A physics text is not required for either physics course. Rather than referring to an authority, students create knowledge from their laboratory experiences and classroom dialog. The format and layout of a textbook is not particularly conducive to fostering this idea and we have not found a textbook that follows the same logical progression of ideas that we apply to our classroom instruction. Nevertheless, some students may benefit by having a textbook available as a resource; parents may also benefit from this resource when trying to help their child with studying.  We have plenty of copies of each textbook shown below for students to checkout.

Another "textbook" option is an online option at The Physics Classroom.  This is an online textbook that presents concepts in a manner similar to how we approach concepts in class.  It has built into it a number of simulations to help students/parents learn or relearn concepts.  This site was originally created by a physics teacher in Glenbrook, IL as part of a grant through the National Science Foundation.  If we were to create our own online textbook, it would largely mirror what this teacher has created.  The pertinent links to this site are housed in the unit topics in Moodle where all of the other curricular materials are found.

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Hewitt, Paul G. Con

ceptual Physics, 2nd Edition. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1992.

This textbook is written at a 10th-grade level and is designed to help students understand concepts. Mathematical applications are kept to a minimum. This book would be appropriate for either level of physics to gain a better understanding of concepts.

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Giancoli, Douglas C. Physics, 3rd Edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991.

This textbook is written at a college freshman level and extensively uses algebra and trigonometry to support physics concepts. The math level in this book is consistent wit

h the level required of the Honors Physics class, but may also provide some mathematical and graphical concepts for the General Physics class that are not sufficiently addressed in the Conceptual Physics textbook.  A study guide is also available for this textbook.

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Halliday, David, & Resnick, Robert. Fundamentals of Physics, Extended, 5th Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

There are limited copies of this textbook, and they are reserved for the exclusive use of those students who are studying to write the AP Physics C exam. This text applies math typically utilized in a first-year calculus course. The AP problem sets found in the AP Physics section of this site are adopted from this text and the course of study is parallel to the design of this textbook.