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My son used Apologia Physics last year, along with The New World of Mr. Tomkins (Gamow), Alice in Quantumland (Gilmore), and The Wizard of Quarks (Gilmore).

 

He didn't care for the first couple of chapters, but after that he really liked the book, and physics in general. He even chose Advanced Physics for his 12th grade course this year. He also said there were several trig concepts he learned/understood better from the explanations in the physics book than from his math text, though I guess that could be a reflection on his MUS Precalculus as much as a commendation for the physics book.

 

His very favorite book last year, though, was The New World of Mr. Tomkins, which is a fun introduction to relativity and quantum mechanics, with some math, but not a whole lot. He preferred it to the other living book supplements he read last year, and to the Stephen Hawking books he is reading so far this year (though he did say that Stephen Hawking clarified red shift for him).

 

He is a quick learner and needs almost no repetition if a concept is explained clearly, so I don't know how his experience would translate to a different kind of student.

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Has anyone used Apologia Physics? Any opinions?

 

I taught Apologia Physics for three years at our co-op. It is a good, basic Physics text, made to be done independently by a student, and the labs use materials easily found around the home or purchased quite reasonably. The teachers manual has tests and solutions. For a student who isn't going into a science or engineering field, or for a first Physics course in high school, I think it's fine.

 

That said, I am switching to KineticBooks' Principles of Physics this year. It covers some topics not touched by Apologia, and I like the interactive features. I will have to come up with labs and tests on my own, but I'm more comfortable with that after teaching Apologia these past few years.

 

HTH

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My son took Apologia Physics in 10th and Advanced in 11th and loved them both. He wrote the AP exam (Physics B) ... but is not expecting anything great - he would be thrilled with a B. He supplemented with watching MIT lectures on youtube.

 

He worked completely independently of me and easily grasped most of the material. Occasionally he would ask my husband / father for input, but not much.

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We did Apologia Physics and my son loved it. I have heard some people say it is not a good college prep class, however, my son took Physics at the cc and did very well. He said most of the class (until the last 3 weeks) was a review of what he had already learned. We had also done some of Apologia Advancedphysics at home.

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My oldest used Apologia's Physics this past year and did well with it. He's not a science major and didn't even need Physics to get into the colleges he wanted with his major, but I wanted him to know the basics of the course just for the education. Apologia (1st book only) was superb for that. The concepts were there, the questions were relatively easy, but relevant, and it sunk in beyond the test to where my son could use the info he had learned later (esp when watching Mythbusters, but other times too).

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I have a ds who used Apologia Physics and also Adv. Physics (his choice to do it because he didn't need another year of lab science). He enjoyed the subject and the texts. The labs used things already around the house, and explanations were good. My dh did do the labs along with ds and ds's friends who also wanted to do Adv. Physics, so he was able to answer questions the boys had and take them deeper when they wondered, "what would happen if we ...?" (Dh was an Engineering and Physics double major, so this was totally fun for him.)

 

My ds also really enjoys theoretical Physics and watched the Teaching Co. dvds on String Theory (I can't remember the exact title). In fact he enjoyed it so much that he watched it twice and has often had conversations with adults about physics topics.

 

Anyway, my ds learned plenty from the Apologia and the Teaching Co. course. My ds is able to have an educated discussion with adults knowledgeable in Physics. It's humorous to sit back and listen to my dh and ds converse because my dh's Physics is very practical (used daily at work) and my ds enjoys theoretical physics, so their discussions are interesting. My ds has not taken Physics in college, and won't because he doesn't need more than a basic science class because he is a Digital Media/Editing major. His friend did take Physics in college and said most of the first level Physics course was a repeat of Apologia, so he was well prepared.

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Our dd took Physics this past year (10th) with an online group called Virtual Homeschool Group. (VHSG) They are free and you can either take the live class with the teacher or the recorded one at your own speed. She's not a great lover of math so I was glad to have the support for her. The teacher, Mrs. Moore, is a really smart, kind and godly woman with a degree in the sciences. I think maybe Biology, but I'm not sure. There are other teachers too that volunteer their time. It has been a life saver for us as I am not a "science" person and our dd naturally excels in it. She has taken Chemistry, Biology and Physics there and this year will be taking Saxon Advanced Math.

 

The website address is: http://www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com/ They are a free ministry to home schooled families, but do take donations to pay for the servers and online classrooms.

 

HTH, Holly

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