For a few minutes, everybody at Thursday’s Chamber of Commerce luncheon was back in middle school.
Local business owner Bruce Denton had distributed magnets and bits of pipe to every table of attendees at the Moose Lodge for the luncheon. Denton asked the attendees, including business owners, Assembly members and others, to drop the magnets through the pipes and share their observations.
The demonstration was to give the attendees a look at a physics curriculum that Denton is championing in Juneau. The curriculum, called See the Change, has been successful in other communities in terms of getting children more interested in physics in middle school.
“The idea is that this is a much more powerful way to learn than reading about it in a book,” Denton said.
Denton first heard about this program, which is all online-based and does not use a textbook, when talking to his friend Mark Lautman. Lautman, whose book “When the Boomers Bail” takes a look at how communities can prepare for the economic future after the Baby Boomer generation leaves the workforce, was a high school classmate of Denton’s and visited Juneau in August.
Lautman mentioned See the Change to Denton last year, citing specific communities (especially a lower-income one in Colorado) that saw huge increases in test scores and an overall increase in the number of students interested in enrolling in high school science classes. Denton immediately began to think about how the program could work in Juneau.
The program, which is currently being used by more than 300 teachers in six states, uses what its website calls “practical workshops” to stoke curiosity in young children and prepare them better for science at the high school and college level, as well as the workforce. Denton remembered his own education, saying that taking physics in high school was too late to get him prepared for college-level physics courses.
“Getting these kids while they’re still sponges and engaged is really, really critical,” Denton said.
Board of Education President Brian Holst also spoke Thursday, saying that the Juneau School District was already making changes to its science curriculum when Denton approached them to talk about See the Change. A number of teachers have expressed excitement about it, and Denton said three sixth-grade teachers at Dzantik’i Heeni, Floyd Dryden and the Juneau Charter School are already using the curriculum this year. Holst said he and his fellow board members are also on board with the program.
More funding is needed to expand the curriculum to other schools, Denton explained. Providing the program for all sixth graders in those three middle schools would cost about $47,000 for program materials and teacher training, Denton said. Eventually he’d like to see it expanded even further, to seventh and eighth grade as well. The Juneau Community Foundation is currently accepting donations.
JCF Executive Director Amy Skilbred said people can send in checks with “See the Change” or even just “middle school physics” in the memo section and the donations will go to this program. People can also go online to juneaucf.org and click on the “Everyone Can Give” link to see all the donation options.
During the Chamber luncheon, Don Abel Building Supplies owner Bruce Abel said he was on board and was going to make a donation. Thursday’s luncheon wasn’t his first time hearing Denton pitch the program, and Abel said he sees the program as very worthwhile.
“I have a very strong science background,” Abel said after the meeting. “I think it’s just fundamental to success.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
