Amity Physics Worksheets

"The only thing cooler than making a discovery is watching someone you're teaching make a discovery." -Erin Lavik-

The Amity physics worksheets were developed over a period of 33 years with the intention of presenting an entire high school physics curriculum in the form of socratic questioning. We found that asking the right questions at the right times and providing simple lab equipment such as strings, pulleys, rulers, carts, ramps, wires, flashlight bulbs, voltmeters, ammeters, etc. enable students to discover virtually all of the principles and laws of high-school physics for themselves. Problem-solving skills are developed at the same time. The intended pace is one page per day. Extra-help pages (labeled "R") are available for slower classes, and enrichment pages (labeled "b") are for honors-level students.

Over the years I kept track of what worked and what didn't, continually revising and improving the worksheets until my retirement in 2000. I have made them available here as Adobe pdf files. If your computer does not already have Acrobat Reader it can be downloaded free from Adobe: Acrobat Reader

 The worksheets for physics I (first-year physics) are arranged in chapters. The Chapter Review Sheets should be distributed early so that students can record new definitions and discoveries immediately. Each item on the chapter review sheet has the page number that it comes from listed in parentheses, so the review sheet also functions as an index. Some sample tests and quizzes are included here, with complete solutions. Although my tests always required short answers, students were required to write out complete and clear solutions to the problems that they were not able to solve correctly at first, and were expected to ask for help if necessary. 

To the Physics I Table of Contents, with brief chapter overviews:

To the Physics II Worksheets with introduction, brief chapter descriptions, and glossary, all revised in 2013, in PDF format:

Note: My Advanced Placement Physics materials are also available for purchase in published form with a teacher's guide, lesson plans and other good stuff.

Links to a few other physics teaching websites:

My favorite quotation...

To the Tuba-Logic Website:

To the Galvanized Jazz Band Website: