Physics is a science that is based on attempting to understand the natural world, as well as the universe itself. This can go from simple concepts such as kinematics to quantum Physics. It is indeed quite a staircase to climb if you are planning to or are taking the subject.
Recently, a new version of the IB Physics course was launched in February 2023, with first teaching in August 2023 and first assessment in May 2025. This new Physics course has updated the way in which the course is taught, the external assessment and the experimental program in order to educate its students on as many valuable concepts and ideas as possible in a structured and efficient way.
Course overview:
The course centers around the application of learned concepts into various situations by using critical thinking. The course’s new pillars are developing understanding, conceptual applications, and skill development in the study of Physics. By using these pillars, the IB makes an approach towards the development and priority of investigative skills to analyze the scientific method being used. Through a basis in inquiry, the course intends to improve on exploring the process of designing an investigation of a student’s chosen focus, to then collecting and processing data from real-world events and finalizing with evaluations of the results obtained. This allows for the identification of error and uncertainties that can lead to a better understanding of the theoretical and experimental program. This course also expects students to develop skills related to experimental techniques, technology, and mathematics.
The reason why these skills are needed is because they will play a key role in the development of assignments, both internal and external. By developing a logical thought process, students taking this course will be able to develop reason-based thinking to approach problems through Physics. This new course also leads students to the development of communication amongst science disciplines and establishing interdisciplinary relationships that can go beyond Physics. In line with a desire to teach by understanding rather than memorization, the pillars, expected skills and methods are going to be integrated into each topic rather than seeing them be taught as standalone topics.
Nature of Science
A common factor between all science subjects in the IB is Nature of Science, a theme that can help those taking Physics and other sciences make an approach towards how science develops certain concepts that can be applied into Physics (and also be part of evaluation activities!). Nature of science is one of the bigger players in this new version of the Physics course, as it focuses on the development and conceptual understanding of the scientific process. Instead of developing subject specific topics, this teaches about how science is made, published and shown to the public. They will allow students to understand the scientific process and impact of scientific knowledge in society. By understanding these processes, students will have the skills to create an appropriate research design for their labs and Internal Assessments.
The content for this new course includes:
The amount of content was changed to a shorter list to highlight concepts that can develop connections between the factual, procedural and metacognitive language. Through conceptual learning, students can evaluate what they know and how they can apply that to various situations. Subject specific concepts were also added as a way to develop further upon the most important subjects and therefore give teachers the opportunity for creating a more “personalized” course.
Experimental program:
Practical work, in which students can get hands-on experience with the topics seen in class, remains an important part of the course. One of the biggest assignments is a collaborative sciences project that has students from different sciences solve a real scenario. When you are making this project, you need to apply concepts and skills from the course to understand how sciences can collaborate between each other in small to large communities. By having these different perspectives on the same issue, students can take different approaches and complement their ideas through different reasonings and procedures.
All about assessments:
In the diploma IB course, there will be a total of four assessment objectives:
| Assessment objective 1: | Here, students show their knowledge about concepts, skills, techniques, and methodologies seen. You will see it as multiple-choice questions that ask for the common understanding of content seen in class or section A. |
| Assessment objective 2: | Is based on understanding and applications of concepts, skills, and techniques from 1. You will see it on some applied cases during multiple choice and on data analysis questions from section A/B. |
| Assessment objective 3: | Is all about analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing procedures. It also includes primary, secondary data, trends, patterns, and predictions. You will find it in long and short answers to core questions, or section C. |
| Assessment objective 4: | The internal assessment looks for applied skills and concepts to carry out investigations. In this assessment, students create and/or analyze data from a hands-on, simulation, database or modeling experiment. Thanks to the changes, you can now get into small support groups where you can share methods. |
The External assessment has been reduced from three to two assessments. Paper 1A is full of multiple-choice questions and Paper 1B has data analysis questions. In this assessment, section 1A usually develops skills in graphing, units and uncertainties, as well as the concepts seen in class whilst section 1B looks at applying these concepts into simple cases. Paper 2, in comparison, has short questions that require calculations. Taking SL means there will only be one extended response question, and taking HL means there will be two. In comparison to the previous course, there are no more optional topics (relativity, engineering Physics, imaging and astroPhysics) in the external section; though some of these have been integrated into the main curricula of the course.
With the changes made, there are also new editions for the IB Physics book/s for guidance. Here are some books with the updated version of the course for you to check out (Zamaoya, A., 2023):n
– Homer, D., Pietka, M. and Heathcote, W. (2023). Oxford Resources for IB. Physics course companion. UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781382016599; ebook ISBN 9781382016636. https://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Resources-IB-DP-Physics/dp/138201659X
– Allum, J. and Morris, P. (2023). Physics for the IB Diploma Programme. 3rd Ed. UK: Hodder Education. ISBN 9781398369917; ebook ISBN 9781398371682, 9781398371699 https://www.amazon.com/Physics-Diploma-Third-John-Allum-ebook/dp/B0BX428495
– Tsokos, K.A. (2023). Physics for the IB Diploma Coursebook with Digital Access (2 years). 7th Ed. UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009071888 https://www.amazon.com/Physics-Diploma-Coursebook-Digital-Access/dp/1009071882
– Hamper, C. and Mitchel, E. (2023). Standard level Physics for the IB Diploma Programme. 3rd Ed. UK: Pearson Baccalaureate. E-book + print ISBN 9781292427713; e-book ISBN 9781292427775 (Only for SL) https://myibsource.com/products/9781292427713
– Hamper, C. and Mitchel, E. (2023). Higher level Physics for the IB Diploma Programme. 3rd Ed. UK: Pearson Baccalaureate. E-book + print ISBN 9781292427706; e-book ISBN 9781292427768 (Only for HL) https://myibsource.com/products/9781292427706
In general, the IB has made the Physics course somewhat more flexible, giving students the opportunity to access the highest caliber of education. The changes are made as a way to improve the Internal and External assessments as well as improving the experimental program of the course. This way, students can take their education into their own hands while being sure that their support system in the form of their teachers and the IBO organization as a whole has the foundational resources to support them.
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