So somewhere along the way it was decided that students should take earth/physical science, biology, chemistry, and physics in that order for all college bound students. While many schools only require 2 or 3 science credits to graduate they still stick to this dogmatic approach to earning the credits. I don't believe that we are truly helping students making them take certain courses in a prescribed order.
My suggestion is to give students more of a choice in their selections. I think earth and physical science are a logical place to begin but maybe let them try physics as a sophomore. Many of the concepts while based in math are not so difficult that students could not understand them with an algebra basis. One of the complaints I get year after year is that they don't get enough say in their classes and if they got to make more decisions they would get more out of the process.
Another thought is to have students take integrated classes for earth science and physics and then their sophomore year have them take chemistry and biology integrated. This allows students to specialize their Junior and Senior years. Students become more invested in their education and thus gain more from the experience. I think that the most important piece of all of this conjecture is that we need to explore the best options for students to gain the best experience of science education.
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I seem to remember that Freeport HS used to teach some integrated science classes, but not sure if that continues. From a content point of view, what makes sense with these science classes? Is there really any justification for the traditional order?
ReplyDeleteAnd how difficult would it be to change that order?