Re: Physics Education reform in 50s and 60s

[John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

I would say that this is a good place to start.  Two curricula which came
out of the effort were PSSC physics and Harvard Project Physics.  While both
had some very good ideas, they were not based on research even approaching
the current level in PER.  Some of those materials have been directly
recycled into the current research based curricula.

In reality the retooling in the average classroom was probably very small
and business as usual has continued to this day.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> Have your student start looking for information about the National
> Defense Education Act, which became federal law in 1958.  The NDEA
> provided financial support to US schools to help them beef up science
> and mathematics education, following the embarrassing realization that
> our space program efforts were running substantially behind the USSR's
> accomplishments.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Larry