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This creative project is a teacher's manual to accompany the student materials previously developed for "Physics for Freshmen: A Laboratory Survey of Some Major Topics in Physics." The manual is divided into four sections for each of the 62 laboratory investigations. The teaser is intended to arouse interest in the principle to be studied. The equipment list is to aid the teacher in the preparation of materials. The introduction includes directions for preparation of materials, notes for introducing subject matter to the students, and directions and/or references for the operation of the equipment. The conclusion is basically notes to use in leading the students' discussion following their experimental work.The manual is intended for an experienced physics teacher or for someone trained in the field with a great deal of personal reference study.

Practical work plays an important role in the teaching and learning of science. This study was conducted to determine whether the methods and practices employed by physics teachers in Zimbabwe as required by the Zimbabwe School Examination Council (Zimsec) ‘A’ Level Physics Syllabus (9188) on the assessment of practical work skills assist the students in developing other crucial practical skills like manipulation, observational, planning and designing apart from presentation and analysis skills. The convergent parallel mixed methods approach of Creswell (2014) was used to collect, present and analyse data. Quantitative data were collected using the structured observation schedule to get assessment marks for a student using both methods of indirect assessment of practical work skills (IAPS) and direct assessment of practical work skills DAPS for the same practical work activity. Qualitative data were obtained from interviews with the physics teachers and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with the ‘A’ level physics students. Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) of the percentage rating of marks obtained by the student as observed during practical work sessions compared to the obtained mark from the submitted practical work report for the same practical work activity was calculated and found to be 0.135 with a Pvalue of 0.432. Both the narrative approach (Creswell, 2007) and conservation analyses (Gray, 2011) were used to present and analyse data from focus group discussions with ‘A’ level physics students and interviews with the physics teachers. The major finding from the analysis of quantitative data was that there was no association between the grades obtained by the student from DAPS as compared to IAPS for the same practical work activity as the value of r was found to be very low. This implied that passing practical work through the assessment of practical work report did not necessarily mean that the student could have mastered the basic skills of manipulation, designing, observation and planning. The views of physics teachers and students who participated in the study were that, the current method of practical work assessment used by Zimsec is not relevant in encouraging students to develop a variety of practical work skills as students concentrated on mastering presentation and analysis skills in order to pass practical work examinations. The study recommends that an alternative model of practical work assessment that integrates both DAPS and IAPS should be used to ensure valid and reliable assessment of practical work skills of ‘A’ level physics students. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)