Physics by Discovery… a physics course for high school homeschool students in the Beaverton / Northwest Portland, Oregon area.

Are you homeschooling your high school student and wanting to provide them with a solid foundation in physics?   Do you feel like you don’t have the background to do a great job teaching physics to your student? Are you short on time? Then let me help you!

To support parents like you, I am offering Physics by Discovery, an experiment-based college preparatory physics course for high school homeschool students. I am an experienced physics educator who enjoys helping students discover the concepts of physics for themselves through experiments, problem solving, and real life applications. Students will be using top quality lab equipment, including computer-data collection and video analysis in their investigations.

I believe students should build their physics knowledge and skills through the same process of discovery that scientists use. It is so much more meaningful and interesting to experience the discovery of new ideas through one’s own observations and experiments than it is to hear or read about what someone else has done. The Physics by Discovery course is all about learning physics by doing physics. It is about asking questions, designing experiments, making observations, taking data, analyzing data to look for patterns, formulating models (explanations, concepts, and mathematical relationships) that fit the data, testing models, revising models, and finally applying validated models to new situations. It is about working in groups, sharing our thinking, and coming to consensus on new ideas, in much the same way the scientific community operates. It is about rigorous reasoning and problem solving. It is about using what we discover to explain how things work in the world around us.

I have a deep love for both young people and physics, and a strong desire to build into the lives of young people through physics.

The class will be kept small (maximum of 6 students) to allow for lots of interaction and individualized attention and feedback. Please contact me if you have questions or are interested in registering for the class. An Interest Meeting is usually held in the spring, though sometimes the class is full by that time.

Course Content • Course Details • Interest Meeting • Registration