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Harvard Project Physics Progress Report

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Harvard Project Physics Progress Report REPOR TR ESUMES ED 020 117 SE 003 861 HARVARD PROJECT PHYSICS PROGRESS REPORT. HARVARD UNIV., CAMBRIDGE, MASS. PUB DATE 67 ECRS PRICE MF-$0.50 HC-$2.48 60P. DESCRIPTORS- *CURRICULUM, *CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT, *COURSE DESCRIPTIONS, *PHYSICAL SCIENCES, *PHYSICS, *SECONDARY SCHOOL SCIENCE, COURSE CONTENT, EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES, EVALUATION, FILMS,NSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS, NEWSLETTERS, PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION,. SCIENCE COURSES, TESTS, TEACHER EDUCATION,. CARNEGIE CORPORATION, SLOAN FOUNDATION, NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION, HARVARD PROJECT PHYSICS, THIS REPORT OF HARVARD PROJECTPHYSICS PRESENTS DRAFTS OF THREE SPEECHES DELIVERED TO THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICS TEACHERS (AAPT) MEETING, FEBRUARY, 1967. THE ADDRESS BY GERALD HOLTON DEALS WITH THE AIMS AND PROGRESS OF THE PROJECT. DISCUSSED ARE (1) PROJECT PARTICIPANTS,(2) AIMS AND CONTENT,(3) THE NEW EMPHASIS, (4) SURVEY OF COURSE CONTENT, (5) TITLES OF PROPOSED SUPPLEMENTAL UNITS, AND (6) PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION OF COURSE CONTENT. FOUR BASIC A:MS OF THE PROJECT ARE (1) TO PROVIDE A COHERENT, TESTED COURSE SUITABLE FOR USE ON A NATIONAL SCALE, AND INCORPORATING THE MOST DESIRABLE FEATURES OF BOTH PHYSICS AND PEDAGOGY WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN FORTHCOMING IN OTHER CURRICULUM PROGRAMS,(2) TO HELP RELIEVE THE DECLINE IN PHYSICS ENROLLMENTS,(3) TO PROVIDE TEACHERS WITH NECESSARY AIDS FOR GOOD PHYSICS TEACHING, AND GOOD PHYSICS AS DEFINED IN THE BROADEST HUMANISTIC WAY, AND (4) TO INCORPORATE THE NEWER CONCEPT OF THE TEACHER AND HIS INVOLVEMENT WITH THE CLASS. FLETCHER G. WATSON'S ADDRESS, "WHY DO WE NEED MORE PHYSICS COURSES," IS CONCERNED WITH DECLINING ENROLLMENTS IN PHYSICS. HE INDICATES A WAY TO ALLEVIATE THIS IS BY PROVIDING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH AN EXCITING COURSE TREATING FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL IDEAS IN A HUMAN CONTEXT. F. JAMES RUTHERFORD'S TALK IS CONCERNED WITH '"PROJECT PHYSICS IN THE CLASSROOM," WITH EMPHASIS UPON THE FLEXIBILITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE PROGRAM. THE APPENDIX PROVIDES DESCRIPTIONS OF VARIOUS PROJECT MATERIALS. (DH) Harvard Project Physics ProgressReport U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION --fr .1 Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT.POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS Harvard University STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Harvard Project Physics 617-868-7600, Ext. 3281 Table of Contents page PROJECT PHYSICS: A REPORT ON ITS AIMS AND PROGRESS by Gerald Holton 1 WHY DO WE NEED MORE PHYSICS COURSES? by Fletcher Watson 27 PROJECT PHYSICS IN THE CLASSROOM by F. James Rutherford 33 APPENDIX 43 LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS 43 PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION 44 FILM LOOPS 45 PHYSICS READER 46 SOUND FILMS 51 OVERHEAD PROJECTOR TRANSPARENCIES 52 ACHIEVEMENT TESTING 53 EVALUATION 54 TEACHER TRAINING 55 FUTURE ACTIVITIES 56 NEWSLETTER 57 , Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Harvard Project Physics 617-868-7600, Ext. 3281 PROJECT PHYSICS: A REPORT ON ITS AIMS AND PROGRESS (DRAFT OF TALK AT AAPT MEETING, 1 FEBRUARY 1967) by Gerald Holton INTRODUCTION This is a progress report on a serious experiment in curriculum development which has involved so far about 80 physicists, teachers, film makers, experts on testing and so forth. We have been collaborating at Harvard Project Physics to produce a one-year course in physics for use in high schools and junior colleges. In 1962 we began a feasibility study with funds from the Carnegie Corporation and the Sloan Foundation, and in June 1964 started work on a larger scale with federal funds, first from the Office of Education and later also from the National Science Foundation. The current version of materials is now being tried out with 2,600 students on a controlled experimental basis. After further revisions, we plan a thorough trial involving about one hundred schools next year, nearly half of them actually drawn at random and induced to give Project Physics a try. By late 1968 or early in 1969 we hope to have available not only most of the tested course materials, but also a thorough evaluation report based on the experience of the final test year. We have been working hard and have learned much; from the beginning we planned on writing and testing and re-writing the materials every year during the four year cycle, so we have been able to change our minds even on quite fundamental things in the light of feedback from our classes, and this process will continue for a year or so. This freedom to work carefully and under classic conditions of experimentation, so familiar in physics itself, has been very precious to all of us. Because in a laboratory situation one should wait for results before one goes public and because we have only about half the funds we could wisely be using in this work, we have, until this winter, kept as silent as the world allows, and have concentrated on giving detailed and frequent briefings for those who actually work with the Project or those (such 1 as the RegionalCounselors of the AlP,the almost daily visitors from abroad, etc.)who have expressed aninterest in early collaboration. But now the time has cometo give a progressreport to our colleagues; we have some ideasand questions to sharewith you, something of the vision wehave for this and we will tell you of course developmentin particular, andindeed for the course curriculum development ingeneral. Our progress reportis based on preliminarydata 16 schools last year, 54 this year(see map, Fig. 1). Our main aim today is to inform you of ourwork and to invite yourcollaboration in bringing this Projectto a successfulconclusion and into widest classroom use. Locationoftrial schools, 1966-67 ti 2 Figure 1 PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS, OR SCHOOLDISTRICTS, 1966-67 West High School Nova High School Phoenix, Arizona Fort Lauderdale, Florida Berkeley High School Melbourne High School Berkeley, California Melbourne, Florida Claremont High School Fulton High School Claremont, California Atlanta, Georgia Laguna Beach High School Senn High School Laguna Beach, California Chicago, Illinois Los Altos High School Osage Community Schools Los Altos, California Osage, Iowa The Thacher School Catholic High School of Baltimore Ojai, California Baltimore, Maryland Henry M. Gunn Senior High School Lansdowne Senior High School Palo Alto, California Baltimore, Maryland Capuchino High School Burlington High School San Bruno, California Burlington, Massachusetts San Diego High School Canton High School San Diego, California Canton, Massachusetts Clairmont High School Dorchester High School San Diego, California Dorchester, Massachusetts Santa Fe High School Simon's Rock Santa Fe Springs, California Great Barrington, Massachusetts Lowell High School Newton South High School Whittier, California Newton Centre, Massachusetts Wheat Ridge High School Henry Ford High School Wheat Ridge, Colorado Detroit, Michigan Staples High School Interlochen Arts Academy Westport, Connecticut Interlochen, Michigan The Loomis School J.W. Sexton High School Windsor, Connecticut Lansing, Michigan 3 Convent of the Visitation St. Mark's School of Texas Saint Paul, Minnesota Dallas, Texas Omaha Benson High School Logan High School Omaha, Nebraska Logan, Utah Valley High School Kennewick Senior High School Las Vegas, Nevada Kennewick, Washington Phillips Exeter Academy Mercer Island Senior HighSchool Exeter, New Hampshire Mercer Island, Washington Brooklyn Technical HighSchool Rice Lake High School Brooklyn, New York Wisconsin Burnt-Hills-Ballston Lake Central Burnt Hills, New York Schools Mater Christi DiocesanHigh School West VancouverSecondary School Long Island City, NewYork West Vancouver, B.C.,Canada Paul D. Schreiber HighSchool John Rennie High School York Pointe Claire, P.Q., Canada Port Washington, New LI Princeton High School Cincinnati, Ohio Talawanda High School Menntaskolinn Ad Oxford, Ohio Laugarvatni, Iceland Ll Solon High School Solon, Ohio Grant High School Portland, Oregon South Philadelphia HighSchool Phiadelphia, Pennsylvania Plymouth-Whitemarsh Joint SchoolSystem Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania Oak Ridge High School Oak Ridge, Tennessee 4 7-777-7'7'77'7' PARTICIPANTS IN HARVARD PROJECTPHYSICS In .terms of actualparticipants so far, eitherfull-time while on leave at HarvardUniversity or as consultants,the list of names is long anddistinguished. So is the Advisory Committee of the Project*. The distribution offields repre- sented is symbolic of ourdecision from the beginning todraw from a great variety offields and competences. In addition to physicists and highschool teachers, you findchemists, historians of science,philosophers of science,science edu- cators and experts interestedin publishing, and inscientific manpower problems. In all our planningand work, from the very beginning, wehave intentionallbuilt on the broadest possible base. Here again the uniquearrangement of having three co-directors issignificant: I am aphysicist who is also working in thehistory of science;Professor Fletcher Watson of the HarvardGraduate School ofEducation is a science educatol who hasalso done professionalwork as an astronomer, and Dr. JamesRutherford of the faculty of the Harvard Graduate Schoolof Education is aformer high school teacher and our superbadministrator, ever sensitiveto the day-to-day needs andpossibilities of the classroom. This triumvirate arrangementhas allowed us to keepin working contact with a whole rangeof professions fromthe very beginning. We now have a longlist
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