Can We Offer Grade 12 College Physics?

The grade 12 College Physics course (SPH4C) is rarely taught in Ontario High Schools. I taught this course twice in my previous high school, but that school was closed due to declining enrolment. My current high school keeps offering the course and then not running it. This workshop is to share some ideas and frustrations, and to try to find ways of convincing more teachers, department heads and principals that this is a worthwhile course for students intending to enter college programs involving science and technology. If you don’t know anything about this course, come and find out about the Physics of Machines: levers, gears, pulleys, wheels, motors, transmissions, pumps, siphons, toilets, hydraulics, pneumatics, fiber optics, electronics, and more!

Richard Taylor decided to let out his inner teacher in 2001 after a twenty year career as a software engineer. He’s having a great time playing with Physics and even a bit of Chemistry, Biology and Astronomy. Richard also likes fixing things around the house – his latest triumph was dismantling and fixing the electronic controls for his dishwasher. He would like to be able to teach Physics to more students who have technical aptitude but can’t handle the math and abstract theory of SPH3U and SPH4U.