Starting high school is usually a time of transition for the students, but at five of Rhode Island’s public schools, it’s the science teachers who may face the biggest change this September.
In those schools, the science curriculum for entering students is being switched around, in a program known as Physics First.
The pilot program, financed with a state grant and lauded by Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, will be tested at Cranston High School West, East Providence High School, Lincoln High School, Woonsocket High School and Providence’s Mount Pleasant High School.
It will change the standard order of science classes so that entering ninth graders will take physics in their first year of high school, chemistry in their second year and biology in their third year.
“This new high school science sequence to be undertaken by these five high schools has greater relevance to the job market of the 21st century,” Carcieri said in a news release when the program was announced. “By learning physics first, students will be developing a solid foundation of the concepts that will help them with their studies of chemistry and biology.”
The program is built on the belief that the reasoning behind the tradition of teaching biology, then chemistry, then physics is flawed.
“It was designed that way in the late 19th century because it was alphabetical,” said Linda Jzyk, technology specialist at the R.I. Department of Education. “Also biology, in those days, was about the natural world, but it wasn’t mathematical; and physics was reserved for a select few. Unfortunately, that has lingered.”
Today, biology is much more complex; a background in other science disciplines is becoming necessary.
“Biology today is more biochemistry, so it really helps them to have the chemistry background,” said Maureen Raia-Taylor, Upper School principal at the Lincoln School in Providence. “And by teaching physics a little earlier, it does give the students a stronger sense of organization and reinforces their ability to think.”
The Lincoln School, a private all-girls school, broke from the traditional model in 1997. It now teaches ninth graders chemistry in their first semester and physics in their second semester. Although Lincoln School doesn’t specifically use the Physics First model, the reasoning behind their change and the reordering of subjects in the pilot schools is similar.
“It’s a logical order of scientific content,” said Robert Martin, principal of Lincoln High School. “Biology depends upon chemistry, and chemistry depends upon physics, so why not put physics first?”
At Lincoln High School and the other pilot schools, students will study “foundations of physics” in ninth grade – covering light, energy, electricity, waves, atomic structure and heat – then chemistry in 10th grade and biology in 11th grade. This is expected to enable students to delve deeper into biology topics, because the foundation will already be there.
“The foundation of physics allows students, when they start talking about concepts in biology, to perform better and explore advanced levels of biology,” Martin said. “When they dissect the frogs, they will be able to go into more detail as far as the chemical composition of the tissue, because they will have greater understanding of composition.”
He also believes having that background in physics will help when the students advance into chemistry. “When taking chemistry, the atomic structure will already have been discussed in foundations of physics,” he said, “so that will directly apply, and the students will have previous exposure to that.”
Though the ninth-grade physics class will be less intensive than its former 11th- or 12th-grade counterpart, Martin said students will have a chance to take advanced physics – or another advanced science elective – in the 12th grade.
In fact, he said, developing their interest in science so the students will wish to continue to study the subject is, in large part, the reason for the change.
“When we take a look at the need for scientists and engineers in our nation, it’s important that we nurture the interest of students in those fields,” Martin said. “The Physics First program allows us an opportunity to present students with a broad-based course in physics and science, which we hope will encourage that interest.”
Janet Blume, associate professor of engineering at Brown University, agreed.
“I think that it’s commonly accepted that we don’t have enough people going into math and science,” she said. “By exposing people to more kinds of science, the chance that people will find something they are turned on by is greater.”
