Petition calls for earlier opportunity to take Physics

A parent has created a petition that asks the school to offer an algebra-based Physics class to freshmen and sophomores as a way of lightening the heavy workloads of junior and senior year.

By taking a Physics class with its prerequisite as Algebra rather than Chemistry, students could take the class as underclassmen and have the opportunity to take the AP class the following year, as students can do with Biology and Chemistry now. This would lessen the difficulty of “jumping directly into AP [Physics] in junior year,” said Felicia Deng, the petition’s author.

Deng created the petition after realizing that her freshman son, who loves physics, could not take the class until he was in 11th grade. This restriction contrasted with her own experience in China, where Physics is first offered in middle school, a much earlier stage. Deng was prompted to ask parents with backgrounds in STEM about the reasoning behind SHS’s course track.

“To my surprise, a lot of parents couldn’t answer my questions. I began to realize that it is not only my concern,” Deng said. “I understand that the Saratoga community works hard and would put more resources on STEM, so I picked up [the] courage to create a petition to see how many people in our community have the same concern.”

Beyond her son’s interests, Deng seeks to make the school’s Physics courses as accessible as those at other local schools, like Monta Vista and Lynbrook, which offer Physics to students in the 10th grade. She helped create a group that researched the Physics programs at other schools and compiled its findings into a presentation that was shared with assistant principal Brian Safine on Nov. 3.

“The school was very open and listened to us,” Deng said. “We really appreciate it.”

Safine has passed on the details of the proposal to the science department, which is analyzing the idea “to  determine if its something that [the administration] want[s] to roll out the next school year or two years out,” he said.

A leadership team composed of the department heads and administrators would decide whether to request the change to the school board and superintendent.

“It’s not a bad proposal,” Safine said. “The parents are being pretty reasonable.”

Thus far, the petition has garnered 129 signatures of a 1,000-signature goal. Deng is still hopeful that more students will learn about it and support it as well.

Though the petition has earned support from some in the parent community,  science teacher Jenny Garcia, the head of the department, said offering Physics to underclassmen would not necessarily reduce their workload in later years.

“I don’t really see how taking Physics earlier would lessen a junior’s workload because if she or he took Physics as a sophomore or freshman, then that would move either biology or chemistry to junior year,” Garcia said. “It’s really a zero-sum game in terms of total classes taken.  Maybe I’m missing something, and I’d love to become more informed about that.”

According to Garcia, one positive aspect of offering Physics starting in 11th grade is that it allows students to have more time to develop their algebra and trigonometric skills, which opens up more class time to focus on the curriculum of Physics rather than teach the math skills needed for the algebra-based class, even though the only prerequisite for the class is Chemistry. It is only recommended that students earn a C or higher in Algebra I and Geometry to take Physics.

At the same time, however, Garcia said that offering Physics before Chemistry could provide a better path in science for some students.

“There is some logic behind offering Physics before chemistry, as Physics does not require quite as much abstract thinking, so students tend to do better if they take it later during their development,” Garcia said. “It really all goes back to how comfortable students are with the algebra [and trigonometry] required.”

Garcia and other science teachers welcome the proposal.

“I think it’s worthy of a discussion about what is best for all students,” she said. “What comes out of that discussion, I can’t predict.”