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Teaching Physics First

by Sarah West and Nivedita Das, Teachers of Science

Traditionally, physics has been taught in the junior or senior year at GFS. This year, the sciencedepartment changed its curriculum and no teaches physics in ninth grade as a precursor to other

 science courses.

In recent years educators have begun to question the effectiveness of the high school science sequence.

Traditionally, students have followed the following sequence: biology, chemistry, physics. Over the pastfive years, the "physics first" movement has been steadily gaining momentum. The rationale for "physics

first" leads one to wonder why it took us so long to make such an obvious change to the science

curriculum. The three maor reasons for considering this change are:

!. hysics strengthens students# algebra skills, which they are developing in ninth grade$

%. &lassical physics provides a strong foundation for chemistry$

'. The development of genetics makes biology more suitable for !!th ( !%th graders.

)fter closely e*amining the curriculum, the science department at +- decided to institute this change in

course sequence beginning in the !/%000 school year.

Evolutions in Science

In the last 10 years there has been a profound change in the body of knowledge we call biology.-ignificant discoveries have occurred at an e*ponential pace. 2eginning in the !30s, high school biology

has moved away from the survey of phyla and description of anatomy and physiology toward a molecular/

level e*planation of life processes. The traditional divisions between biology, chemistry, and physics have become less meaningful. To truly understand biology in today#s world, one must have a good grounding in

 both chemistry and physics.

)s the sheer quantity of biological knowledge has grown, it has become impossible to combine the

traditional curriculum with burgeoning new developments without turning biology into a "head stuffing"e*ercise. The central concepts in modern biology are fairly abstract, and the vocabulary needed to e*press

them is both difficult and e*tensive. urthermore, without a good grounding in chemistry students are at a

disadvantage in developing a logical understanding of biological models. or many ninth graders the mainlearning strategy was memori4ing, rather than logical reasoning. )lthough there have been many e*cellent

 biology students in the ninth grade every year, our teachers have questioned whether for most ninth

graders biology is the best starting point.

Advantages

In addition to the case against teaching biology first, we were persuaded by the advantages of teaching physics first. ) knowledge of physics forms the foundation for understanding chemistry, which in turn is

essential for understanding biology. urthermore, basic 5ewtonian physics is far more concrete than

modern biology. The central concepts of mechanics, electricity and magnetism, sound, light, and opticscan readily be studied with direct measurements in lab e*ercises. -tudents can actually "see" physics in

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action and have little difficulty connecting it to their own lives. or e*ample, this year#s ninth graders used

impulse and momentum to analy4e bungee umping, and force and acceleration to observe the importance

of wearing a seat belt.

6hen we started our first year of ninth grade physics in -eptember !, we did not yet know about themost compelling reason for putting physics first: The combination of physics and mathematics across

grades eight and nine has a synergistic effect in strengthening basic math skills early in the secondaryyears. In -eptember some ninth graders fought back tears when faced with the demands for applyingmathematics, but by 7anuary everyone had the skills and confidence needed for solving algebraic

e*pressions. urthermore, students have become much more comfortable with identifying variables,

graphing data, and interpreting their graphs. Our ninth grade algebra teacher has also recogni4ed the

une*pected dividends of teaching physics and math in the ninth grade. The old argument thatunderstanding math is a prerequisite for taking physics flies out the window. 8aybe taking physics is

actually a prerequisite for understanding math as well as for understanding chemistry and biology.

The First Year

This first year of ninth grade physics has been an adventure for both teachers and students. Our sciencedepartment faculty has acted as a team to develop the new curriculum. Our te*t, aul 9ewitt#s &onceptual

hysics, is geared toward ninth graders. 6e spent slightly more than half the year on 5ewtonian

mechanics and the rest of the year on electricity and magnetism, sound and waves, light and optics,drawing as many illustrative e*amples as possible from everyday e*periences and from astronomy. 6e

also had to be sure the math required for problem/solving was appropriate for students who were at the

algebra Igeometry level of skill. )s it turned out, the ninth graders had little difficulty using mathematics

to solve even the most comple* problems. 8uch of physics can be understood using algebra and scaleddrawings. In the laboratory we discovered that younger students need help in identifying the primary

dependent variable and in recogni4ing the separate independent variables. To develop these concepts, we

incorporated several e*periments which require students to identify variables before analy4ing their data.or e*ample, we began the year with a lab investigation of the separate effects of amplitude, length and

mass on the period of a pendulum.

Our teaching focused on enabling students to demonstrate their mastery through homework assignments,

lab reports, class discussion, and team assignments given to two or three students in a group. 6e alsoemphasi4ed skills needed for academic success, such as notebook organi4ation skills, planning one#s time

wisely, and developing the ability to learn both independently and by working cooperatively with peers.

)lthough we no longer have double periods for the ninth grade course, we spent an average of one or two

class periods each week on lab activities. ;abs designed for eleventh and twelfth graders were rewrittenfor younger students. 6e found that ninth graders are generally as capable as uniors and seniors of

understanding basic concepts, but that they need more specific and detailed instructions. )t the beginning

of every lab e*periment, students were asked to read the procedures and make a prediction based on theirknowledge. 6e emphasi4ed the fact that hypotheses are not always supported by the data collected and

that is ust as important to prove ideas wrong as to prove them right. 6hen the e*periment is done,

students should know whether or not the data supported their predictions.

<ounger students need more guidance in knowing what to observe and how to record measurements$therefore, in the labs we included blank lines for the immediate response to analysis questions and

 provided data charts, rather than e*pecting students to devise their own. The rewritten labs had a

workbook appearance. or the quicker demonstration labs, completed work sheets were accepted as

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reports, but for the labs investigating the relationship between dependent and independent variables, the

work sheets served as detailed notes for formal lab reports.

Physics Olympics

The high point of our study of mechanics was the ninth grade hysics Olympics, which took place on

)pril %3 during the school#s annual -cience 5ight. =ach of the five physics sections became a team.

-tudents were assigned to work with one or two classmates on one of si* different design and construction

 proects that required application of the concepts learned in first semester. 6e spent two weeks on thedesign and construction of these proects and then met on -cience 5ight in the gym for the competitions

and for the handing out of awards. Tom 8yran, boys# athletic director, advised us on the finer points of

running meets. -cience teacher -andy 2i*by, students from advanced physics, and several school parentsserved as timers and udges. &ompetition events included towers built of inde* cards to support a heavy

load, roller coasters with loops, spirals, and umps built from foam pipe insulation, two different types of

cars that competed for both distance and speed, propeller driven airplanes, and parachutes that could

safely deliver a fragile passenger / a raw egg. =ach event was scored according to a mathematical formuladescribed in advance. It was affirming to see the involvement and e*citement evident at our hysics

Olympics event and very rewarding to see students cheer each other for academic accomplishments.

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Looking Ahead

The ninth grade physics course is still a work in progress. 6e e*pect that the new school schedule >to be

implemented in %000/0!? with its one hour periods available twice a week will allow our labs to run more

smoothly. 6e#ve been taking notes all year long on where to clarify, e*pand, or truncate the lab e*ercises.6e will refine our hysics Olympics, e*panding the materials made available and moving the competition

to a larger gym, which can accommodate spectators comfortably. 5e*t year we plan more coordination ofthe physics course with eighth and ninth grade math. ) committee was established in the fall of ! tolook at ways that interdepartmental collaboration could strengthen both programs.

6e#ll be looking for long/term signs that teaching physics first is the best choice. 6e e*pect to see payoffs

in the skills and confidence that our tenth graders bring to both chemistry and algebra II. =nrollments in

first year physics have consistently shown a good gender balance. 9owever, since its inception nearly %1years ago, advanced physics has primarily been the domain of boys. In the ninth grade this year, there has

 been no significant gender difference in either class participation or achievement. 6e e*pect that teaching

 physics first will promote in both girls and boys the e*pectation of success and increase student

confidence in problem solving. If our hypothesis is correct, we should see an improved gender balance inadvanced physics when this year#s ninth graders become seniors.

2ack to -tudies in =ducation )rchive

Gathering Point for Physics Service Courses

An interactive numerical help center will be established for freshman and sophomoreengineering physics and pre-medical physics courses. We will use the facility to continue ourdevelopment of software simulations, which requires the high performance of the modern

desktop to provide a visually compelling, quantitative environment for students to developand test their understanding of physics. The facility will also act as a center for the use anddistribution of commercial educational software, using the anything-anytime-anywhere (a!infrastructure provided as part of this proposal.

"ach semester we teach introductory physics to over a thousand engineering students, and acomparable number of biological sciences and pre-medical students. To accomplish this, wehave developed e#tensive e#pertise in producing numerically-intensive software modules forteaching physics, which use innovative technologies and make serious demands on moderndesktop workstations. The initial effort has gelled into a new te#t, Simulations for Solid StatePhysics, incorporating fourteen simulation modules covering all aspects of crystals, electron

transport, and lattice vibrations. $imilar modules have been developed for introductoryengineering sequence%

galileo% a study of the pendulum as a model for simple harmonic motion, damping, stableand unstable fi#ed points, and phase portraits.pythag% a simulation of the one-dimensional wave equationhuygens% a simulation of two-dimensional wave interference, andschrdgr% a simulation of the time-independent $chr&dinger equation.

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These programs provide a fle#ible working environment, and incorporate a ') interface,configuration menus, hyperte#t instructions, problem sets, and documentation. They willprovide one basis for future work. )n the first year of this pro*ect, we will develop modules forfreshman mechanics, and test them on the physics ma*ors honors sequence% galileo (describedabove! and Jupiter (a simulation of planetary motion, developed to study dynamical systemsand chaos! will be adapted to the needs of the course. )n the second year, these modules will

be introduced into the physics ma*or sequence, and modules will be designed for thebiological physics sequence and perhaps for the engineering electricity and magnetism course."#tensive use of a technologies for remote collaborations and multimedia and simulationdistribution (both broadcast and +anytime+! will allow this relatively small facility to serve as afocus for the entire array of physics service courses for engineering and biological sciences.

Participants

ames . $ethna, rofessor, epartment of hysics

Web Linkshttp%//www.physics.cornell.edu/sethna/teaching/01/2T$imulations/2T$imulations.html

Advanced Desktop Computing in Physics Doctoral raining

The aim of this proposal is to ensure that all graduate students of physics at 3ornell aree#posed to high-performance computing in their first two years. We propose to provide themwith an e#cellent facility for theoretical research with computationally-intensive tools, suchas 4athematica, as well as the means for the analysis and interpretation of measurements.We also e#pect them to e#plore physical phenomena through simulations. 5inally, this facility

would give them ready access to modern information-handling systems such as 4icrosoft6ffice, on-line scientific literature search machines, and the World Wide Web.

6ur graduate physics program places great emphasis on e#perimental physics. The demandsthat this places on our facility are keen% for e#ample, a student may have collected a series of 7-ray diffraction photographs using a single crystal specimen placed in several orientations.6ur present data reduction techniques for this e#periment are tedious and have modestaccuracy. )n the proposed facility, the hypothetical structure would be visuali8ed in threedimensions, and predictions for the measured 7-ray diffraction patterns could bequantitatively compared with the student9s measurements. 6ne can anticipate the tremendous+feel+ for one9s data that would be acquired in such a comparison.

Participants

3arl 5ranck, Associate rofessor, hysics epartment