Some Radministrative typesS at my four-year, private high school are
starting to make some noise about teaching physics to the freshmen,
biology to the sophomores, chemistry to the juniors, and then offering AP
courses to the seniors. Currently, we teach biology to freshmen,
chemistry to sophomores, physics to juniors, and then have seniors choose
among the AP courses. Their argument is that the freshmen donUt seem to
be ready to handle some of the biology concepts.
Our program has been quite successful the way it is, and I am a little
concerned about the effect such a change might have on it. Now we have
about 80% of the school population take either the Honors Physic I course
or the General Physics I course in their junior or senior year. About a
third of those take the Advanced Placement Physics C course as seniors.
I am wondering what other experience some of you have had with various
sequences of sciences in the high school. What evidence do you have that
one sequence is better than the other? What opinions do the college
instructors have about the success of such methods?