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Active Physics First in San Diego



San Diego City Schools is planning on becoming the largest district in the
country to require that all 9th grade students take physics. They have
selected Active Physics as the curriculum. Currently about 25% of students
in this district take physics in high school. The district is part of the
growing “physics first” movement to have students take physics first, then
chemistry, followed by biology. Many experienced local high school physics
teachers compare Active Physics to conventional physics texts and complain
that Active Physics is “dumbed down” physics. I will take part in a
community meeting to discuss this program and need advice.

I am aware of the review of Active Physics in The Physics Teacher (May 1999
issue, pages 284-285) and the article by Philip Sadler and Robert Tai in the
Physics Teacher (May 1997 issue, pages 282-285) on “The Role of High-School
Physics in Preparing Students for College Physics.”

Therefore, I would like to pose the following questions to the list:

1. Is Active Physics a recommended program for 9th grade?

2. If you have used Active Physics, what was your opinion of the program?

3. Can students who take Active Physics as their first year physics course
succeed in AP physics and do well on the AP test?

4. Do you think students who take high school physics perform better in
college physics than those who do not? Sadler’s article states, “While, on
average, taking a high-school physics course appears to have little
relationship to college physics performance …”

5. Is physics in the 9th grade preferred over the more traditional physics
in 11th and 12th grade?

6. In a physics first approach, does the physics course such as Active
Physics coherently support the subsequent chemistry and biology courses and
does the chemistry course coherently support the subsequent biology course?

7. What do university professors think of Active Physics as preparation for
college physics?

8. What do you think of the idea of requiring all 9th graders to take Active
Physics? Do you think that math-and-science-oriented students can
successfully take a more traditional physics course in 9th grade?


Feel free to respond on or off list.

Thanks-
Larry Woolf
Larry.Woolf@gat.com