(May 24, 2013) — During junior year, many seniors decided to make the daring decision to take AP Physics. But were they really taking it because it’s the “easiest” AP science class or because something deep inside of you said, “Hey, I loved physics in freshman year”?

For some, it was the under the wings and care of freshmen physics teachers Zifard Arstakis and Gerald Gruss teaching the science of physics and the universe. Ninety minutes – every class of pure motion, sound and a lot of mathematics. Everybody knew the notorious slogan of “No unit, no point!” of Mrs. Arstakis or the constant baldness and mustache self-remarks of Mr. Gruss.

While other high schools took conceptual physics in later years of high school, students at Clark had the privilege to take the course in freshman year. For some, it didn’t feel like they were taking an advanced course. “One thing I remember about [Mrs. Arstakis’ class] was her accent. She always sounded angry when she said things like, ‘You must remember this distance!’ and she would yell the facts,” said Erik Babakhayan. “I thought it made them funny to remember.”

But honestly, who could forget the amazingly funny video lectures of Paul G. Hewitt, writer of the Conceptual Physics book that Clark freshmen had to put up with? Or the Paul G. Hewitt educational videos?

As recognizable as Arstakis and Gruss themselves, Hewitt had his phrases of “C’mon gang, it starts with the letter F… physics!” and “Hey gang, check your neighbor.” Daniel Mejia remembers Paul G. Hewitt as his “second physics teacher that looked like Chuck Norris.”

“I remember one time he gave the example of when you want to keep track of a page in the book while on the toilet and how you would just use inertia,” Mejia said.

The year was filled with poster board presentations, children’s books balloon car projects, bridge building and metric tons of notes (don’t forget those units). “The balloon car project was definitely my favorite because I would always work with my friend Richard Fernandez in all of our group projects,” Mejia said. “We got first place because we both knew our physics.”

For some, it wasn’t the group projects that will be the most remembered, but the individual work themselves. “The children’s book was the best,” Babakhanyan said. “I would always fail [group projects] because my partner would never show up and I had to do all the work. The homework, the tests I aced, but I always got Cs on the projects.”

Whether it’s the videos, the group projects, balloon car competitions, constant inside-jokes or the personalities of physics instructors, freshmen year in physics class was definitely action-packed. “The hands-on examples [Ms. Arstakis] used to do with bringing in a vacuum and an alarm clock was really cool,” Mejia said. “I miss that class.”