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I teach primarily seniors, and I beg you, please do not resort to the
"triangle" method for equations. Take the time to teach your 9th
graders a little about problem solving. Their senior science and
math teachers will thank you. Your 9th graders may not fully
understand the math that you teach them this year, but they will at
least be exposed to it so that by the time they get to their senior
year, Physics won't seem like such a foreign language to them. Before
I taught physics and AP Physics, I taught 8th grade Physical Science
and 11th grade Chemistry. I taught my 8th graders dimensional
analysis, and when I had them as 11th graders, they thought it was a
breeze. I took a lot of grief for teaching my 8th graders something
as hard as dimensional analysis - not from my kids, but from the
other 8th grade science teachers. The trick was, I never told my
students that they were working tough problems. I just took it slow
with them, introducing new steps as they were ready for them. I am
currently taking a grad class at UVa and we had to review Active
Physics as a possible resource for our class. The general consensus
was that it was an interesting program, but it lacked the depth
needed for a good physics class.
I took a lot of grief for teaching my 8th graders something
as hard as dimensional analysis - not from my kids, but from the
other 8th grade science teachers.