This is the course for secondary school I would have attended when I first met physics. The books and the related material are free (http://www.physikdidaktik.uni-karlsruhe.de). I think the Karlsruhe Physics Course (KPK) is very enlightening and that it can really improve the understanding of physic. I found particularly remarkable the aspects listed below:
- to present different energy carriers instead of different forms of energy (energy is energy is energy! Think of information: you don’t think of different forms of information depending on what medium carries it);
- to describe Newton’s laws in term of momentum current (from the viewpoint of modern physics the three laws are expression of the conservation of momentum);
- to introduce the concept of entropy from the very beginning;
- to point out that electric and magnetic fields are physical systems and not mathematical constructions.
KPK is the only course
I know of that teachs physics with the aim of not to “reproduce historical
errors ... to learn inappropriate concepts and employ outdated methods" (Historical Burdens on Physics).
