Teaching High School Physics With a Story-Line

High school physics curricula are designed to meet a number of goals, all of which compete for classroom and homework time. The process-oriented goals include the development of skills in problem solving, measurement, analyzing data, and research, particularly in this world of internet based, unfiltered information. Content goals, on the other hand, insist on mastery or, at least, exposure to kinematics, dynamics, geometrical and physical optics, fluid dynamics, electric and magnetic fields, circuits, electromagnetism, nuclear physics, relativity, and quantum mechanics. Infusing history and nature of science topics into this already packed agenda is a challenge for even the most gifted of teachers.