Overview of IB Higher Level (HL) Physics

The Higher Level (HL) Physics course is a rigorous pre-university program designed to expand upon Standard Level (SL) foundations with significantly increased breadth and depth. While SL requires 150 teaching hours, the HL course demands 240 teaching hours and requires students to make complex connections between diverse areas of the syllabus.

Syllabus Structure and Teaching Hours (180 Hours)

The HL syllabus allocates 180 hours to theoretical content and 60 hours to the experimental programme. The theoretical content is divided into five main themes, each containing specific Additional Higher Level (AHL) topics:

• A. Space, time and motion (42 hours): Extends beyond basic kinematics and forces to include rigid body mechanics (torque, moment of inertia, angular momentum) and Galilean and special relativity (Lorentz transformations, space-time diagrams, time dilation, length contraction).
• B. The particulate nature of matter (32 hours): Adds a comprehensive study of thermodynamics, including the first and second laws, entropy, adiabatic processes, and the Carnot cycle.
• C. Wave behaviour (29 hours): Deepens the study of waves with advanced simple harmonic motion equations (phase angles), single and multiple slit diffraction, diffraction gratings, and the Doppler effect for moving sources and observers.
• D. Fields (38 hours): Explores the intricacies of gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields, focusing on potential energy, potential gradients, equipotential surfaces, escape speeds, and electromagnetic induction (Faraday's and Lenz's laws).
• E. Nuclear and quantum physics (39 hours): Introduces advanced quantum concepts such as the photoelectric effect, wave-particle duality (de Broglie wavelength), Compton scattering, Bohr's quantization of angular momentum, and the radioactive decay law.

Experimental Programme (60 Hours)

Practical application is central to the HL Physics experience:

• Practical Work (40 hours): Hands-on laboratory experiments, database analysis, and modeling.
• Collaborative Sciences Project (10 hours): An interdisciplinary project addressing real-world problems alongside students from other DP science courses.
• Scientific Investigation (10 hours): An individual, open-ended research project resulting in a 3,000-word written report.

Assessment Outline

Students are evaluated through a combination of external examinations and internal assessments: