Many people keep saying that physics can be taught at a much more advanced
level to seniors than to freshman.
Well, to quote a freshman, "DUH!"
The problem is that all the sciences can be taught at a higher level to
seniors than to fresman.
Someone gets to go first and deal with the freshlings. In my school it is
biology. Ninth graders don't know much math, so genetics is pretty rough. If
you think that teaching kinematics to students that don't always remember
that a variable times zero equals zero, try to teach probability. The idea
that it is populations that evolve and not individuals is impossible to
teach well without probablity and statistics, but consign it to the ninth
grade teachers for students who have no where near the maturity to
understand it.
Or perhaps you were hoping they would learn some of the molecular biology.
These are kids who barely understand the concept of an atom, and you are
expecting them to understand the structure of molecules and how they fit
together. DNA is easy compared to how the cell membrane works or nerves.
So, what's left? Naming the parts of the body? Binomial nomenclature?
Memorizing the whole kingdom .... order....genus species thing? That gets
taught some, but the teachers teach the above at a lower level, too, because
that is the heart of the discipline. Things get lost in the dumbing down.
Pathways become memorization. Sigh.
Senior level AP Biology teaches a much more rigorous course. If you think
that bio is just a bunch of memorization, you haven't seen what is taught in
a good biology course. The labs are hard and interesting. The ideas are
difficult but get a fundamental truths. They make predictions that can be
varified in the lab and in nature.
The problem is that kids are kids. Someone has to teach them when they are
young. It is plain chauvinism to say that physics is so much more important
that it deserves the spot when kids are the most advanced. Every discipline
has to be taught at a reduced level to ninth graders and can be taught at a
more advanced level to seniors.
'Course I believe that physics is the most important science because it is
the most fundamental. I know I'm biased though.
Ever wondered why they got rid of physical science?