PHYSICS - GENERAL OUTLINES AND SKILLS

• PHYSICS - GENERAL OUTLINES AND SKILLS

PHYSICS - GENERAL OUTLINES AND SKILLS

At the end of high school, the student will have learned the fundamental concepts of physics, the laws and theories that make them explicit, becoming aware of the cognitive value of the discipline and the link between the development of physical knowledge and the historical and philosophical context in which it developed. In particular, the student will have acquired the following skills: observing and identifying phenomena; formulate explanatory hypotheses using models, analogies, and laws; formalize a physics problem and apply the mathematical and disciplinary tools relevant to its solution; experience and account for the significance of the various aspects of the experimental method, where the experiment is understood as a reasoned interrogation of natural phenomena, choice of significant variables, collection and critical analysis of data and the reliability of a process of measurement, construction and/or validation of models; understand and evaluate the scientific and technological choices that affect the society in which they live. The freedom, competence and sensitivity of the teacher – who will evaluate from time to time the most appropriate educational path for the individual class – will play a fundamental role in finding a connection with other teachings (in particular with those of mathematics, science, history and philosophy) and in promoting collaborations between his school and universities, research institutions, Science museums and the world of work, especially for the benefit of students in the last two years.

SPECIFIC  LEARNING OBJECTIVES

FIRST TWO- YEAR PERIOD

In the first two years, students begin to build the language of classical physics (scalar and vector physical quantities and units of measurement), accustoming the student to simplify and model real situations, to solve problems and to have critical awareness of their work. At the same time, the laboratory experiments will allow to clearly define the field of investigation of the discipline and to allow the student to explore phenomena (develop skills related to measurement) and to describe them with an appropriate language (uncertainties, significant figures, graphs). The experimental activity will accompany him throughout the first two years, leading him to an increasingly aware knowledge of the discipline also through the writing of reports that critically rework each experiment performed. Through the study of geometric optics, the student will be able to interpret the phenomena of reflection and refraction of light and the functioning of the main optical instruments. The study of thermal phenomena will define, from a macroscopic point of view, the quantities temperature and quantity of heat exchanged, introducing the concept of thermal equilibrium and dealing with the transitions of state.

The study of mechanics will concern problems related to the balance of bodies and fluids; the motions will be dealt with first of all from the kinematic point of view, arriving at dynamics with a first exposition of Newton's laws, with particular attention to the second law. From the analysis of mechanical phenomena, the student will begin to familiarize himself with the concepts of work and energy, to arrive at a first treatment of the law of conservation of total mechanical energy. The suggested topics will be developed by the teacher according to methods and in an order consistent with the conceptual tools and mathematical knowledge already possessed by the students or contextually acquired in the parallel course of Mathematics (as specified in the relevant Indications). The student will thus be able to experience, in an elementary but rigorous form, the specific method of investigation of physics, in its experimental, theoretical and linguistic aspects.

SECOND TWO YEARS PERIOD

In the second two years, the course will give greater emphasis to the theoretical framework (the laws of physics) and to formal synthesis (mathematical tools and models), with the aim of formulating and solving more challenging problems, also drawn from everyday experience, emphasizing the quantitative and predictive nature of physical laws. In addition, the experimental activity will allow the student to discuss and build concepts, design and conduct observations and measurements, compare experiments and theories. The laws of motion will be taken up, alongside the discussion of inertial and non-inertial reference frames and Galileo's principle of relativity. The deepening of the principle of conservation of mechanical energy, also applied to the motion of fluids and the address of the other principles of conservation, will allow the student to reread mechanical phenomena through different quantities and to extend their study to systems of bodies. With the study of gravitation, from Kepler's laws to Newtonian synthesis, the student will deepen, also in relation to history and philosophy, the debate of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on cosmological systems. The study of thermal phenomena will be completed with the laws of gases, familiarizing with the conceptual simplification of the perfect gas and with the related kinetic theory; The student will thus be able to see how the Newtonian paradigm is able to connect the microscopic to the macroscopic realm. The study of the principles of thermodynamics will allow the student to generalize the law of conservation of energy and to understand the intrinsic limits to transformations between forms of energy, also in their technological implications, in quantitative and mathematically formalized terms. We will begin the study of wave phenomena with mechanical waves, introducing their characteristic quantities and mathematical formalization; The phenomena related to their propagation will be examined with particular attention to superposition, interference and diffraction. In this context, the student will familiarize himself with sound (as an example of a particularly significant mechanical wave) and will complete the study of light with those phenomena that highlight its wave-like nature. The study of electrical and magnetic phenomena will allow the student to critically examine the concept of interaction at a distance, already encountered with the law of universal gravitation, and to overcome it through the introduction of interactions mediated by the electric field, of which a description will also be given in terms of energy and potential, and by the magnetic field.

FIFTH YEAR

The student will complete the study of electromagnetism with magnetic induction and its applications, in order to reach, focusing on the conceptual aspects, the synthesis constituted by Maxwell's equations. The student will also deal with the study of electromagnetic waves, their production and propagation, their effects and their applications in the various frequency bands. The didactic path will include the knowledge developed in the twentieth century related to the microcosm and the macrocosm, combining the problems that historically led to the new concepts of space and time, mass and energy. The teacher will have to pay attention to use a mathematical formalism accessible to the students, always highlighting the fundamental concepts. The study of Einstein's theory of special relativity will lead the student to deal with the simultaneity of events, the dilation of time and the contraction of lengths; Having dealt with mass-energy equivalence will allow him to develop an energetic interpretation of nuclear phenomena (radioactivity, fission, fusion). The affirmation of the quantum of light model can be introduced through the study of thermal radiation and Planck's hypothesis (also addressed only in a qualitative way), and will be developed on the one hand with the study of the photoelectric effect and its interpretation by Einstein, and on the other hand with the discussion of theories and experimental results that highlight the presence of discrete energy levels in the atom. The experimental evidence of the wave-like nature of matter, postulated by De Broglie, and the uncertainty principle could conclude the path in a significant way. The experimental dimension can be further deepened with activities to be carried out not only in the educational laboratory of the school, but also in the laboratories of universities and research institutions, also adhering to orientation projects.

In this context, the student will be able to deepen topics of interest to him, approaching the most recent discoveries of physics (for example in the field of astrophysics and cosmology, or in the field of particle physics) or deepening the relationship between science and technology (for example the theme of nuclear energy, to acquire the scientific terms useful to critically approach the current debate, or semiconductors, to understand the most current technologies also in relation to the impact on the problem of energy resources, or micro- and nano-technologies for the development of new materials).