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By SHARON KILPATRICK
Rappahannock Newa Staff Writer
High school chemistry and physics teacher Brion Patterson spent most of last July at Rutgers University in New Jersey, participating in the 1990 National Leadership Institute for Teachers of Physics.
He had the opportunity to hear lectures from several of the top scientists working for Bell Laboratories and to work with his fellow teachers in developing new materials to be used in the classroom.
This school year he is trying to apply to his physics classes what he learned as one of 30 applicants selected nationwide.
“The concept of the program is that the way physics is usually taught, and I guess the way I teach it, is to teach the basic principles that lead to all these high tech creations,” he explained.
“Their concept is to start from the high tech, to show people the product and get them excited, then go backwards to the principles they depend on.
“It’s like trying to teach someone about construction, but you only show him foundation after foundation. He never gets to see the finished building,” he explained.
“But then you get to the question of how to change the way-the curriculum is taught,” he said. “You can’t have an earthquake overnight. So they created modules, and the idea is rather than change the whole course, you slip in the modules.”
Mr. Patterson said that the modules were created by working scientists “with input from high school teachers.” Part of his experience at the institute was working on additions to the modules. But in some cases he thought the teachers should have had more input.
One module involves working with a
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