Monday, January 12, 1998
By John Goldstein,
Inquirer Staff Writer

Think back to your high school physics class. On the first day of school, the teacher handed you a huge book filled with symbols, numbers and equations. You probably spent the rest of the year listening to lectures and memorizing important facts the teacher said you needed to know to pass the test.Today, only 20% of high school students study physics despite calls from national, state and local leaders to improve the math and science skills of youths in America.

Yesterday, teachers from 30 of Philadelphia's 40 high schools spent the day learning to make physics appealing to the 80% of students who are scared off. They experimented with a new, interactive curriculum, Active Physics.

"Philadelphia is the first big city to attempt to introduce Active Physics in all of its high schools," said Arthur Eisenkraft, who helped develop the course with support from the National Science Foundation."The idea is to get students engaged in learning by introducing experiments that they can relate to in their lives."

Sports in Space

In one activity yesterday, the "students" were asked to create a sport for astronauts to play on the moon. Could they redesign basketball or golf for the next visitors to the moon?

The physics teachers experimented with golf balls to determine what it would take to make them usable on the moon.

Because the moon's gravity is about one-sixth that of Earth's, a normal golf ball on the moon would fly much farther and bounce higher than Tiger Woods' best drive on Earth.

After experimenting by dropping different kinds of balls and recording how high they bounced in comparison to a normal golf ball, and after trying out various materials for balls and clubs, the teachers determined that it would be very difficult - and not much fun - to play golf on the moon.

"In Active Physics, because the students always understand the context in which they are learning, they never ask, 'Why am I studying this?' " said Eisenkraft, who has taught physics in the Bedford Public Schools in New York for more than 20 years.

"We are not asking students to memorize, we are asking them to experience," said Clara Tolbert, an official of the School District of Philadelphia.

More Experience

After spending a few hours working with his colleagues from other schools on a part of the program that related sports to physics, Eldred Bagley of Bok Tech in South Philadelphia agreed. "You get an objective, but the kids will come up with more questions, which gives us the opportunity to teach and gives them more hands-on experience," he said.

Because education budgets are tight, the course is structured so that schools with limited equipment in science labs can still provide a comprehensive learning experience for the students.

"What's nice about these activities is you don't need much equipment," said Debbie Liberman, who teaches at Fels High School in Northeast Philadelphia.

While some parts of the course require fairly expensive and sophisticated equipment, Eisenkraft said, the program is structured in a manner that allows any school to provide a complete year-long physics class, even if it lacks some of the necessary equipment.

Marlene Hilkowitz of the school district's Office of Curriculum Support said, "Our goal is to have the teachers get the best possible professional development in the program, not just give them books."

She said that if ninth graders in Philadelphia are offered this course when they enter high school, they will be doing real science as part of their first science class. "I think this program will grab kids and engage them in their education," Hilkowitz said.