In an icebreaker activity on his first day of ninth grade physics class last year at Brookline High School, Ilya Tagiev told his classmates he hates physics.

“It was true, I did hate physics,” said Tagiev, now a 10th grader. “I was expecting physics to be really hard, and then I went to Ms. Kissel’s class. It changed my perspective.”

Stacy Kissel is one of eight educators who teach ninth grade physics using a curriculum she developed alongside two other BHS teachers. The curriculum, first piloted in the 2019-2020 school year, is experience-based and highlights labs and observational learning instead of prioritizing theory and math.

It flips the order of learning on its head, replacing the standard “confirmation lab,” which proves what students have already learned, with experiments that inspire questions.

“It used to be very much that the lab was at the end of the unit, whereas now we have activities as introductions to units,” Kissel said. Students “learn the science of ‘why.’”

In one experiment new to the curriculum, students learn about circuits. They create themed displays using donated holiday lights — strands with some working bulbs and some non-working ones. They build switches with cardboard, aluminum foil, bottle caps and other materials and must produce different brightness levels.

The curriculum overhaul was supported by the BHS Innovation Fund, which provides grants to school faculty to create initiatives such as new curricula. The fund pays for educators’ time, allowing them to use one of their class periods to work on new ideas instead of teaching a class.

The curriculum thrived during pandemic learning, as students brought experiments to their homes, according to Jen Spencer, a physics teacher who helped develop the curriculum.

“We were able to have lessons for kids doing a pendulum at home while some kids are in the classroom,” Spencer said. “We had circuit projects that kids would bring home with them and then take back to school.”

The curriculum also shifts the order in which physics concepts are taught, saving algebra-based modules for the end of the school year to allow teachers to refresh their students’ memories in math class, Spencer said. In the new curriculum, students use math to explain their observations instead of the other way around.

Experiential learning like this project inspired Tagiev to continue his study of physics in his free time and changed his outlook on the subject. Tagiev, who moved to Brookline from Russia two years ago, said he hopes to become an aerospace engineer.

“Compared to Russia, there was absolutely nothing, it was all textbook,” Tagiev said. “In the U.S., it was all hands-on experience.”

Spencer said she has witnessed the way the new curriculum has transformed physics from an intimidating subject for students into an exciting one.

“It’s really taken physics into a realm of, ‘Oh I can do this. I can absolutely do this,’” she said.