Lagrange
Joseph-Louis (Giuseppe Lodovico), comte de Lagrange
The Lagrange Group is for high school students who are strongly motivated to increase their understanding and facility in physics.
Such students may be current physics students who wish to expand their understanding beyond the core high school foundation or they may be younger students with strong interest in physics, but who face a grid of curriculum requirements that tend to delay physics to the later high school years. Currently there are no specific subdivisions by grade level in the Lagrange group; however, as a general guideline, Lagrange activity requires some focussed physics experience beyond general "physical science" or "integrated science" and unlike SDMC's math activities, calculus is used freely throughout.
The number of students involved in physics study is substantially smaller than the number of students involved in SDMC's math program, so rather than divide physics students into ability groups (like Fermat, Euler, and Gauss), Lagrange attempts to serve the needs of several ability levels within a single group.
Lagrange draws significantly on the model of college-level study groups and recitation sections in whch students collaborate in problem solving and receive guidance from more experienced teaching assistants. Though Lagrange is not a "class" or "course", the collaborative self-study of Lagrange students will follow a plan that keeps all students productively engaged.
From time to time, visiting expert instructors will lecture on special topics, but routine activities will rely heavily on student leadership.
Many Lagrange students are intersted in national physics competitions such as the US Physics Olympiad and the AAPT PhysicsBowl. While contest preparation is not the core prioriity of Lagrange, the ongoing problem-solving activities of the Lagrange group will support student competitiveness in those contests.
WHEN and WHERE
Since many Lagrange students also participate in SDMC regular Saturday activities, Lagrange group sessions are planned for Sunday afternoons to minimize conflicts. Currently, Lagrange meets most weeks as follows:
