Important Info:

In the U.S. physics is typically taught only in high school. But in many other countries, the foundations of physics are taught much earlier on, starting at age 11. Students in those countries therefore are given ~9 years, while students in the U.S. high school students are given ~8 to 9 months, to learn the physics before university. In addition, the U.S. university academic quarter/semester is ridiculously short – students who wait until university to take physics are given between 10 to 16 weeks to learn the exact same curriculum. What others sometimes get 10 years to learn, American students sometimes get 10 weeks to learn. The disparity is frustrating.

I often advise students to get coaching on a subject during the previous quarter, and then enroll in the course the next quarter. This way, you stretch the amount of time you have to learn the subject. When the course starts, you are ahead of the professor, and nothing is new, and even if you still have some of the material to learn via coaching, you are always ahead of the course and never behind. Your mental health is preserved, and your GPA stays up. You have time to recover from a cold, or time to rest on your period (I understand this very well).

How is Physics taught in the U.S.?

These are the physics courses usually offered in high school:

Basic/Honors Physics
AP Physics 1/2
AP Physics C (Mechanics/Electricity & Magnetism)

In AP Physics C, students learn where all of the formulas in physics even come from. Because they can’t exist by magic – someone a long time ago used logic to figure out these formulas, using calculus and a lot of observations. We call the logical steps that end up in a formula, a derivation.

In AP Physics 1/2, students don’t learn where the formulas come from but they do use the formulas to predict what might physically happen if we push/pull/throw/drop/etc. objects a certain way. Students practice using logic to predict the outcome using a formula that they are given.

In Basic and Honors Physics, the curriculum changes from school to school, depending on what the class teacher wants to do. This lack of consistent teaching strategy (not testing strategy) is usually something that hurts on students and it totally sucks.

To combat this, I am creating a program to teach physics to middle schoolers, to help them prepare (regardless of math level) for high school physics courses. It’s called Early Risers.

Early-Risers Program

The Early Risers Program is designed to help middle school girls in the U.S. start learning physics at age 11. In the U.S. physics is typically taught only in high school. But in many other countries, the foundations of physics are taught much earlier on, starting at age 11. Students in those countries therefore are given ~9 years, while students in the U.S. high school students are given ~8 to 9 months, to learn the physics before university.

It is immensely helpful to receive more time to learn physics. A lot of the process of learning physics is not math. Early Risers is a summer program that breaks down learning physics into the substeps that prepare students for math-based physics courses that they will have to take in high school:

Summer 1 (5th to 6th) | DRAW
Learn to DRAW physical scenarios.

Summer 2 (6th to 7th) | DRAW & DESCRIBE
Learn to DESCRIBE physical scenarios after you DRAW them.

Summer 3 (7th to 8th) | DRAW, DESCRIBE, & DEDUCE
Learn to DEDUCE which equations are relevant to a physical scenario after you DRAW and DESCRIBE them.

Summer 4 (8th to 9th) | DRAW, DESCRIBE, DEDUCE & SOLVE
Learn to SOLVE physics problems after you DRAW, DESCRIBE, and DEDUCE relevant equations for the problem.

At this point, each student will be ready to kick ass in high school physics!