Why Don’t More High Schools Teach Physics First?
New research on an old idea
co-author: Amanda Valenti
Of the hundred or so physics teachers that we (Amanda and Elissa) have encountered over the years, almost every single one believes that physics should be the first science class that all high school students take. When we ask our biology, chemistry, and earth science teacher colleagues, they agree: physics concepts are foundational and set up ninth-grade students for success later in other scientific disciplines. This article discusses: (a) why physics should come first, (b) why more schools aren’t doing it yet, and (c ) what we can do about it.
So let’s begin with (a) why physics should come first. This is not a new idea: The Committee of Ten proposed a physics first model 130 years ago. For context, American high school science classes (unlike other countries’) are generally taught as one subject per year. For the past hundred years, the most common high school sequence has been biology first, then chemistry, then physics. This sequence is largely arbitrary and arguably the opposite of what makes sense. Biology content relies on students’ mental models of chemical processes and energy flow (chemistry), which in turn relies on physical and electrical interactions and energy transfer (physics). But the core physics concepts can be taught without much reliance on biology and chemistry. Indeed, the high school physics we teach today (key topics including motion, forces, energy, and electromagnetism) was generally discovered before the late 1800s, whereas much of the content in high school chemistry and biology classes comes from the past 150 years.
By taking physics first, students learn to construct models to explain and predict phenomena, and they then bring their model-making skills to bear in subsequent sciences. In contrast, chemistry and biology are too complex for students to construct robust mental models without a physics prerequisite, and thus learners resort to memorization over conceptualization. As a result, chemistry and biology students who haven’t had physics first will often learn their sciences in a descriptive way rather than a systems-oriented way. It prevents them from being able to make and test predictions, a practice that is core to doing science. (Oct. 2021 update: thank you to Mohammed Ashraf Aziz of Howard University and Barbara Dunn of NIH for conversations that strengthened this paragraph.)
The most common argument we hear against physics first is that the math is too high-level. We strongly disagree: physics concepts go hand-in-hand with introductory algebra and imbue meaning in an otherwise potentially dry and disorienting subject. Furthermore, physics is a great opportunity to introduce calculus concepts to ninth graders. Our ninth graders learn the physical significance of the slope of a graph or the area under its curve, and then they can bring these concepts to myriad applications in school and in life. That said, there is one non-algebra math concept that appears in a typical high school physics class: trigonometric functions (used to manipulate vectors). Frankly, trigonometry isn’t critical to the core concepts of physics: you can easily remove that part of the curriculum, or just teach SOH-CAH-TOA to your ninth graders. (We’ve done both.)
So physics first is good for students: it pairs well with algebra and it prepares them for modeling and conceptualization in subsequent science courses. But physics first is also good for schools. From interviewing principals, we have anecdotal evidence that offering physics first makes schools more attractive to prospective students. Physics first programs signal that a school believes in rigorous science instruction starting with ninth grade, and that the school is innovative (although the movement has been growing for 30 years now). In states where there’s a standardized summative biology assessment (such as the Living Environment Regents in New York State), students’ scores may increase when they take the exam in tenth grade, both because they’re older and also because they took physics the year before. (Note that so far we have only anecdotal, not systematic quantitative evidence of this.) Physics first also builds school community when all ninth grade students take physics together, instead of being tracked into different sciences based on the science courses they took in middle school.
The next logical question is (b) why aren’t more schools offering physics first? Of about 27,000 high schools in the US, only 2,000 have adopted some version of physics first (as of the most recent data we could find). As of 2013, there were 84,000 American students taking physics first, which accounted for only 6% of high school physics enrollment. The best people to ask about this are our principals, because they are the ones who establish the course offerings and teacher rosters for their schools. We conducted a small survey of 17 principals from the 5 boroughs of New York City. (Our next step is to expand the survey and its reach.) Two-thirds of principals surveyed had a math or science background, but less than 20% of them had ever even heard of physics first. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of their schools started with biology, and physics was offered to twelfth graders if at all. When we asked whether principals thought it was a good idea to teach physics first, only a couple said “yes,” and half were unsure. They generally responded that they hadn’t thought about it before.
The other top reason that principals said they didn’t offer physics first was that they couldn’t find enough physics teachers who would be effective in the ninth grade classroom. Principals may be willing to overhaul their course sequence and deal with a few years of scheduling pain, but only if there are eager, willing teachers who will create meaningful experiences in a ninth grade physics classroom. There are plenty of potential physics first teachers out there, but our teacher prep and continuing education programs need to advertise the opportunity and nourish prospective physics first educators. PhysTEC NY is working on these challenges.
Now we turn to (c ) what we can do about it. There are two approaches that must happen in parallel: convince principals to give physics first a try, and get more people to become physics first teachers. Principals are aware that access to physics education is inequitable, and high-poverty districts are less likely to offer physics. As teachers (especially those of us who teach low-income or high-need students), we can show our administrators how important physics education is, and how relevant and impactful a ninth grade physics course can be. Then it’s up to principals to find teachers. Physics teachers are in high demand. And teaching ninth grade requires a different set of skills and interests than teaching 12th. We need to recruit more people to specifically teach physics first, perhaps from other career paths or from other teaching subjects. Teaching ninth grade physics is not an impossible task. Indeed there are plenty of resources for ninth grade physics teachers, including Active Physics and the AMTA. It’s a fun gig, and it’s our favorite class to teach.
If there’s a high school in your community that doesn’t teach physics to all ninth graders, try (nicely) asking why. It’s worth a try!
For more about physics first, here are resources from the AAPT, APS, and the Missouri initiative.
Subscribe to Insights from Educate for a midweek dose of professional learning and inspiration with the latest news and research from the education industry.
