Connecting the Dots: Concepts in Physics

For students in Grades 8, 9, 10, from any Board (CBSE/ IB/ IGCSE/ ICSE, etc.)

We were inspired by some recent posts on Social Media about the excessive focus on methods/ short-cuts/ speed, as opposed to foundational understanding. There's plenty of research about typical conceptual gaps in students' understanding at at various age/ grade levels. Our blog post, Conceptual Learning: What, Why and How, provides a more detailed background.

With this starting point, our mentors sat down to curate a list of such areas that students could do well to have a deep, foundational understanding of, that they can build on, over time. We have identified such topics across Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) and Math.

This module is around the concepts of Forces, Motion, Density and Flotation in Physics. The content has been chosen based on a knowledge of common student misconceptions and errors- derived from research as well as the experience base of our mentors. For each topic, the student experience includes pre-work, live sessions with mentors, assignments/ assessments, and feedback. In addition, students can email their doubts and questions to the mentor at any point of time during the course.

This module aims for a deeper understanding of forces and motion, which are concepts that form a fundamental basis of physics. Newton’s laws will be viewed from multiple perspectives with real life examples, clarifying common misconceptions along the way and posing open ended questions. The students will also explore the connection between density, which is a fundamental property of matter, and the phenomenon of flotation.  This could lead them to probe interesting questions such as whether the sea level could rise with icebergs melting.

The course comprises 4 sessions of 1.5 hours each.

The course is NOT a tuition service aimed at preparation for exams. These courses are also NOT a substitute for school work.

If you would like to get a feel for the conceptual approach we take in the course, we recommend taking the 'Concepts Quiz' at https://bit.ly/ConceptQuiz (kids) or https://bit.ly/ConcepTest (grownups). If you would like to discuss the quiz questions after taking it, you can write to online@genwise.in. The quiz has questions across Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics.

Please see here, and here for a couple of testimonials from earlier editions of our Connecting The Dots series.