Physics ›  Syllabus

Course Syllabus

How this class is graded, how the two trimesters are structured, and what's expected of you along the way.

How Your Grade Is Built

80% of your grade splits 90/10 between Summative and Formative work. The other 20% is the trimester's Final Exam, on top of everything else.

72%  Summative
Projects, Problems & Unit Tests
8%  Formative
Activities
20%  Final Exam
End-of-trimester exam
Formative — 8%

Activities are formative. They're low-stakes on purpose — this is where you're allowed to be bad at something on the way to getting good at it.

Summative — 72%

Projects, Problems, and Unit Tests are all summative. These are where you show what you actually walked away with.

How Points Work

An Activity is the baseline point value. Everything else is set relative to it:

ActivityFormative

The baseline unit of points. Graded on completion & quality.

ProjectSummative

Same point value as an Activity, but it's Summative — it counts toward the 72%, not the 8%.

ProblemSummative

Worth double a Project. It's the capstone of the unit — it should weigh like one.

Unit TestSummative

Same point value as a Project.

In short: a Problem is worth twice as much as a Project or a Unit Test — because it's the moment in the unit with no answer key, and the grade should say so.

Course Structure

The year is split into two 11-week trimesters. Each one runs three units: two Core units and one Flex unit that's built to shrink first if the calendar loses days.

Trimester 1
Kinematics → Dynamics → Acoustics
Trimester 2
Work/Energy/Power → Momentum → Optics

A Few Ground Rules

🦺

Any day we're building, cutting, or testing something, Safety & Shop Rules are in effect. No exceptions.

🔁

Activities can be redone. Projects and Problems can be revised before the unit closes. Unit Tests cannot.

🤖

Use AI to learn, not to skip learning. If you turn in something you can't explain, that's treated as plagiarism.


Physics ·  Project-Based  ·  Mr. Iserloth
🛠️ Built, not memorized