Home School / Self Teaching Courses

About Home School Courses

The Physics Classroom has prepared a few Home School courses for students who are not in traditional schooling environments. They are perfect for a homeschooler or a parent and child who wish to complete studies in Physics that are independent of any school requirement.

Each Home School Course consists of a collection of Task Tracker assignments. Task Tracker is our system of tracking a students' progress on interactive website tasks. We have more than 900 Task Tracker compatible assignments. For each Home School Course, we packaged together 200-300 of these tasks. These tasks are organized into units and each unit is accompanied by a detailed study plan. The study plan identifies 5-10 Learning Outcomes and specifies a step-by-step plan for accomplishing those outcomes. Each plan includes links to readings and videos, followed by varied tasks from the website.

Home School courses are independent study courses. These can be either done as self-taught, or a Parent or Tutor can use this for their pupils. These courses go hand in hand with our Homeschool Task Tracker Subscription. For a low cost (currently only $50, you get Ad-Free viewing of the site, tracking on our activities and a homeschool specific lesson plan to guide you through Physics (and in the future - Chemistry).

Please note that we do not provide tutors or personal instruction as part of the course. We do provide plenty of Tutorials written at the high school level. We also provide short videos for each topic from our YouTube channel for Physics (Chemistry to come). And most of our Task Tracker activities include links to help pages that are relevant to the specific question or activity. All that being said, a student will need to be capable of reading and carrying out independent studies in order to successfully complete any of our Home School Courses.

When a homeschooler subscribes to the program, they can pick the course they wish to complete. If the course they pick does not seem to meet their need, then they can switch to a different course and begin over or resume with the topic they were previously on prior to the switch.

What Courses Are Available?

We have created three Home School Courses for Physics. Each course addresses the needs of a different profile of student.

Conceptual Physics

This course consists of 12 units that target topics in Mechanics, Static and Current Electricity, Wave Mechanics, and Ray Optics. There is a wide collection of task Tracker assignments, including Simulations with Concept Checkers, Concept Builders, Minds On missions, customized CalcPad problem sets, and Science Reasoning activities.

The course is well-suited for the a junior or senior Physics student who has either difficulty or a significant lack of confidence in mathematics and algebraic problem-solving. This is also a perfect course for a 9th grade student or any student who reads and reasons at the 9th grade level or higher. While mathematics is used in the course, the mathematical rigor is toned down considerably and mainly used to highlight concepts. Right angle trigonometry is never used. Algebraic manipulation of physics equations is . used. Students can expect to have a strong emphasis upon conceptual reasoning. Concepts will always come first. Physics equations are primarily used to show how two quantities are related qualitatively.

We would not regard this course to be a strong college-prep course. A student who completes this course would have a strong conceptual background in Physics that would be suitable for future studies in first-year college Physics. However, they would likely need to improve their algebra and problem-solving skills to be fully prepared for such future studies. Such improvements might come from their math studies or from a second course in Physics that has a stronger emphasis on the application of algebra to problem-solving.

Conceptual Physics Course Pack: There is an optional Conceptual Physics Course Pack which can be purchased for this course. It will contain presentation materials, labs and think sheets that are low-math. This resource is geared towards teachers but you may want this for the think sheets.

Algebra-Based, On-Level Physics

This course consists of 13 units that target topics in Mechanics, Static and Current Electricity, Wave Mechanics, and Ray Optics. There is a wide collection of Task Tracker assignments, including Simulations with Concept Checkers, Concept Builders, Minds On missions, customized CalcPad problem sets, and Science Reasoning activities.

The course is well-suited for the on-level junior or senior Physics student. We regard this to be a strong, uncompromised college-prep course. A student who completes this course will be well-prepared for future studies in first-year college Physics. Emphasis of the course design is on concepts first with a clear intention to incorporate mathematical problem-solving through the use of algebra (including some right-angle trigonometry) and physics formulas that are relevant to the topic. While a talented 9th grade student with strong algebra and reading skills may be able to keep up with the demands of this course, we typically recommend our Conceptual Physics course to 9th grade students.

Honors Physics

This course consists of 13 units that target topics in Mechanics, Static and Current Electricity, Wave Mechanics, and Ray Optics. There is a wide collection of task Tracker assignments, including Simulations with Concept Checkers, Concept Builders, Minds On missions, customized CalcPad problem sets, and Science Reasoning activities.

The course is well-suited for an honors-level junior or senior Physics student. We regard this to be a strong college-prep course with additional challenges that aren't present in the Algebra-Based Physics course. A student who completes this course will be well-prepared for future studies in first-year college Physics and subsequent course work in science and engineering fields. Emphasis of the course design is on concepts first with a clear intention to incorporate mathematical problem-solving through the use of algebra (including some right-angle trigonometry) and physics formulas that are relevant to the topic. At times, the mathematics is particularly challenging and includes multi-step problems whose solution is not immediately obvious or routine. Students who enjoy being challenged and stretched will enjoy this course. Only on very rare occasions would we ever recommend this course to a 9th grader. Our Algebra-Based Physics course will present a suitable challenge for a talented 9th grade student.

Future Chemistry

Our Chemistry Tutorial was finished early 2026, and we are finishing up remaining activities and tools in the 26-27 school year. Part of these efforts will also include lesson plans, and a Home school course at the end. We thank you for your patience!