AP Physics 1 – Jim Vander Weide

This session: AP Physics 1 New Teachers with Jim Vander Weide is offered ONLINE during Week 1 June 15-18, 2026. 

Meet the College Board Consultant for AP Physics 1 – New Teachers

Jim Vander Weide is a Physics teacher at Hudsonville High School in Hudsonville, MI and has been teaching for over 25  years.  He has served as an AP Reader (AP Physics test grader) from 2004-2017, was a Table Leader (in charge of a group  of readers) from 2009-2014, and a Question Leader (in charge of several Table Leaders and their teams) from 2015-2017  and for the 2020 online reading. 

In addition, Jim was a member of the AP Physics C Test Development Committee from  2011-2014 and is currently writing questions for the 2026 AP Physics C: Mechanics exams.  He has participated in  reviewing modules for the College Board, writing labs for the current lab manual that is available through the College  Board, and recorded some of the AP Daily videos available in AP Classroom.  In addition, he has worked with the College  Board articulating the AP Physics C curriculum and was a member of the Instructional Design Team for Physics 1, which  helped develop the Physics 1 Workbook that was released in 2019.

Jim was also involved with NMSI (National Math and
Science Initiative) where he ran student study sessions, teacher training sessions, and reviewed materials for the NMSI  workshops. He also helped develop a 3-week course for the NYC Summer Enrichment Program through NMSI. From  2020 to 2022 Jim was involved with developing physics lessons for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality offered  through the company Holopundits, Inc. Jim earned his Master’s in Physics Education in 2002 with an emphasis in Physics  Education Research (PER) and since then has been working to improve his inquiry-based teaching style.

Course Description

This methodology APSI surveys the basic structure, content, and skill development necessary for teaching an AP Physics 1 course. The AP Physics 1 exam has only been given since 2015. In the redesigned AP science exams, the College Board, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, has done the following: reduced content breadth to promote conceptual understanding; provided an explicit, comprehensive curriculum framework; directed that at least one-quarter of contact time be devoted to hands-on student laboratory work, leading to the development of student inquiry skills; articulated clear learning objectives; redesigned the format for the algebra based AP Physics exams.

AP Physics 1 is intended to proxy “best practices” university physics courses. It cannot be compared to most college introductory physics classes, and certainly not to most high school “honors” or “college prep” courses. The primary difference is the incessant demand for verbal explanations. A student who is skilled at “plugging and chugging” mathematics can easily pass a state standards exam, is likely getting an A or B in a typical introductory college or college- equivalent course, and could probably pass the old AP Physics B exam.  Such a student cannot succeed in AP Physics 1.   

AP Physics 1 exam questions probe a student’s understanding of the entire scientific process.  In Physics 1 you don’t just predict an answer, but you must explain the reasoning behind the prediction, and discuss how that prediction would change as the conditions of the problem change.  And you don’t stop there:  you describe how you would set up an experiment to verify that prediction, how to analyze the data collected from such an experiment, how that experiment might turn out.  In other words, our students are expected to acquire and demonstrate the same skills that professional physicists use in their work. In our AP summer institute, we will discuss in detail the content and structure of the AP Physics 1 exam. 

2026 WaltonAPSI / AP Physics 1 /Jim Vander Weide