Enrolling Now for 2026-27 School Year.
Enrolling Now for 2026-27 School Year.
Learning Coach Guide Contents Part C Unit Information12 Kinematics Unit13 Dynamics Unit14 Energy Unit15 Momentum Unit16 Rotational Motion Unit17 Rotational Energy and Momentum Unit18 Oscillations Unit19 Fluids Unit20 Welcome Letter Dear Learning Coach, Thank you for partnering with CCA and investing in your learner’s education. This Learning Coach Guide is intended to help you support your learner in their AP® Physics 1 course. Within this guide, you will find the goals, components, and features of the online course. Please take time to read and review this information so you understand how to help your learner interact with all the course’s elements. The Learning Coach Guide also includes information about each of the units in this course. On each page of unit information, you will discover the following: The Unit Overview will tell you what the focus, content, and skills of the unit will be. The Unit Assessment section is a place for you and your learner to preview the graded work in the course. At the start of each unit, work with your learner to look at the unit in edio and find out which types of graded work are in this unit. Write them in the box and use it as a checklist. You can check off each one as your learner completes it. The Unit Materials section tells you the materials your learner will need to complete the activities in this unit. You will also find the materials list repeated within each lesson, so that your learner has exactly what they need at the right time. The Unit Discussion Questions are optional questions that you may want to ask your learner during the unit to increase home and school connections about what your learner is studying. In the Unit Notables section, you may find optional activities, ideas to help your learner if they get stuck, or safety tips. CCA wishes you and your learner a terrific school year! Supporting Your Learner Your role as a Learning Coach is very important. Here are a few ways you can help your learner do their very best in the course. Help your learner know what time guided or live class instruction is scheduled for, and prompt them to attend sessions or watch recordings. Remember, it is okay for your learner to get stuck. Learning new material takes time. Encourage them to take breaks, keep trying, and even ask the teacher for help. Help your learner navigate technology. That may mean helping them type information or upload work into edio. Always encourage your learner to do their very best. Review the course syllabus for your learner’s course. Maintain communication with your learner’s teacher. Advanced Placement® (AP) courses require more from the learners than other courses. You may find that your learner needs more practice, more review, and more support to be successful when compared to non-AP® courses. Excellent AP® learners should strive for mastery. Think of athletes and musicians. They practice until they are excellent. AP® learners should follow that kind of work ethic. Part BCourse Information Course Goals In AP® Physics 1, your learner will study material similar to what can be found in a first-year algebra-based physics course. Your learner will develop their understanding through inquiry-based investigations, meaning activities that provide important goals but not step-by-step instructions regarding how to reach those goals. The topics list includes the following: kinematics, dynamics, conservation of energy, conservation of momentum, rotation, harmonic motion, and fluids. By the end of the year, your learner will be able to: Understand the principles of classical physics. Communicate scientifically using models. Solve word-style problems using the proper formulas. Extend thinking or guide investigations with scientific questioning. Plan and implement data collection strategies in relation to a scientific question. Analyze data and evaluate evidence. Relate concepts from across multiple units to analyze a physical system. Create paragraph-length explanations rooted in physics concepts. Course Format Lesson Components: Each day, your learner will spend approximately 50–60 minutes completing an AP® Physics lesson. Some days may take less time, while other days may take a little more time. It is common for learners taking AP® courses to spend time outside of the scheduled class time completing course reading or studying. This section will help you to understand how your learner’s course is structured in edio. Lesson Bundling: Within the lesson bundles, there are different components your learner will interact with. These components will not be used every day. Example: 1. Getting Started Lesson: There is one Getting Started lesson in this course. It can be found on Day 1 of Unit 1. This lesson includes important information about the course and contact information for your teacher. 2. Unit Overview: Each unit will include a unit overview. This describes what your learner will learn in the unit and how many assessments the unit will have. 3. Prep for Success: At the beginning of each unit, your learner will find a Prep for Success. This component offers learners tips to be successful in the course, such as study tips, important software information, safety reminders, and more. 4. Knowledge Check: There will be one Knowledge Check in each unit. The Knowledge Check is designed to check prior learning and understanding about key skills and concepts that will be taught in the unit. The Knowledge Check is not a graded assessment. Each lesson has its own components to help guide your learner through the lesson. 1. Lesson Overview: At the beginning of every lesson, your learner will see the lesson overview. This section contains lesson objectives, lesson vocabulary, materials your learner will need for the lesson, and the suggested lesson length. 2. Engage: The first section of the lesson is Engage. In this section, learners will be introduced to the lesson by making a connection to past and present knowledge and will get ready for the lesson’s instruction. 3. Discover: New content and instruction is presented in the Discover section. Your learner will interact with the lesson content through defined vocabulary terms, videos, audio, and Pause and Think activities. Your learner will be able to practice and answer questions as they work through the lesson. 4. Show: Learners will demonstrate what they have learned in the lesson through a series of practice questions. 5. Summary: This section recaps the day’s objectives and prepares learners for a future lesson or assessment. The course includes problem set assignments and lab projects. These graded assignments allow your learner to show what they have learned and apply their new skills. All CCA assignments and projects include these components. 1. Assessment Overview: At the beginning of each assessment, your learner will see the assessment overview. This section contains the goals of the assessment, materials your learner will need, length of the assessment, and directions for completion. 2. Plan: In the Plan section, learners will be introduced to the assignment or project. Learners may be provided with a review of content from the previous lessons, strategies for completing the activity, graphic organizers, and grading rubrics. 3. Do: Learners put their plan into action and work to complete the assignment or project successfully. This section also provides the grading expectations and/or rubric the teacher will use to grade the work. 4. Reflect: In Reflect, learners will think back to the work they completed. They will reflect upon the experience and analyze how well they completed the task. These moments of reflection are important and allow learners to think about their learning and their work habits. In addition to assignments and projects, this course also includes quizzes, tests, and exams. Quiz: A quiz may be given at the end of a topic or the end of a unit. Test Review: Before a test, learners will have the opportunity to review the content they will be assessed on in the test. Test: A test will assess learning across topics or at the end of a unit. Exam Review: Before an exam, learners will have the opportunity to review the content they will be assessed on in the exam. Exam: An exam assesses learning over multiple units. Exams are usually seen as midterm and final exams in Advanced Placement® courses. Course Features This course includes and uses unique features such as: Science Mini-Labs: The mini-labs can be found in the Engage or Discover sections of some lessons. These short hands-on activities will help your learner engage and connect with the physics content in the course. The mini-labs allow your learner to briefly step away from the computer and experience the physics phenomenon directly. Problem Sets: Your learner will complete ungraded practice problems in the Show section of each lesson. The next lesson may feature a graded problem set. This problem set is where your learner will be assessed on AP® style problems similar to those of the Show section. These small, graded assessments will allow your learner to gauge their understanding of the new concepts they have learned. Lab Projects and Lab Reports: Throughout the course your learner will apply their new knowledge during their Lab Projects. They will have the opportunity to design and implement experiments to achieve a goal related to the new physics content they learned in the unit. The day after each lab day, they will complete a lab report. Completing these lab reports will provide your learner with college level lab reporting experience. Part CUnit Information Kinematics Unit Unit Overview In this unit, your learner will learn that freefall and projectile motion are related to each other in that they both occur under the force of gravity alone. Your learner will also learn that an object is always in freefall if it is dropped and that projectile motion occurs if an object is thrown or projected horizontally or at an angle. Unit Assessments Quiz _________________________ Test _________________________ Assignment ________________ Project _____________________ Exam _______________________ Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply. Unit Discussion Questions What was your favorite part of learning about kinematics? What kinds of careers do you think study accelerated motion? Think about carnival rides or amusement park rides. Would you rather be on a ride with a high velocity or a high acceleration? Why? Unit Notables Your learner will analyze motion in one and two dimensions. They will describe motion with words and equations. Motion will be modeled with sketches, graphs, equations, and experiments. Kit Materials binder clips, calculator, graph paper marble, marbles, masking tape, meter stick, notebook, protractor, rubber band, ruler, stopwatch, tennis ball Household Materials bottle cap, books to adjust ramp height, ramp, pencil Unit Overview Your learner will explore the forces that act on many systems. Free body diagrams aid with force modeling. Newton’s laws of motion will help your learner analyze a wide variety of real-world situations. Unit Assessments Quiz _________________________ Test _________________________ Assignment ________________ Project _____________________ Exam _______________________ Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply. Unit Discussion Questions Which of the forces in the unit do you want to know more about? Which of the systems you studied do you feel like you understand the best? Unit Notables The forces described in the unit do not include all of the forces that exist. Your learner will explore many forces and real-life applications of these forces throughout this unit. Kit Materials balancing bird, graph paper (optional), meter stick, Newton‘s cradle, notebook, pulley, scissors, slotted mass set, spring toy, string, tennis ball, toy car, two paper clips, ruler, two carts Household Materials paper, pencil, cardboard and thumb tacks are optional Unit Overview Your learner will study the relationships between work, energy, and power. This will include the application of conservation of energy and the work-energy theorem. To help with applying conservation of energy, systems will be described as either opened or closed. Unit Assessments Quiz _________________________ Test _________________________ Assignment ________________ Project _____________________ Exam _______________________ Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply. Unit Discussion Questions What questions do you still have about conservation of energy? What parts of energy conservation make the most sense to you? Unit Notables Your learner may confuse conservation of energy with the idea of being responsible consumers of energy. The unit introduces two kinds of potential energy. Help your learner be specific when discussing either gravitational potential or elastic potential energy from springs. Kit Materials block, block with low friction, cart, digital scale, graph paper, golf ball, tennis ball masking tape, meter stick, notebook, ramp, spring scale, set of slotted masses, spring toy, stopwatch Household Materials books to create ramp, chair, pencil Unit Overview Your learner will investigate momentum and the change in momentum, called impulse. Similar to energy, momentum has a conservation law and rules about what it takes to create a change in momentum. Your learner will learn that when objects exchange momentum, it is called a collision. Types of collisions will be evaluated. Momentum concepts and calculations will be applied to a variety of systems. Unit Assessments Quiz _________________________ Test _________________________ Assignment ________________ Project _____________________ Exam _______________________ Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply. Unit Discussion Questions What similarities do you notice between energy and momentum? What are the real-life situations where you think you notice conservation of momentum? What do you need to work on in order prepare for the midterm exam? Unit Notables The word “collision” appears frequently in this unit. It does not always mean “violent contact” like it does outside of physics. Any momentum exchange is a collision in physics. Gently laying your head on a pillow is a collision for physics! Your learner will take a midterm exam at the end of this unit. Kit Materials cell phone for video if available, golf ball, lab carts, masking tape, meter stick, notebook, slotted mass set, tennis ball, Household Materials pencil Unit Overview Your learner will apply their previous physics skills to systems that rotate. Torque, a value that is similar to force, will be investigated. Concepts related to motion, like velocity and acceleration, return to be used in this unit. Newton’s laws fit with rotating systems too. Unit Assessments Quiz _________________________ Test _________________________ Assignment ________________ Project _____________________ Exam _______________________ Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply. Unit Discussion Questions What did you like studying better, things that moved in straight lines or things that rotate? Why? Why is it important for people involved in medical disciplines to understand systems that rotate? Unit Notables Your learner may get stuck on the symbols used in the unit. They may make the concept feel new and strange. Help them pay more attention to the similarities than the differences. For example, velocity is always displacement divided by time. In this unit, the displacement is measured in radians instead of meters but it is the same concept. Kit Materials digital scale, fulcrum, fulcrum holder, meter stick, notebook, painter’s tape, slotted mass set, spinning top, stopwatch, string Household Materials pencil, small object of unknown mass, and swivel chair, if available Unit Overview Your learner will apply conservation of energy and conservation of momentum to systems that rotate. The concept of rotational inertia will be more important in this unit than it was in the previous unit. Unit Assessments Quiz _________________________ Test _________________________ Assignment ________________ Project _____________________ Exam _______________________ Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply. Unit Discussion Questions Which conservation style solutions do you like the best? What are your favorite things that you learned while studying things that rotate? Unit Notables Conservation of rotational momentum can be seen in many kinds of sporting events. To view real-world use of this skill, consider watching videos of gymnastic sports, diving, figure skating, and skate/snowboarding with your learner. Kit Materials notebook, spinning top, string, washers Household Materials pencil Unit Overview Your learner will analyze simple harmonic motion. A pendulum is an example of an item that goes through simple harmonic motion. Your learner will study the critical timing features for simple harmonic motion. Simple harmonic motions can be represented by a wide variety of graphs. Unit Assessments Quiz _________________________ Test _________________________ Assignment ________________ Project _____________________ Exam _______________________ Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply. Unit Discussion Questions What real-world systems are similar to the pendulum with a string? Which of the two pendulum systems, strings or springs, did you like the best? Why? Unit Notables Your learner will be building mass-string pendulums and mass-spring pendulums. The setup of these systems can sometimes be frustrating. Encourage them to take a break if needed. Kit Materials digital scale, graph paper, metal ball, meter stick, notebook, protractor, ring stand, ruler, slotted mass set, springs, stopwatch, string, washer, wood ball, table clamp Household Materials pencil Unit Overview Your learner will analyze the following properties of fluids: density, pressure, buoyant force, and fluid flow. Fluid flow applies conservation of energy principles to the behavior of fluids. Unit Assessments Quiz _________________________ Test _________________________ Assignment ________________ Project _____________________ Exam _______________________ Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply. Unit Discussion Questions Do you think water on other planets follows the same rules as water here on Earth? Why? What is your favorite new thing that you learned while studying fluids? What do you need to work on in order to prepare for the final exam? What is your plan? Unit Notables The lab activities in this unit use more household materials than usual but most are flexible. For instance, rectangular objects could be nearly anything, from a book, or a box of pasta, to a deck of cards. Your learner may need help with finding and/or using appropriate items. This is the final unit in the course. Your learner is preparing for the AP® exam and the final exam. Kit Materials digital scale, duct tape, meter stick, notebook, plastic transparent bottle, ruler, scissors, stopwatch Household Materials disposable cup, ice, large bowl, pencil, three glasses, two small rectangular boxes (anything from books to boxes of pasta), water
Enrolling Now for 2026-27 School Year.
