Revamping High-School Science: Herding Cats

Abstract

I am concerned about the discussion in Physics Today dealing with the order in which biology, chemistry, and physics should be taught in high schools (September 2001, page 11; February 2002, page 12). Where in these discussions is geology considered?I often begin my introductory geology classes with the statement that geology is the most difficult science. My arguments are based on the degree to which the understanding of one science is contingent on understanding the other, the degree to which the basic data of each field are knowable, and the degree to which each science is presently described mathematically. Chemistry relies on physics for understanding, biology on chemistry and physics, and geology on all three. The basic data of physics are largely knowable through experiments whose results are often explained mathematically. This is progressively less true with chemistry, biology, and geology. Consequently, an understanding of geology often starts with existing theories from the other sciences that explain qualitatively the information gleaned from the incomplete 4.6-billion-year record of all the physical, chemical, and biological phenomena that have occurred.To some scientists and educators, this qualitative nature means geology is an “easy science.” However, recognizing that geology will be quantitatively understood only after the other three establishes it as the most difficult of the four. The only argument for geology’s ease is the extent to which it can be taught to students with little mathematical ability by using the basic principles of the other three sciences.I believe that a high-school science course is only the most basic introduction to the field, that principles are more important than mathematical descriptions at that level, and that the principles of the sciences depend on each other in the order I’ve presented here. On the strength of that belief, I submit that the order of courses in high school should be physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.