Welcome!

These pages have been constructed with attention focused on Evansville High School (EHS) science students and their parents. Within these pages you will find course and assignment information, tutorials, problem sets, links to additional materials and other useful information. Please consider these pages a developing work in progress and feel free to contact Mr. Cole about the contents of this site at coler@evansville.k12.wi.us (or via his direct line at 608 882 3546) with advice and suggestions.

Physics First

The Chemistry and Physics instructors at EHS subscribe to the "Physics First" philosophy (championed by Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman and the ARISE Project). We recommend, though don't require, that Physics be taken before Chemistry. There are many topics in Physics (such as Forces, Energy, Work, Momentum, etc.) that will help the student understand concepts in Chemistry. However, there are fewer topics in Chemistry that will help the student understand concepts in Physics.

We would like to recommend taking Chemistry before Biology for similar reasons. Many topics in modern Biology (respiration, photosynthesis, DNA-, RNA- and protein-synthesis, etc.) assume a basic understanding of chemical principles. Unfortunately, most standardized tests expect students to have Biology during or before the tenth grade, making this recommendation somewhat impractical.

Your Instructor

Mr. Cole officially began his teaching career as an instructor at Battle Ground Academy, a private school in Tennessee, in 1980. After completing a Masters degree in Physics at Vanderbilt University he took a research position with the University of Wisconsin's Synchrotron Radiation Center. In 1994, Mr. Cole obtained his Wisconsin Teacher's Certification and returned to teaching at the high school level. In 2000, he was one of the first few instructors in the state of Wisconsin to earn National Board Certification. Now in his fourteenth year of teaching at EHS, Mr. Cole is working to incorporate on-line instruction as a suppliment to his classes. This web-site is an outgrowth of that effort.