Re: Physics Education reform in 50s and 60s

[John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM>]

Peter Schoch wrote:
> With the new focus to return to the moon, the student wanted to know how
> physics education was 'retooled' during the late 50s and early 60s
> vis-a-vis the last push to get to the moon and our supposed 'knowledge
> gap' with the Soviets.
>
> I thought there was some physics education reform at that time,

A good starting-point to see what people were thinking
at the time:
  http://www.google.com/search?q=seaborg-report

A retrospective overview:
  http://www.nas.edu/sputnik/bybee2.htm

It's worth remembering that traditionally education was
considered a state or local issue.  The establishment of
the NSF (1950) put the federal camel's nose into this tent.
The NDEA (1958) greatly expanded the federal role.  Money
is not synonymous with "reform" ... but it certainly helps.

Also physics employment is not the same as physics education,
but it helps.  That had been expanding since the 1940s.  The
US government was acting as if nuclear physics had won the
war, and poured a lot of money into Los Alamos, Sandia,
Livermore, et cetera.  The UK government, somewhat more
sensibly, acted as if radar and codebreaking had won the
war, and poured a lot of money into RSRE and such.  I
mention this because it meant that for the first time,
bright kids could plausibly imagine a career in science.

The APS has records of things like
 a) number of APS members versus year
 b) number of physics students versus year
 c) physicist salaries versus year.

Once a friend of mine plotted APS membership versus year
on semi-log paper.  As I recall, it was a fairly straight
line (i.e. exponential growth) over the range 1945-1985,
without a prominent "sputnik" bump.  But don't quote me
on it ... please re-check the data.

=======================

Also:

 -- Dubya *said* he is focussed on returing to the moon
    and going to Mars ... but that doesn't mean he really is.
    The program he has proposed doesn't add up.  It would
    cost money, but he hasn't got the money.  And unlike
    No-Child-Left-Behind, he hasn't got any way of making
    somebody else pay for it.
 -- He *said* he was going to Iraq to enforce the will of
    the security council.
 -- He *said* he was going to find WMD.
 -- On 30-May-2003 he *said* illegal mobile labs had _already_
    been found.
 -- He *said* Iraq had gone shopping for yellowcake in Niger.
 -- He *said* he was "a uniter not a divider".