The essence of it is that physics is about concepts, wanting to understand the concepts, the principles by which the world works. I see Physics 1 students for 4 - 4.5 week cycles of 85 minute periods. Not many physics students will become professional scientists, let alone physicists, but it is vitally important that, as citizens, they have a reasonably sophisticated idea of how science works. Mechanics is the soul of physics.
Most students learn a great deal of thermodynamics in their chemistry courses.
Understanding wave motion, including reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference, is vital to understanding the nature of sound and light. Students also investigate ray optics and the basic operation of plane and curved mirrors, and concave and convex lenses. We first study electrostatics, electric fields, and the idea of potential. We move on to study current electricity and basic electric circuits. We finish up with a study of magnetism and electromagnetic induction.