New Hampshire Physics: Teaching in the Weeks Around NH SAS

Quick answer: NH SAS is a grades 3-8 assessment, so a New Hampshire physics teacher rarely loses their own students to it. What you lose is the building: proctoring duty, moved rooms and a middle-school schedule that overrides yours for a fortnight. Plan short, equipment-light physics for those days, and put the long mechanics work either side of the window.

How does a grades 3-8 test end up affecting a physics room?

New Hampshire Statewide Assessment System testing covers grades 3-8, with the SAT used at grade 11. In a small New Hampshire school where grades 7-12 share one building, that distinction disappears in practice. Physics teachers get pulled into proctoring, the science rooms with the most seats get requisitioned, and the lab cart you booked in February is suddenly parked in a hallway for two weeks.

The second complication is reporting. Districts working under Performance Assessment for Competency Education collect competency evidence rather than a running average, which changes what a disrupted fortnight costs you. A missing week of scores is survivable; a missing week of competency evidence is not, so tasks run during the window must be assessable on their own terms.

What physics should I run during the testing weeks?

Choose work that fits in a bag. Lever and pulley problems need string, a load and a ruler, which means they can run in a borrowed room, a library corner or your own lab with half the benches out of use. The mathematics is honest, the results are measurable, and nothing has to be left set up overnight where another class will move it.

Physics Escape Room – Lever Law & Pulley Systems packages that as a puzzle sequence for grades 7-9, where each stage produces an answer the students verify before moving on. Running it as a competency task is straightforward: the record of what a group calculated and how they checked it is exactly the evidence a competency-based report card asks for. Groups that finish early build a harder system and predict its advantage.

When should the demanding mechanics units happen?

Momentum, projectiles and circular motion need consecutive days. Each depends on the vector work established in the lesson before, and students who miss the second of four lessons do not recover by copying notes. Scheduling that block against a testing window is the most common planning mistake in a small department, and it usually costs a reteach in May.

Put the block in the intact stretch and use a unit written to run start to finish. Advanced Mechanics | Momentum, Impulse, Projectiles & Circular Motion | Physics Unit | Honors & AP is sequenced for honors and advanced classes with the derivations and practice already ordered, so you are not rebuilding a course while covering proctoring shifts. Teachers who want the state listing, including the middle-grades material, can browse New Hampshire Teaching Resources & Worksheets (Grades K–12) for the rest.

How do I build a year that absorbs this every spring?

Treat the testing window as a fixed feature of the calendar rather than an interruption. Map your competencies in the fall, mark which ones need continuous days, and place those blocks in October, January and late May. What remains for April is measurement, review of established ideas, and the standalone tasks that give a competency-based system clean evidence.

For a department covering several courses with one physics specialist, Electricity, Magnetism & Optics Bundle | Circuits, Induction & Lenses | 3 Complete Units | Grades 8–11 supplies three complete units across grades 8-11 in a single format, which reduces the planning load when the schedule turns. Buying a sequence once also settles what the department teaches next year. New England schools comparing how neighboring states time their windows can start from the New England Teaching Resources (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT) collection.

Frequently asked questions

Are these units affiliated with the New Hampshire Department of Education?

No. They are independent classroom materials, not affiliated with or endorsed by the New Hampshire Department of Education, any PACE district, or any assessment provider. Teachers align them to the New Hampshire College and Career Ready Standards or to local competencies themselves.

Do these work for a competency-based grade book?

They can. Each task produces a piece of student work with a visible method, which is what competency reporting needs; what it does not give you is a ready-made competency statement. Most teachers attach their district's own wording to the task and score the evidence against that.

My school is small and I teach three preps. Is a bundle worth it?

That is usually the case where it makes sense, because the saving is planning time rather than money. One consistent layout across three courses means shared routines for students and less rebuilding for you. Individual units are the better first step if you only need to cover one term.

Related reading

• New Hampshire Physics: Planning a Unit to the Standards
• Physics Across a Whole Department: A Plan for New Hampshire Teachers
• New Hampshire Teaching Resources & Worksheets (Grades K–12)