Currently, six schools in the county have dropped the traditional order of science classes and teach freshmen physics first, rather than Matter and Energy. Under this new system, physics would be taken first, followed by chemistry, and then biology.

The problem of arranging these three main science courses has always been difficult, since each course builds off another. Physics would be a helpful course to take first because of the fundamentals that are necessary to thoroughly understand biology or chemistry.

"Physics is more basic than chemistry," physics teacher Patrick O'Connor says, who attended meetings to evaluate the success of ninth grade physics at Gaithersburg High School. "It's...the beginning of everything."

Teaching physics in the ninth grade keeps students from skipping physics, since many QO students stop taking science classes after they obtain the three science credits necessary to graduate. Usually, these courses consist of matter and energy, biology and chemistry.

The purpose of taking physics first is also to prepare students for biology, a more complex science course.

"Physics has nothing to do with biology," senior Misu Tasmin says. "I think [ninth graders] could handle it."

However, a major drawback is that in order for physics to be useful, students would need to be taking at least geometry so they would have the math skills to understand physics; freshmen taking Algebra 1 will not have the math skills to understand some concepts.

Science teachers are also worried that the county will lose credibility for physics with colleges, since ninth grade physics will be a much more watered-down course than the physics course that juniors and seniors take.

At Gaithersburg High School, the sixty freshmen taking honors physics were behind in the beginning of the year, but on par with other physics students by the end.

"Right now, the consensus of the science department is not to offer [physics first]," O'Connor says.

However, he is in favor of physics being offered as an honors course, as long as students have a math background in geometry. "I would have no objection to ninth graders taking it," he says. "The issue I have is making it for all ninth graders [including those who have not taken geometry]."

The science department is wary of making any changes too soon. "I want to see those test results before committing our department to something new," science resource teacher Dorothy Harris says.

About 40 percent of Montgomery County physics teachers attended a physics teachers meeting at Wootton High School, where all but two were opposed to offering physics first.

However, the number of high schools nationwide adopting the new order of sciences is
rising.

Although physics-first will not be offered next year at QO, convincing test results from county high schools acting as test groups or pressure from the Board of Education could spell a change for Quince Orchard science students in the next few years.

Ultimately, the decision to follow in the steps of other Montgomery County high schools would be the decision of Principal Daniel Shea. If QO decides to follow the other schools in the physics-first movement, Matter and Energy would have to be eliminated.