Physics First for ninth-graders is goal of educators at CU conference

By Allegra Giovine '06

Are there advantages to teaching physics to high school freshmen instead of waiting until they are juniors and seniors?

Yes, agree Olga Livanis of Stuyvesant High School in New York City and Paul Hickman of Northeastern University in Boston, because ninth-graders are "eager students." Adds Hickman, "A better word for eager might be non-jaded."

The two were presenters at a Cornell conference, called Exploring Physics First, June 30 to July 2 sponsored by Cornell's Laboratory of Elementary Particle Physics (LEPP). The conference, held at Appel Commons, was attended by more than 40 physics educators -- from across the country and Ithaca -- who addressed such issues as the intellectual abilities of ninth-graders, appropriate textbooks, teacher training and shortages, and scheduling barriers.

The conference was connected with a national movement to encourage public and private high schools to make the transition from the traditional sequence of teaching science (biology first, then chemistry and physics) to one that offers physics in the ninth grade, followed by chemistry and biology in grades 10 and 11. Leon Lederman, the 1988 Nobel laureate in physics and former director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, is a primary campaigner for the movement, which began about five years ago. Since then, 250 U.S. schools have implemented a Physics First program, including those in Miami-Dade County, Fla., Little Rock, Ark., and San Diego.

A significant question posed at the Cornell conference was whether freshmen (described by one conference attendee as "really just eighth-graders plus a couple of months") have the intellectual capacity to handle some highly conceptual topics in physics, or other topics that could require a solid background in math. But the overwhelming consensus was that they have: "It's not so much that they can do it, as how do you modify your instruction so that they can achieve it," said Mark Vanacore of Albion High School, N.Y., speaking on math and physics integration.

"You have to champion the program," said John Roeder of Manhattan's Calhoun School. Roeder presented a plan for gradually switching a school to a Physics First science program, while ensuring that all students complete science requirements during the transition period.

The Physics First movement also is part of an effort to fulfill two larger goals of the National Science Foundation (NSF): promoting a science-literate citizenry and encouraging more students to enter professions requiring science, engineering and mathematics. Additionally, Physics First supporters note that the traditional high school science sequence was instituted at the end of the 19th century in order to teach biology, the more descriptive science, first and physics, the more mathematical and abstract science, later. However, conference attendees stressed that this sequence makes no pedagogical sense today given the fact that in order to understand modern molecular biology, students need a solid background in both physics and chemistry.

For further details on Cornell's role in the Physics First movement, contact LEPP's education and outreach coordinator Lora Hine at 255-2319 or lkh24@cornell.edu.