From: PamellaFerris@comcast.net
Date: Sat Aug 23 2003 - 06:56:06 PDT
Message-Id: <200308231356.h7NDuHT23464@isaac.exploratorium.edu> From: PamellaFerris@comcast.net Subject: Re: pinhole Conceptual Physics Curriculum Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 13:56:06 +0000
Aaron,
Columbia County Schools started teaching Conceptual Physics in the 9th grade for
the first time last year. The county requires Conceptual Physics in the 9th
grade, Biology in the 10th, and Chemistry(or Conceptual Chemistry) in the 11th
grade. We realize that it should have been Physics, Chemistry then Biology, but
logistically this was impossible since there would have been an entire year
(the second year of implementation) without any Biology courses being taught
(Almost half of our teachers are Biology certified and would not have been
certified to teach either the Physics or the Chemistry - nor would they have
wanted to). So you fight one battle at a time!
The "gifted" students (those who had algebra in the 8th grade) still start in
Biology then take chemistry and a Trig/Calculus based Physics their Junior year.
They sign a contract agreeing to that sequence.
The main difference from the old sequence is that in the past we had Physical
Science(required) in the 9th grade, Biology(required) in the 10th and any
science for their 3rd year. Many of our students graduated with Physical
Science, Biology and Environmental Science (or another Life Science), having had
only a half a year of physics and a half a year of chemistry. Now it is required
for all of the students graduating from our county to have a full year of
Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The state (GA) has not changed their requirements.
A Trig/Calculus based Physics and AP B, which they can take their Senior year
when/if they are in the appropriate math level are still offered. We don't
anticipate this hurting the enrollment for either of those courses. We actually
anticipate this will encourage more students to take the higher level Physics as
Seniors.
Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt is the book we use for both our college prep
and tech prep 9th graders. It is a wonderful text and our kids are experiencing
a great deal of success.
Pamella Ferris
> We are currently looking at teaching Conceptual Physics in the 9th grade at
> my school as well as restructuring the science sequence. Since we are in
> the first stages of looking at adopting this course/sequence we have been
> trying to find:
>
> 1) examples of science sequences that start with everyone taking a
> Conceptual Physics class.
> 2) examples of syllabi of Conceptual Physics classes for the 9th grade.
>
> If anyone has any examples they could forward me, or places to look, I would
> really appreciate it.
>
> Thanks much,
> Aaron Vanderwerff
> San Lorenzo High School
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> <b>Get MSN 8</b> and help protect your children with advanced parental
> controls. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/parental
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from pinhole, send an email to requests@exploratorium.edu
> with the words 'unsubscribe pinhole' (without the quotes) in the SUBJECT
> of the email.
>
> To subscribe to the digest and only get 1 combined message a day, send an
> email to requests@exploratorium.edu with the words 'subscribe digest
> pinhole' (without the quotes) in the SUBJECT of the email.
>
> Check out what your colleagues have written on Pinhole in the Pinhole
> archives at: http://saturn.exploratorium.edu/ti/alumni/pinhole.html
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Mon Aug 02 2004 - 12:05:30 PDT