Anchored in real-world phenomena, PEER Physics is an innovative, student-centered approach for teaching and learning physics in the high school. PEER Physics is designed to address the most current standards, involving core concepts, scientific practices, and crosscutting themes. Students learn to advocate for themselves in an inclusive learning environment where they develop, share, critique, argue, and revise evidence-based ideas.
PEER Physics includes six chapters, each situated within a real-world phenomena. PEER Physics is designed for flexibility in the chapter sequencing. Districts can choose from a variety of sequence map options to align with their priorities. All suggested sequence maps are based on physics education research and are designed to spiral essential physics concepts, crosscutting concepts, and scientific practices.
The PEER Physics learning cycle allows students to integrate past experiences with evidence so that they can generate and internalize scientific principles.
The Initial Ideas prompt students to think about their experiences and intuitions relevant to the activity. It is critical that the instructor helps establish norms and practices in order for students to feel safe to share their preconceptions so that their ideas are heard and valued.
When Collecting and Interpreting Evidence, students make many concrete observations of phenomena. These observations come from shared laboratory experiences, which allow students to argue on the basis of shared evidence. Students use mathematical relationships, trends, data tables, graphs, etc. to interpret observations and data. In some chapters they also draw, describe, and revise models to make sense of their observations. Students are guided to identify and use evidence to make claims about scientific principles.
Summarizing Questions guide students in generating claims from their evidence. Groups come to consensus on their responses to the summarizing questions and then defend their claims to other groups.
The Scientists’ Ideas Reading presents formalisms for students only after they have developed the concepts themselves through evidence-based consensus building. These readings provide academic language, symbols, and mathematical formalisms consistent with what they will see in college.
Assessments are a valuable tool that PEER Physics teachers use to guide instructional decisions and provide feedback to students about content understanding and engagement in the scientific practices. The PEER Physics suite includes a variety of assessments — projects associated with each phenomena, multi-dimensional performance assessments and rubrics, engineering design challenges, and traditional assessment banks — to meet the different assessment needs in a PEER Physics classroom.
Instructors may provide students with the opportunity to engage in different forms of authentic assessments relating directly to the anchoring phenomenon explored in the chapter. Resources for each phenomenon typically include a project, such as designing an infographic or creating a whiteboard animation video, a writing prompt, and open-ended assessment questions.
These short performance assessments provide teachers with resources to gauge student proficiency on physics principles, crosscutting concepts, and scientific practices. Not only do these assessments provide teachers with a more comprehensive measurement of student understanding, but they also allow students to be assessed in ways that parallel the pedagogical approach in a PEER Physics classroom. Instructors may implement these as group or individual assessments, depending on the instructor’s assessment objectives. Each PEER Physics Three Dimensional Assessment also includes a grading rubric and review questions.
PEER Physics Engineering Design Challenges are classroom or take-home projects in which students use physics principles to solve a real-world problem. These projects are carefully designed for students to apply their understanding of physics principles throughout each step of the the engineering design process: brainstorming, designing, testing, analyzing, and optimizing. Each PEER Physics Engineering Design Challenge also includes a storyline hook that instructors may use to introduce the associated chapter.
The PEER Physics Assessment Banks provide teachers with traditional content-based assessment questions that are designed to assess student understanding of the key ideas that are developed throughout each activity. Formative and summative assessment play an important role in the PEER Physics classroom for informing responsive instructional decisions and for providing students with detailed feedback. These assessment banks were designed in collaboration with PEER Physics instructors and they are based on educational research on the Assessment Pyramid, carefully incorporating three levels of thinking (reproduction, connections, and analysis) across physics domains (Shafer and Foster, 1997).
By design, PEER Physics students collect evidence and induce principles through scientific modeling and argumentation. PEER Physics is authentically and cohesively aligned with the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards(1) and the National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education(2).
PEER Physics Teacher’s Guides are designed to help teachers value the sense making process rather than solely correct answers. They include suggestions for facilitating the activities, common student preconceptions, extensions, and assessment opportunities.
Materials and Equipment: We provide a comprehensive materials list for implementing the curriculum along with vendor suggestions, consultations, and recommended purchase options.
PEER Physics Student and Teacher’s Guides are available in two formats: as spiral-bound printed books and as eBooks on the VitalSource Bookshelf platform. Partnering schools and districts often utilize each of these formats for their PEER Physics courses, as they offer different types of supports for PEER Physics learning environments.
PEER Physics works to ensure that all electronic resources conform with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d) as amended, all other regulations promulgated under Title II of the American Disabilities Act, and the accessibility standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
PEER Physics Teacher’s Guides and Web-Based Resources are designed with differentiation in mind. These materials provide extensive differentiation strategies and tools, both for students who would benefit from increased complexity through extensions and for those who need additional support.
Looking to bring Earth Science into your Physics courses? PEER Physics offers a scope and sequence option specifically designed to weave Earth Science concepts into the curriculum. This sequence features Anchoring Phenomena and investigations that help students build their understanding of Earth Science DCIs while highlighting the authentic connections between Earth Science and Physics. It’s an ideal option for states and districts that prioritize a three-course model, incorporating Earth Science into Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.
The materials needed to facilitate PEER Physics range from high-tech data collection devices and motion sensors to home-made soda can electroscopes. Below are helpful links for navigating material needs and purchasing. Remember to refer to the PEER Physics Teacher’s Guides for details about material use and preparation for each chapter.
NEW PEER Physics CMW Kits (Reach out to Shelly for purchasing details: shelly.belleau@PEERphysics.org)
PASCO Materials Kits (Buying Guide)
Are you looking into a district-wide adoption and need samples of the PEER Physics curricular materials to inform your decision? Set up a meeting with Shelly to share about your adoption goals and discuss partnership pathways. We’re happy to provide sample curricular materials for partnerships that may be a good fit!
Learn more about partnership options and obtain sample materials by contacting Shelly Belleau: shelly.belleau@peerphysics.org.
