Physics Problem Solved
Traditionally, when it comes to teaching science to high school students, 9th graders are taught biology, while chemistry and physics are left for the more advanced grades. The rationale is that students need to learn trigonometry and calculus before they can handle physics. But Robert Goodman (pictured right), a science teacher at Bergen County Technical School in Paramus, NJ, always felt that was the wrong approach, according to The Record. Goodman, a former audio company engineer—and New Jersey’s Teacher of the Year in 2005—says that modern biology and chemistry are so imbued with physics that you cannot take one without understanding the others. He crunched some numbers and discovered that only 10 percent of high school-level physics concepts required trigonometry. The rest, he told the paper, could be taught using 9th grade algebra. So, Goodman devised a curriculum for teaching physics in 9th grade, using algebra for figuring out things like how long it takes for a drop of water to fall from a rooftop, or the velocity of an accelerating car.
The method worked so well that it is now being piloted in 21 schools across the state. Forty percent of students in the pilot classes now say they want to take Advanced Placement physics; the state average is 2 percent. Education officials have applied for a National Science Foundation grant to fund the collection of more data, because they’re convinced the approach could be adopted nationally—and ultimately help improve the poor science and math scores of American students.
Filed under: K-12 Education News
Tags: Curriculum, Education Policy, Physics
