NSW Physics Teachers - Working Scientifically mapped and ready to go

The first step preparing for the new syllabus (before program writing) is mapping the Working Scientifically outcomes against the content points.

Unlike the 2017 syllabus, this has not been done for us, so I set out to achieve this over the break. The obvious tool is a spreadsheet because it's nice to have formulas, automated formatting, etc. However, the syllabus equations don't paste into cells which is a huge pain. Doing a copy and paste leaves you with lots of meaningless content points missing the important parts!

After playing with tables and other options, I decided to convert all the formulas to unicode text. Why? because unicode are single characters (like emojis) that are universal as their name suggests. This means you can paste them anywhere and the render -unlike LeTex, markdown, WORD equations and the like.

Sure, it is not perfect, but for physics having the equations readable within the content points is rather important as you are mapping away.

That job done, I started on a "first pass" at mapping the WS to content. I figure something to get us started is enough and we can fine tune from there.

This took a while and it seemed to be something that NSW Physics teachers might find useful as a starting point - so here it is. Check it carefully.

Some instructions:

1. Under each WS skill is a number - this is how many times this skill has been mapped to a content point.

2. Next to each content point is a number - how many times this is mapped to a WS skill

3. The first column has codes that automatically formats that row

   • a - Focus Area

   • cg - Content Group

   • cp - Content Point

   • y - year

4. For things like Fₙₑₜ=ma, "n", "e" and "t" exist as unicode subscripts (U+2099, U+2091, U+209C) (see, it even works in this blog). For other instances, such as f_friction = μF_N, I have used an underscore "_ to indicate the following is a subscript.

5. The link is to a GoogleDoc but you can then download that as an Excel file

   
   

I have done the same for Biology, with Chemistry and Earth & Environmental Science and Investigating Science coming soon.

Access syllabus2025 WS mapping sheets