Physics First....

[rissiethebug]

This is an old essay of mine (unfortunately it's the uncited early rough draft version) that describes why Physics should be taught in high school before Chemistry or Biology. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the subject...

When I graduated high school, I was convinced gravity was caused by the rotation of the

Comments

[hiberna_rex]

Hmmm...it almost seems worthwhile to divide physics up into different levels. Basic and AP physics, with advanced being taught along with calculus? That would add to the overall work load...something has to give. At the least, it would give a chance for students to see, early on, APPLIED mathematics. (Putting a bit more Economics back in school would also help kids, I think).

[rissiethebug]

I agree that it is a misnomer that the sciences are labeled and taught almost completely separate. Though I do realize that with such a large amount of material it's easy to separate into the mentioned categories. I could see in some many instances were chemistry and biology could (and perhaps should, such as organic chemistry) be taught side by side. However, physics is fundamental to both of these describing the "simplest" of ideas such as energy or forces. Although you could probably mesh things from chemistry and biology together with this, I'm of the opinion to really understand the "higher level" concepts you need to have physics pretty solid first.

Also, I don't believe that teaching physics first is because chemistry or biology is harder, it's just a higher level of thinking. Like C+ is a higher level of programing than analog. I really don't think any academic subject is "harder" than the other, some are just taught from kindergarten and some are not. Science, in general, is one of those things that are not.

[rissiethebug]

I don't believe any of the sources that I cited say that biology or chemistry is "harder." I believe what you're refering to is when the sorces site that biology or chemistry is more "complicated." The complication I believe they're refering to is that biology and chemistry is a higher level knowledge than physics, just like alegbra II is more complicated than algebra I, but not necessariliy harder as long as you've had one before the other.

I think that all children in the system should see all three of these a bit before taking a "real" course an any of them (elementary/jr. high). However, I dunno if teaching an intro course for all three of them is an idael situation in a freshman course. I feel like it will just become a memorization regergitation course that plagues the system as is. I suppose if it's taught more like a super hands on course experimenting with the scientific method and what not, it could be a good idea.