High School Conceptual (Math-Free) Physics
Conceptual Math-Free Physics
Most physics curriculums are comprised of thick, boring textbooks that require a firm grounding in higher level math and feature labs that can strike fear in a homeschool parent’s heart. You don’t need to know any higher level math to take this course. This is a CONCEPTUAL physics course for those of you who have students who hate math and love science, or for students who want to learn how the world works via physics by focusing more on the concepts than the math behind those concepts.
In Guest Hollow’s High School Conceptual Physics curriculum, students will learn physics concepts “Guest Hollow” style with loads of great books, fun hands-on activities, fascinating videos, online articles & images, and free printables scheduled in.
Guest Hollow’s High School Conceptual Physics Curriculum won FIRST PLACE in the Practical Homeschooling Reader Awards. Thousands of homeschoolers ranked the curriculum they have used, and the products with the highest satisfaction ratings won. Our Conceptual Physics Curriculum garnered the highest satisfaction rating out of all the physics program nominees. Click for more details.
What is conceptual physics?
We’ve pasted a quote by Keri Garver below, as it sums up perfectly what I’m trying to accomplish with this course:
We are all forced to interact with the physical world around us daily. When we not only observe, but also understand the rules of nature that govern our physical world we are more fulfilled and well-rounded individuals. Traditional physics classes often alienate students with difficult mathematical derivations and computations. While the rules of nature can often be described mathematically, it is not the only way to describe them. Conceptual Physics emphasizes learning the fundamental principles of nature from which concepts can be derived. Mathematics is not necessary to understand that energy can neither be created nor destroyed–which is, in fact, one of the fundamentals of physics. In reality, the basic laws and rules, if understood, are what students use for the rest of their lives by applying them to myriad situations. Therefore, it is the goal of Conceptual Physics to facilitate students understanding of the rules of nature by learning their foundations, not by learning their mathematical derivations.
In addition, physics is the basic science. It is the foundation for biology, chemistry, geology, and all other sciences. Therefore, what one learns in Conceptual Physics will be the basis on which all of one’s knowledge from the disciplines of science builds.
I’ve linked to an article about an adult who took a regular physics course vs. a conceptual physics course when he was a high school student. The author wishes he had chosen the conceptual course.
Guest Hollow’s High School Conceptual Physics Curriculum won FIRST PLACE in the Practical Homeschooling Reader Awards. Thousands of homeschoolers ranked the curriculum they have used, and the products with the highest satisfaction ratings won. Guest Hollow’s High School Conceptual Physics Curriculum garnered the highest satisfaction rating out of all the history program nominees. Click for more details.
Prerequisites: None
Approximate Daily Time Commitment:
45 min. – 1 hour depending on activities that are chosen and reading speed
$35.00
Guest Hollow materials are downloadable/online. There are no physical copies. | Already a customer? Go to “My Account” to log in and access your downloads and your online schedule membership. Need help logging in? Check out our help page. |
Grade Level / Age
Guest Hollow’s High School Conceptual Physics Curriculum is suggested for:
● Grades 9-12
● Approximate ages
13-18
What You Get
High School Physics comes with:
✔ A printable PDF schedule
✔ An editable schedule in Microsoft Word format
✔ Access to an online version of the schedule*
✔ A superb printable workbook
*Access to the online version of Guest Hollow’s High Physics Curriculum schedule is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed due to various potential circumstances.
I’d like to see the book & resource list!
Click here to see the required books and resources for Guest Hollow’s High School Conceptual Physics Curriculum.
Why choose Guest Hollow’s High School Physics Curriculum?
Homeschooling with Guest Hollow’s High School Conceptual Physics gets students enthusiastic about science!
There is NO textbook in our physics course. That keeps things fresh, interesting, and non-intimidating. Students also learn a bit of history and other subjects like chemistry and more, because physics is NOT something that happens in a vacuum. Physics applies to the world all around us and is tied to many other things.
Your student will learn lots of interesting and fun facts while getting to learn how the world works, as well as the cutting-edge possibilities of the future!
Practical science that is tied to real-life!
Guest Hollow’s Physics brings science to life.
Students get to immerse themselves in terrific books and videos while also having access to a buffet of activities like building a pencil lead light bulb, a solar updraft tower, supercooled fluid, an Archimedes screw, and tons more projects!
Does this curriculum come with __________?
✘ books?
No, you need to purchase the scheduled books separately. Learn more.
☑ a printable book list?
Yes. We provide a book list with a handy checklist to help you plan what you want to buy or borrow and in what format. We also let you know when each book is scheduled in, so you can arrange to check out books from the library before you need them!
☑ a schedule?
Yes. You get the same weekly schedule in 3 different formats: PDF, Microsoft Word, and online*. Just open it up and you are ready to learn!
*Access to the online version of the curriculum schedule is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed due to various potential circumstances on our end and yours including but not limited to various computer, device, and internet configurations.
☑ a supply list?
Yes. Most recipe ingredients and supplies are listed at the beginning of your schedule week-by-week.
✘ a teacher’s manual?
No. The physics curriculum schedule is all you need!
✘ tests?
No. There are no tests with this curriculum.
☑ a workbook?
Yes. You get a wonderful 130 page full-color workbook with the purchase of this curriculum (77 student pages and an answer key at the back).
Guest Hollow’s High School Conceptual Physics Curriculum Workbook Sample:
Gallery of Photos From Real Families Using Guest Hollow Physics:
Playing with a plasma globe (a video about plasma globes is linked in week 32)
Week 24: Making a voltaic cell
Week 17: Color wheel cupcakes
Week 7: Archimedes screw
Week 14: Tornado tube
Week 6: Spreading force over the surface of an egg
Click or tap to see a sample!
Take a look at a week from the online version of the schedule here.
Want to know how to use the Guest Hollow PDF Schedule or the editable Microsoft version of our schedule? Go here! (This page gives lots of insight as to how our schedules work!)
Have a question about printing your Guest Hollow schedule and materials? We cover that, too!
F.A.Q. for our High School Physics Curriculum
You’re invited!
Click or tap the button to join our Facebook groups! You can get additional questions answered, see pictures of students’ projects, get help and encouragement from other homeschoolers, or browse through the multitude of posts to get a feel for our products and see what real people think of Guest Hollow!
Like what you see? Join the Guest Hollow family, and add Guest Hollow’s Physics Curriculum to your cart!
Reviews: See what our customers have to say!
If you’ve used Guest Hollow’s High School Conceptual Physics, we invite you to write a review and leave your thoughts about our curriculum. Scroll down to the review box below the following customer reviews. We look forward to seeing your feedback!
rlarsen.scott (verified owner) –
A great fit for us without math! Excellent and thorough curriculum.
Polly Wallis –
We really liked the Physics and Chemistry programs. According to my son he liked all the variety with the different books. They made it move along and not be boring. The daily schedule was easy to follow. The links all worked and added another level of interest. The projects were simple and helped with understanding. Thank you for this different option for science.
Joanna (verified owner) –
My 2 students really enjoyed using the Physics curriculum this year. They were especially glad that there was no math. They liked the engaging book suggestions and the fact that they could learn from several different sources, not just a plain textbook. Their favorite book was “What If?”.
sixadoptions (verified owner) –
This Physics from Guest Hollow is interesting! It’s the favorite subject of my son and I enjoy it, too! I have a daughter who will be starting Physics soon. I also use the Anatomy with another daughter. Love Guest Hollow!
Jaime Haley (verified owner) –
This is an incredible resource! Thank you so much for all of your hard work. This curriculum makes physics fun again. The ongoing updates show that this is a quality program. Again, thank you for making my life easier.
Jessica Cichocki (verified owner) –
We used this Physics course for one of my sons this year (11th Grade Science Credit). It was a great fit, and easy to use. He gave the curriculum 4 stars and said he enjoyed the books, videos and the fact that there was no math. His favorite books included The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Enders Game, Mad About Physics, Manga Guide to Relativity, The Electric War and Light the Visible Spectrum. I was able to easily decide which books to buy and which I could use the library for because the Instructor’s Guide is so well laid out. I am very glad that I found Guest Hollow!
Jennifer Guest (verified owner) –
Thank you so much for leaving a review! <3
Melody C. –
We sort of cheated on this course. We have used other Guest Hollow courses and LOVED them, but this year my mother-in-law (who is a recently retired high school science teacher) wanted to teach our girls her own physics class. So we didn’t officially even use this course, but we did have our girls read about half of the book list for this course while taking her class, and once again, the Guest Hollow book lists for each subject are simply amazing. The girls learned so much just from the books they read, which technically they were reading just for fun! The books are always my favorite part of each course, and next year we plan to return for chemistry. (I added Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman as the last book of the year, and I hope you consider adding it as well…)
Debra Brinkman (verified owner) –
My two children (12th and 10th grades) completed Conceptual Physics this past year, and we were very pleased overall. Unlike other Guest Hollow courses we’ve used (Geography and Chemistry), this was not a favorite class for either of them, but neither of them hated it. They both have told me that it was far more interesting than they expected, and they are positive that they enjoyed it more than they would have with any other physics class.
I loved that we could cover physics topics without getting bogged down with the math. Physics for my older boys was a lot more applied mathematics and a lot less physics concepts. So I am very pleased.
We loved Exploring the World of Physics as a spine. One book that was a favorite of everyone was What If? by Randall Munroe. We got that on Audible, and the reading by Will Wheaton was fantastic. We’ve already pre-ordered the second volume.
Other books we liked included the Basher Science books (as great, quick reviews of concepts), the biographies, and my son and I both enjoyed ending the year with Ender’s Game (my daughter didn’t like it and stopped reading it.)
I don’t know if it was just us pushing towards graduation and summer jobs, but the last few weeks of the course seemed a lot more technically overwhelming. We cut more from the end as nobody seemed to be grasping it all. But that is one of the things I love about Guest Hollow. There is so much amazing material that you have to pick and choose to get it done in a normal timeframe, which leaves us free to choose not to use the materials that don’t seem to click for us.
Overall, we were quite pleased.
Sharon Michel (verified owner) –
My son grade 10 used Conceptual Physics this year. We were pleasantly surprised to find many of the longer books on Audible and the questions were just enough for review and to initiate discussion. This curriculum was the perfect fit for my son that has dysgraphia and stealth dyslexia. Thank you for a great year in Physics!
Lauryn –
I used this to teach a co-op class. It teaches the concepts very clearly. When you get to college, all you need to do is add the math. We also added the book, “How Your House Works” and took apart broken appliances and (tried to) repair. This gives the kids a great PRACTICAL understanding of physics.
Staci (verified owner) –
My 10th grade son completed the Physics course this year. He read all the materials on his own, but we gathered with a few other families to complete the experiments. All of the students enjoyed the material. My son really enjoyed Basher Science Physics book. He felt the book broke the material down well into bit size chunks. We did stray a bit and completed a couple of art projects which included concept from the class. Overall, a very well constructed curriculum for a student on the STEM path or not.
Melanie Wood (verified owner) –
My 10th grade son used this curriculum this year & was pleasantly surprised! At the beginning of the year, I was overly ambitious with the amount of reading I assigned him. After a couple of weeks spent feeling overwhelmed & not interested, I sat down with him & the booklist. We decided which things he was most interested in reading and learning about, it has been smooth sailing & smiles ever since!!
We both have especially enjoyed reading Zoom: How Everything Moves and What if!! My son absolutely loved Secret Language of Color, he learned so much & was excited to share it with me. The Basher Science books are fantastic for introducing terms in a digestible and understandable way. Exploring the World of Physics is also a great tool for the physics textbook learning.
My son chose to read The Electric War & he was thoroughly impressed. He used to be an avid reader and the last couple of years his desire to read for fun has dwindled. The Electric War helped reintroduce him to the love of reading! He also chose to read Rocket Man, which ended up being interesting to my son because we are from NM, where Goddard spent time working.
On to the experiments!! Junk Drawer Physics is amazing. The experiments were simple enough for us to do and we learned so much each time. What an amazing time we had each week. The Institute of Physics experiments were equally as good.
As for the videos, he was unsure at first about the Eureka & Sci Guys videos. As time went on, he would tell me, “Mom come watch this video!!” All of the Sprott videos were amazing. What a great way to experience the physics topics.
This is our first year homeschooling my high schooler, and I was apprehensive about making this his Physics curriculum. Boy am I glad I did!! He has discovered that learning is enjoyable, physics is and rediscovered his love of reading. Overall, this has been an incredible class!!
Becci Manies (verified owner) –
Chemistry in the Kitchen was our first Guest Hollow and we both loved it! My daughter does enjoy reading – which I feel like is important for chemistry and physics. The physics is also good! The book selection is great! The workbooks are super easy to grade!