Saturday, January 31, 1998
By Cathy Cummins,
Staff Writer

Remember your high school physics class? Or did you, like 80% of America's high school students , avoid it like the plague? Quantum theory. Relatively. E equals mc squared. Neutrons and electrons, quarks and photons.

If these words mean nothing, Active Physics may be for you.

"It's not a watered-down, easier version of physics, but it's far different from the norm", said Steven Iona, a physics teacher atHorizon High School in Thornton. " programs start with measurement,then go to force, then heat and light," said Iona, who's taught physics for 22 years.

Active Physics works through those concepts and students create a sports game on the moon, plot performance arcs on track and field, or figure the force behind one of Larry Walker's titanic homers.

" program forces them to be doing something to learn, not just be reading something from a book," Iona said.

More than 70 middle and high school science teachers from the Denver area are meeting today at Horizon High School to test Active Physics, created with the backing of the National Science Foundation. About $1.5 million in Federal grants has been spent on the curriculum, said Tom Laster of It's About Time, publisher of the Active Physics textbooks.

If teachers like what they see and do today, Active Physics may be introduced in Denver Public Schools classrooms, said Pam Fisher, a specialist in math and science curriculum for the district.

Officials hope to lure more students into physics classes. Just 931 students, an 18% increase from the previous year, but still less than 10% of the district's high school students, signed up for physics in the 1996-1997 school year, Fisher said.

"Active Physics gives students the opportunity to take physics, to like physics and to understand physics," said Fisher, who has reviewed the program.