth of content thing - there were concepts such as Standard Model, semiconductors etc. that were introduced. I know off the top of my head, the stuff covered in IB Physics was similar to that. There's been a few changes to that AC draft, new one comes out soon-ish I believe (I think also they might be using that detailed studies system, another thing that a few physics courses around the world do).
The latest info I could find about AC Physics was in this document:
http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Senior_Secondary_Australian_Curriculum_Update.pdf
Home
Help
Search
Login
