Would you give any credit for this?

[Janeway]

My son, who is 14, almost 15 yrs old, has been watching Cosmos, Mechanical Universe, and doing some of the experiments such as making Tesla Coils. He has also been reading some physics books.  I could fine tune this with some quizzes or tests to see if he is learning regular physics materials for a high school class. I was not planning to do physics until next year, but, he has been wanting it now. Oh yeah, and he also has a couple college mechanics physics books. He plans to do calculus based physics in the future, but I do not know if it will be through DE or AP.  Oh, and I forgot, he started out the beginning of the year in an outsourced high school physics class but we had to drop a few weeks in. They were using the CK12.org high school physics book there. And he also read the Life of Fred Physics book already.

 

What do you think?

Edited April 12, 2016 by Janeway

[regentrude]

I would examine the work he has done and look at output. If I decide it is credit worthy because he spent enough time, I would not call it "physics" though, since that would imply a certain canon has been covered.

"Reading some physics books" - not sure what that means. Are you talking about popular non-fiction for a general audience?

For any physics text, you don't just read; without working through the examples and working problems, you can't develop an actual understanding.

"Having" college physics books does not translate into credit. Working through them would.

Edited April 12, 2016 by regentrude

[perky]

Maybe call it Physical Science?  I'm not sure if you could call it Conceptual Physics.  

 

And what regentrude said.

[Janeway]

I was considering calling it Astronomy.

[regentrude]

I was considering calling it Astronomy.

 

Watching13 episodes of Cosmos does not constitute an astronomy credit.

The other resources don't seem to have to do with astronomy - at least not that you mentioned.

 

[foxbridgeacademy]

Just my opinion and I know others will disagree  :) .....

 

Yes, I would.  I'd call it Physical Science. I'd base credit on how many hours he's put into it.  75-90 is a 1/2 credit.   A lot of people school this way, most are just not on this board. You might want to ask on an unschooling board to get a better idea.  

 

 

 

[Julie of KY]

I would have a difficult time calling it introductory physics if that is all the physics he got as it is non-traditional. I wouldn't have a difficult time calling it introductory physics if followed up by an AP or DE calculus physics course later. ... of course that is if the workload (time and output) are sufficient.