Gizmos for Ontario - Science: Physics, Grade 12, University Preparation (Ontario Curriculum adopted 2008)

This correlation lists the recommended Gizmos for this province's curriculum standards. Click any Gizmo title below for more information.

A: Scientific Investigation Skills and Career Exploration

A1: demonstrate scientific investigation skills (related to both inquiry and research) in the four areas of skills (initiating and planning, performing and recording, analysing and interpreting, and communicating);

A1.1: Students will: formulate relevant scientific questions about observed relationships, ideas, problems, or issues, make informed predictions, and/or formulate educated hypotheses to focus inquiries or research

A1.5: Students will: conduct inquiries, controlling relevant variables, adapting or extending procedures as required, and using appropriate materials and equipment safely, accurately, and effectively, to collect observations and data

A1.6: Students will: compile accurate data from laboratory and other sources, and organize and record the data, using appropriate formats, including tables, flow charts, graphs, and/or diagrams

A1.8: Students will: synthesize, analyse, interpret, and evaluate qualitative and quantitative data; solve problems involving quantitative data; determine whether the evidence supports or refutes the initial prediction or hypothesis and whether it is consistent with scientific theory; identify sources of bias and/or error; and suggest improvements to the inquiry to reduce the likelihood of error

A1.10: Students will: draw conclusions based on inquiry results and research findings, and justify their conclusions with reference to scientific knowledge

A1.11: Students will: communicate ideas, plans, procedures, results, and conclusions orally, in writing, and/or in electronic presentations, using appropriate language and a variety of formats (e.g., data tables, laboratory reports, presentations, debates, simulations, models)

A1.12: Students will: use appropriate numeric (e.g., SI and imperial units), symbolic, and graphic modes of representation (e.g., vector diagrams, free-body diagrams, vector components, and algebraic equations)

A1.13: Students will: express the results of any calculations involving data accurately and precisely, to the appropriate number of decimal places or significant figures

B: Dynamics

B2: investigate, in qualitative and quantitative terms, forces involved in uniform circular motion and motion in a plane, and solve related problems;

B2.1: Students will: use appropriate terminology related to dynamics, including, but not limited to: inertial and non-inertial frames of reference, components, centripetal, period, frequency, static friction, and kinetic friction

B2.2: Students will: solve problems related to motion, including projectile and relative motion, by adding and subtracting two-dimensional vector quantities, using vector diagrams, vector components, and algebraic methods

B2.3: Students will: analyse, in qualitative and quantitative terms, the relationships between the force of gravity, normal force, applied force, force of friction, coefficient of static friction, and coefficient of kinetic friction, and solve related two-dimensional problems using free-body diagrams, vector components, and algebraic equations (e.g., calculate the acceleration of a block sliding along an inclined plane or the force acting on a vehicle navigating a curve)

B2.5: Students will: analyse, in qualitative and quantitative terms, the relationships between the motion of a system and the forces involved (e.g., a block sliding on an inclined plane, acceleration of a pulley system), and use free-body diagrams and algebraic equations to solve related problems

B2.6: Students will: analyse, in qualitative and quantitative terms, the forces acting on and the acceleration experienced by an object in uniform circular motion in horizontal and vertical planes, and use free-body diagrams and algebraic equations to solve related problems

B2.7: Students will: conduct inquiries into the uniform circular motion of an object (e.g., using video analysis of an amusement park ride, measuring the forces and period of a tether ball), and analyse, in qualitative and quantitative terms, the relationships between centripetal acceleration, centripetal force, radius of orbit, period, frequency, mass, and speed

B3: demonstrate an understanding of the forces involved in uniform circular motion and motion in a plane.

B3.3: Students will: explain the derivation of equations for uniform circular motion that involve the variables frequency, period, radius speed, and mass

C: Energy and Momentum

C2: investigate, in qualitative and quantitative terms, through laboratory inquiry or computer simulation, the relationship between the laws of conservation of energy and conservation of momentum, and solve related problems;

C2.1: Students will: use appropriate terminology related to energy and momentum, including, but not limited to: work, work–energy theorem, kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, elastic potential energy, thermal energy, impulse, change in momentum–impulse theorem, elastic collision, and inelastic collision

C2.2: Students will: analyse, in qualitative and quantitative terms, the relationship between work and energy, using the work–energy theorem and the law of conservation of energy, and solve related problems in one and two dimensions

C2.3: Students will: use an inquiry process to analyse, in qualitative and quantitative terms, situations involving work, gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy, thermal energy, and elastic potential energy, in one and two dimensions (e.g., a block sliding along an inclined plane with friction; a cart rising and falling on a roller coaster track; an object, such as a mass attached to a spring pendulum, that undergoes simple harmonic motion), and use the law of conservation of energy to solve related problems

C2.5: Students will: analyse, in qualitative and quantitative terms, the relationships between mass, velocity, kinetic energy, momentum, and impulse for a system of objects moving in one and two dimensions (e.g., an off-centre collision of two masses on an air table, two carts recoiling from opposite ends of a released spring), and solve problems involving these concepts

C2.6: Students will: analyse, in qualitative and quantitative terms, elastic and inelastic collisions in one and two dimensions, using the laws of conservation of momentum and conservation of energy, and solve related problems

C2.7: Students will: conduct laboratory inquiries or computer simulations involving collisions and explosions in one and two dimensions (e.g., interactions between masses on an air track, the collision of two pucks on an air table, collisions between spheres of similar and different masses) to test the laws of conservation of momentum and conservation of energy

C3: demonstrate an understanding of work, energy, momentum, and the laws of conservation of energy and conservation of momentum, in one and two dimensions.

C3.1: Students will: describe and explain Hooke’s law, and explain the relationships between that law, work, and elastic potential energy in a system of objects

C3.2: Students will: describe and explain the simple harmonic motion (SHM) of an object, and explain the relationship between SHM, Hooke’s law, and uniform circular motion

C3.3: Students will: distinguish between elastic and inelastic collisions

D: Gravitational, Electric, and Magnetic Fields

D2: investigate, in qualitative and quantitative terms, gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields, and solve related problems;

D2.1: Students will: use appropriate terminology related to fields, including, but not limited to: forces, potential energies, potential, and exchange particles

D2.5: Students will: conduct a laboratory inquiry or computer simulation to examine the behaviour of a particle in a field (e.g., test Coulomb’s law; replicate Millikan’s experiment or Rutherford’s scattering experiment; use a bubble or cloud chamber)

D3: demonstrate an understanding of the concepts, properties, principles, and laws related to gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields and their interactions with matter.

D3.1: Students will: identify, and compare the properties of, fundamental forces that are associated with different theories and models of physics (e.g., the theory of general relativity and the standard model of particle physics)

D3.2: Students will: compare and contrast the corresponding properties of gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields (e.g., the strength of each field; the relationship between charge in electric fields and mass in gravitational fields)

E: The Wave Nature of Light

E2: investigate, in qualitative and quantitative terms, the properties of waves and light, and solve related problems;

E2.1: Students will: use appropriate terminology related to the wave nature of light, including, but not limited to: diffraction, dispersion, wave interference, nodal line, phase, oscillate, polarization, and electromagnetic radiation

E2.2: Students will: conduct inquiries involving the diffraction and interference of waves, using ripple tanks or computer simulations

E2.3: Students will: conduct inquiries involving the diffraction, refraction, polarization, and interference of light waves (e.g., shine lasers through single, double, and multiple slits; observe a computer simulation of Young’s double-slit experiment; measure the index of refraction of different materials; observe the effect of crossed polarizing filters on transmitted light)

E2.4: Students will: analyse diffraction and interference of water waves and light waves (e.g., with reference to two-point source interference in a ripple tank, thin-film interference, multiple-slit interference), and solve related problems

E3: demonstrate an understanding of the properties of waves and light in relation to diffraction, refraction, interference, and polarization.

E3.2: Students will: describe and explain the diffraction, refraction, polarization, and interference of light waves (e.g., reduced resolution caused by diffraction, mirages caused by refraction, polarization caused by reflection and filters, thin-film interference in soap films and air wedges, interference of light on CDs)

E3.3: Students will: use the concepts of refraction, diffraction, polarization, and wave interference to explain the separation of light into colours in various situations (e.g., light travelling through a prism; light contacting thin film, soap film, stressed plastic between two polarizing filters)

F: Revolutions in Modern Physics: Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity

F2: investigate special relativity and quantum mechanics, and solve related problems;

F2.2: Students will: solve problems related to the photoelectric effect, the Compton effect, and de Broglie’s matter waves

F2.4: Students will: conduct a laboratory inquiry or computer simulation to analyse data (e.g., on emission spectra, the photoelectric effect, relativistic momentum in accelerators) that support a scientific theory related to relativity or quantum mechanics

F3: demonstrate an understanding of the evidence that supports the basic concepts of quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of special relativity.

F3.1: Students will: describe the experimental evidence that supports a particle model of light (e.g., the photoelectric effect, the Compton effect, pair creation, de Broglie’s matter waves)

Correlation last revised: 9/4/2026

Ontario - Science: Physics, Grade 12, University Preparation

Ontario Curriculum | Adopted: 2008