A free IB DP Physics skill pack on scientific notation, SI prefixes, order of magnitude and estimation (SL and HL, first assessment 2025): a rules reference, four worked examples and more than 60 graded practice questions, all answered. Not a cut-down teaser but the whole pack, nothing watermarked and no answer withheld, so you can see what the paid packs deliver before you buy.
These are techniques the syllabus assumes but no topic owns. The IB asks for them to be practised inside the topics that need them, so this is not a taught unit: it is reference and remedial material that supplements integrated teaching, for the first fortnight or for a student losing marks on notation rather than physics.
This pack is worked, not taught: the teaching duration shown is student working time across the practice bank, about 140 minutes, not classroom delivery time.
What students learn:
- Writing a value as a x 10^n, including one that already carries a power of ten (128.32 x 10^-5 is 1.2832 x 10^-3)
- Choosing a prefix by rule, not by eye: 4.5 x 10^-7 m is 450 nm, and prefixes come off before a value enters a formula
- Reading an order of magnitude off the index, and working a ratio out rather than subtracting indices
- Estimating from reasoned values, stating every assumption, and quoting the order of magnitude the working supports
- Replacing a non-SI unit by its definition: 90 km h⁻¹ becomes 25 m s⁻¹ by two separate moves, not one
Three tiers: A, 38 fluency items in seven sets, ending with an inverted set; B, 11 applied items including two estimates; C, four multiple-choice items with every distractor explained, and two structured questions worth 21 marks.
IB skills (Tool 3: Mathematics): the pack teaches scientific notation, SI prefixes and units, order of magnitude, and approximation and estimation; it practises non-SI units of time and basic arithmetic and algebra.
What’s included:
- Student Worksheet (17 pages), answers stripped out rather than hidden, colour and printer-friendly B&W
- Teacher Key (25 pages), every answer and model solution, plus teaching notes
- The editable worksheet, a self-contained HTML file
The worksheet and the key are two projections of one source, so no answer file can drift. Grades 11-12 (ages 16-19).
Part of the A.1 Kinematics Complete Unit Bundle: every pack for the topic, 30% off buying them separately.
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