Revamping High-School Science: Herding Cats
DOI: 10.1063/1.4796813
The proposal by Leon Lederman to teach physics in the 9th grade seems like a call for reviving, no doubt with modifications, a course that existed in New York State for decades. That course included topics in chemistry, and certification to teach it required at least two years of physics and two of chemistry.
Because the 9th-grade population is so diverse, the course has to be adaptable for different groups. The February 2002 issue of The Journal of Research in Science Teaching gives many examples of the problems faced by science teachers in urban settings.
Sadly, in the public schools of Norwalk, Connecticut, the 9th-grade science course is Earth science. That may be because so few of the teachers have had more than one year of physics.
More about the authors
Martin D. Stewart, Norwalk Community College, Norwalk, Connecticut, US .
