Regarding your concerns for student enrollment in physics classes . . . In
our school, the course offerings are entirely dictated by student choice. The
day course numbers are released is always a tense day. Especially since our
course sequence has physics after Chem and Bio. Because of this, we are not
only trying to get students to take a 3rd year of science, but we are also
in "competition" with the other elective science courses (friendly
competition . . . of course). Years ago I realized we had a problem when I
started the course by asking students what they thought physics was. By
their answers it was clear that a good half of them signed up and didn't
really know what they were going to be learning about. THAT is a problem.
To boost numbers, we tried classroom presentations, lunch time information
booths, talking to the counselors . . . all for little benefit. What we
found had the greatest impact is doing physics in front of the rest of the
school. Nothing formal, just making sure we are visible. For example, we
do a catapult project where students have to design and construct small
catapults to launch empty soda cans. Now, we could do the testing in the
classroom, but here we have an opportunity for free advertising. By going
into the halls and launching, we catch the attention of the rest of the
school. Add all the other possibilities such as shaking springs for wave
motion, measuring motion of a cart traveling down the hall, or the classic
egg drop and you could advertise all year long.
The other thing that was helpful was that recently college admissions
officers have been advising our counselors and administrators that they are
moving toward wanting 3 years of lab science with (get this) a preference
for 1 year each of biology, chemistry, and physics. As we are in a highly
competitive district, this message quickly got out to students and parents.
Now we are seeing our numbers go up.
I feel for your dilemma. So few students even know what physics is, that
getting them to enroll in the class can be a challenge. Physics is such a
wonderful course and as teachers we know what benefits our students will
experience in future science courses (and life) if they have a physics
background. Keep at it and don't wait for someone else to sell the program
for you.