Area residents given physics program info

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Parents and other interested area residents had the chance to see what a new middle school physics program was all about this week as informational sessions were held at participating school districts on the new program.

Representatives of the See The Change USA Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation that developed the curriculum and teacher support materials for the physics program, were on hand to explain the program and its potential impact on the county.

Dave Csintyan, a retired U.S. Air Force officer and the co-founder and CEO of See The Change USA, talked about the educational success participating schools are seeing. Csintyan noted that schools now using the program, mostly in Colorado and surrounding states, are seeing significant improvement in science- and math-based test scores, while also increasing the number of students taking physics in high school.

He also noted that the new program, which was developed by Ukrainian physicist Dr. Anatoliy Glushchenko, improves critical thinking and analytical skills, provides a deep understanding of how the world works, provides a working insight into everyday life and gives students an early look at higher mathematics.

Van Wert County schools implementing the program include Van Wert City Schools, Delphos City Schools, Crestview and Lincolnview local schools and Delphos St. John’s School.

The program was first brought to the attention of Van Wert County Economic Development Director Sarah (Smith) Moser by Mark Lautman, a development consultant and author who has spoken in Van Wert.

Moser then approached the Van Wert County Board of Commissioners with the possibility of implementing the program in local school districts. After some research into the program, the commissioners decided to provide funding to implement the program in county schools.

Lincolnview Superintendent Jeff Snyder lauded Moser and the commissioners for their efforts in bringing the middle school physics program to county schools.

Noting that local schools were the first to implement the program in Ohio — and east of the Mississippi River — Snyder said the program, which will be taught as a supplement to current middle school science curriculums, has the potential to increase test scores and get more students excited about science and math.

“We’re not just going to stand by and be vanilla,” Snyder said. “We’re going to be visionary and see what we can bring to our county.”

The middle school physics program will provide an introduction to physics and Newton’s basic motion laws in sixth grade, then move into measurements and units and more information on Newton’s laws, as well as teach students about the properties of energy, matter and heat waves. In eighth grade, students will learn about electricity and magnetism, light, nuclear physics and “physics of the future”.

County Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger, while pleased with the potential for improving local math and science test scores, said the reason the commissioners provided backing for the program was, in fact, not educational, but for its economic development potential.

“We could be very high-minded and say we wanted to help education, and we think it’s going to do that,” Lichtensteiger said, “but the reason we did this is that this isn’t an educational initiative for us, it’s an economic development issue.”

The commissioner talked about the county’s dwindling population, and the fact that many of the county’s best and brightest students leave for college and never return.

Lautman and county officials have noted in the past that having a better-educated workforce could be a catalyst for increased economic development in Van Wert County.

Snyder said he hopes that the new curriculum will motivate students to become more interested in math and science — something Csintyan said he has seen in schools now using the program.