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Course Description

Physics and the Foundations of Modern Science is a required course for all 10th graders and, during the 2024–25 school year, an elective science course for 11th and 12th graders at American Heritage School – Salt Lake City. This course is designed to serve as a conceptual and mathematical introduction to all major physics topics, as well as a historical, philosophical, and spiritual foundation upon which all future scientific studies can be built.

A basic understanding of algebra will be helpful to you in this course, but rest assured that you can still be very successful even if you don’t feel mathematically confident. This course has been designed to be interesting, relevant, and reasonable for you, whatever your current level of math and science mastery may be.

This course aims to do the following five things for you. See the Course Description in the syllabus for further detail on each.

  1. Take you on a journey of discovery through scientific history.
  2. Expand your understanding of what science as a methodology actually is.
  3. Help you explore the interaction between science and religion.
  4. Teach you general physics concepts across the entire spectrum of physics, including kinematics, forces, the laws of motion, work, energy, power, momentum and collisions, circular motion, oscillations, fluids, thermodynamics, vibrations and mechanical waves, electricity and electric circuits, magnetism, electromagnetism, light and optics, atomic and nuclear physics, special relativity, and recent physics discoveries.
  5. Assist you in laying the groundwork for all future scientific studies by connecting all fields of science together.

Course Details

Physics

Tenth Grade
Eleventh Grade

Unit 1: Our Place in the Universe
With Nicolaus Copernicus, Neal A. Maxwell, and Moses
  • Beginning to Think Scientifically
  • The Creation: Biblical and Scientific
  • The Development of the Modern Cosmology of the Universe
  • Tour of the Universe: From Big to Small
  • The Purpose of Creation: Moses 1:39
 
Unit 2: The Beginnings of Science
With Aristotle and the Ancients
  • Ancient Scientific History
  • The Beginnings of Modern Science in the Renaissance
  • What is Physics?
  • Introduction to Laboratory Experimentation and Scientific Writing
  • Counting and Measuring
 
Unit 3: Kinematics

With Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler

  • Scalars and Vectors in One Dimension
  • Displacement, Velocity, and Acceleration
  • Representing Motion
  • Vectors and Motion in Two Dimensions
 
Unit 4: Forces and the Laws of Motion
With Isaac Newton
  • Systems and Center of Mass
  • The Power of Equations: Scientific “Principles”
  • Forces and Free-Body Diagrams
  • Newton’s Laws of Motion
  • Gravitational Force
  • Kinetic and Static Friction
  • Spring Forces
  • Circular Motion
 
Unit 5: Work, Energy, and Power
With Emilie du Chatelet and James Joule
  • Translational Kinetic Energy
  • Work
  • Potential Energy
  • Conservation of Energy
  • Power
 
Unit 6: Linear Momentum and Collisions
With Rene Descartes, Christiaan Huygens, and John Wallis
  • Linear Momentum
  • Conservation of Linear Momentum
  • Elastic and Inelastic Collisions
 
Unit 7: Circular Motion and Oscillations
With Christiaan Huygens and Robert Hooke
  • Rotational Kinematics
  • Torque
  • Rotational Inertia
  • Simple Harmonic Motion
  • Energy of Simple Harmonic Oscillators
 
Unit 8: The Methodology of Science
With Sir Francis Bacon
  • The Historical Development of Scientific Methodology
  • The Whys of the “Scientific Method”
  • Systematic Inquiry for Accumulating Correct Knowledge
  • Increasing Confidence: From Hypothesis to Theory to Law
  • Trying the Experiment: Acquiring Spiritual Truth
  • Effective Scientific Communication
  • What Science Is, What Science Is Not
  • The Limitations of Science — And Our Need for More
 
Unit 9: Science and Religion
With John A. Widtsoe, James E. Talmage, Henry Eyring, and Russell M. Nelson
  • The Historical Interactions Between Science and Religion
  • The Invention of the Conflict Thesis
  • Truth is Truth
  • True Religion Enhances True Science
  • True Science Enhances True Religion
  • The Prophetic View of Science
  • Human Identity
 
Unit 10: Fluids
With Evangelista Torricelli and Daniel Bernoulli
  • Internal Structure and Density of Fluids
  • Pressure
  • Fluids and Newton’s Laws
  • Fluids and Conservation Laws
 
Unit 11: Thermodynamics
With Sadi Carnot and Lord Kelvin
  • Kinetic Theory of Temperature and Pressure
  • The Ideal Gas Law
  • Thermal Energy Transfer and Equilibrium
  • The First Law of Thermodynamics
  • Specific Heat and Thermal Conductivity
  • Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
 
Unit 12: Vibrations and Waves
With Christian Doppler
  • Properties of Waves and Wave Pulses
  • Periodic Waves
  • The Doppler Effect with Sound and Other Mechanical Waves
  • Wave Interference and Standing Waves
 
Unit 13: Electricity and Electric Circuits
With Benjamin Franklin, Charles Coulomb, and Georg Simon Ohm
  • Electric Charge and Electric Force
  • Conservation of Electric Charge and the Process of Charging
  • Electric Fields
  • Electric Potential and Current
  • Simple Circuits
  • Resistance, Resistivity, and Ohm’s Law
 
Unit 14: Magnetism and Electromagnetism
With William Gilbert, Hans Christian Orsted, and Michael Faraday
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Magnetism and Moving Charges
  • Magnetism and Current-Carrying Wires
  • Electromagnetic Induction and Faraday’s Law
 
Unit 15: Light and Optics
With Alhazen, James Clerk Maxwell, and Heinrich Hertz
  • Reflection and Mirrors
  • Refraction and Lenses
  • Properties of Waves, Revisited
  • Boundary Behavior of Waves and Polarization
  • Electromagnetic Waves
  • The Doppler Effect with Light
  • Diffraction
 
Unit 16: Modern Physics
With Max Planck, Albert Einstein, and Niels Bohr
  • Quantum Theory and Wave-Particle Duality
  • The Bohr Model of Atomic Structure
  • Emission and Absorption Spectra
  • Blackbody Radiation
  • The Photoelectric Effect
  • Compton Scattering
  • Fission, Fusion, and Nuclear Decay
  • Types of Radioactive Decay
  • Special Relativity
  • Recent Discoveries
  • The Search for a Unifying Theory
 
Unit 17: The Eternal Search for Truth
With _________ <Insert Your Name>
  • Absolute and Eternal Truth
  • Can We Know?
  • Wanting to Know: Curiosity and Desire
  • How to Know: Methods of Learning Truth
  • How to Evaluate Truth Claims
  • Faith: Seeing What Cannot Be Seen
  • The Ultimate Utility of Truth: What to Do with Truth
  • Human Destiny
 

View Syllabus.

Physics, by Paul Peter Urone and Roger Hinrichs (OpenStax, 2020). Access online.

Mr. Tayson Holzer

Tayson Holzer completed Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and has worked as an engineer developing and programming electrical systems, including gas and oil pipeline inspection technologies, missile launch systems, microfabrication of a novel chemical process called micro circulatory gas chromatography, and a 3D laser scanner. He believes that all students, including those not pursuing a technical career, can be inspired by and greatly benefit from learning the patterns of searching for truth that science provides. He also believes that technically minded students who do plan to pursue scientific or engineering careers should be strongly encouraged to keep their roots firmly planted in faith, history, literature, and law. These priorities are reflected in his other interests, which include reading great literature; researching his family history and writing the stories of his ancestors; and studying European and American history to learn from the repeating patterns of history. He enjoys reading with his three young children, baking and talking with his wife, and going on early-morning jogs in the quiet of pre-dawn. His principle loves are the Gospel of Jesus Christ, his family, and teaching in a way that invites others to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ and powerfully engage in the compelling work of the last days.