gary
31-12-2012, 06:28 PM
The Harvard Project Physics course was a high school physics curriculum developed
between 1962 and 1972 and used in classrooms in the 1970's and 1980's.
Shortly after the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union, the U.S. National
Science Foundation (NSF) put out an emergency call for a newly designed
high-school physics course to help the United States maintain its technological
leadership at a time when enrollment in physics as a subject within U.S. high schools
was dwindling.
The result was the Harvard Project Physics course (http://dssmhi1.fas.harvard.edu/emuseumdev/code/emuseum.asp?action=advsearch&newsearch=1&profile=people&rawsearch=constituentid/,/is/,/7991/,/false/,/true&style=single&searchdesc=Harvard%20Project%20Phys ics) - later renamed Project Physics -
and under the masterful direction of F. James Rutherford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._James_Rutherford), Gerald Holton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Holton) and
Fletcher Watson it provided a humanistic, historically oriented approach.
As the authors themselves quoted in the epilogue of the final book -
The course was taught in some parts of the U.S. and elsewhere in the world,
including a select number of high schools in New South Wales. I was lucky
enough to attend a public school where the course had been deployed and I
regard it as one of the best designed courses either at the secondary or tertiary
level that I ever undertook.
The material the two-year course provided the student and educator was expansive
but highly accessible.
There were six core Text's and associated Handbooks -
* Concepts of Motion, Text and Handbook Volume 1 (http://archive.org/stream/conceptsofmotion00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
* Motion in the Heavens, Text and Handbook Volume 2 (http://archive.org/stream/motioninheavensp00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
* The Triumph of Mechanics, Text and Handbook Volume 3 (http://archive.org/stream/triumphofmechani00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
* Light and Electromagnetism Text and Handbook 4 (http://archive.org/stream/lightelctromgnetism4fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
* Models of the Atom, Text and Handbook Volume 5 (http://archive.org/stream/modelsofatomproj00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
* The Nucleus, Text and Handbook Volume 6 (http://archive.org/stream/nucleusprojectph00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
In addition there were six "Readers", the introduction to each of which read -
"This is not a physics textbook. Rather, it is a physics reader, a collection of
some of the best articles and book passages to browse".
For example, in line with its humanistic approach, the reader devoted to astronomy (http://archive.org/stream/reader2motioninh00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
included "The Laws of Motion" by Isaac Newton in the original Latin with a translation
provided into English. There is an excerpt from Fred Hoyle's novel, "The Black Cloud"
and a short story of Kaoru Ikeya and his devotion to discovering a comet. There
is an article entitled "A Night at the Observatory" that details a reporters trip to the
200-inch Palomar. There is a poem in French on the stars and an article
entitled "Mariners 6 and 7 Television Pictures: Preliminary Analysis".
There's even a paper co-authored by Carl Sagan on "Is there Intelligent Life
Beyond the Earth" and a excerpt from the Condon Committee's "Scientific
Study of Unidentified Flying Objects".
The course also came with an arsenal of impressive equipment and additional resources, including
Polaroid cameras, air tables and air rails, film loops and projectors, stroboscopes,
telescopes, large scale lunar photographs, radioactive isotopes and
specialized equipment such as this one for performing the Millikan oil drop experiment -
http://dssmhi1.fas.harvard.edu/emuseumdev/code/emuseum.asp?style=text¤trecord=1&page=seealso&profile=objects&searchdesc=Related%20to%20Harvard%2 0Project%20...&searchstring=seealsoid/,/is/,/7991/,/false/,/true&sessionid=D408C9B6-6F9E-4DAF-8ABC-8317E9EB75E2&action=searchrequest&style=single¤trecord=8
Through the donation of one of its original directors, James Rutherford, the Project
Physics Texts, Handbooks, Readers and other printed material have been
photographed with a Canon 5D camera and placed on archive.org here -
http://archive.org/details/projectphysicscollection
They are available for download or reading online in a variety of formats including
as PDF's or in various ebook formats.
Though physics has advanced since the course was last taught, nevertheless much
of its material still holds true and areas such as vectors, waves, laws of motion
and the history of physics remain essentially immutable.
The material may be of interest to those who did not have the opportunity to
study physics in high school or for those who did long ago but would like
to brush up on the fundamentals.
When one browses the original Texts, littered with photographs spanning the
sciences and the arts, one can appreciate the authors intent in presenting
physics with an exciting, engaging narrative. There is even good humour with the
occasional Johnny Hart comic thrown in.
Apparently some high school physics curricula in use today are absent of historical
content and there have been some calls for a revised course (http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=harvard%20project%20physics&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&ved=0CFgQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphysicsed.buffalos tate.edu%2Fpubs%2FPHY690%2FLindley2 010%2FLindley%2520-%2520ASU%2520Modeling%2520and%2520H PP%2520-%2520Integration%2520and%2520Applic ability.doc&ei=mC3hUMz-ErCUmQXy6oDYAw&usg=AFQjCNH18tuLLc-UGVplxI42fwdTJrapFw) much along the lines
of the original Project Physics approach.
The archive is available here -
http://archive.org/details/projectphysicscollection
between 1962 and 1972 and used in classrooms in the 1970's and 1980's.
Shortly after the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union, the U.S. National
Science Foundation (NSF) put out an emergency call for a newly designed
high-school physics course to help the United States maintain its technological
leadership at a time when enrollment in physics as a subject within U.S. high schools
was dwindling.
The result was the Harvard Project Physics course (http://dssmhi1.fas.harvard.edu/emuseumdev/code/emuseum.asp?action=advsearch&newsearch=1&profile=people&rawsearch=constituentid/,/is/,/7991/,/false/,/true&style=single&searchdesc=Harvard%20Project%20Phys ics) - later renamed Project Physics -
and under the masterful direction of F. James Rutherford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._James_Rutherford), Gerald Holton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Holton) and
Fletcher Watson it provided a humanistic, historically oriented approach.
As the authors themselves quoted in the epilogue of the final book -
The course was taught in some parts of the U.S. and elsewhere in the world,
including a select number of high schools in New South Wales. I was lucky
enough to attend a public school where the course had been deployed and I
regard it as one of the best designed courses either at the secondary or tertiary
level that I ever undertook.
The material the two-year course provided the student and educator was expansive
but highly accessible.
There were six core Text's and associated Handbooks -
* Concepts of Motion, Text and Handbook Volume 1 (http://archive.org/stream/conceptsofmotion00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
* Motion in the Heavens, Text and Handbook Volume 2 (http://archive.org/stream/motioninheavensp00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
* The Triumph of Mechanics, Text and Handbook Volume 3 (http://archive.org/stream/triumphofmechani00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
* Light and Electromagnetism Text and Handbook 4 (http://archive.org/stream/lightelctromgnetism4fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
* Models of the Atom, Text and Handbook Volume 5 (http://archive.org/stream/modelsofatomproj00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
* The Nucleus, Text and Handbook Volume 6 (http://archive.org/stream/nucleusprojectph00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
In addition there were six "Readers", the introduction to each of which read -
"This is not a physics textbook. Rather, it is a physics reader, a collection of
some of the best articles and book passages to browse".
For example, in line with its humanistic approach, the reader devoted to astronomy (http://archive.org/stream/reader2motioninh00fjam#page/n0/mode/2up)
included "The Laws of Motion" by Isaac Newton in the original Latin with a translation
provided into English. There is an excerpt from Fred Hoyle's novel, "The Black Cloud"
and a short story of Kaoru Ikeya and his devotion to discovering a comet. There
is an article entitled "A Night at the Observatory" that details a reporters trip to the
200-inch Palomar. There is a poem in French on the stars and an article
entitled "Mariners 6 and 7 Television Pictures: Preliminary Analysis".
There's even a paper co-authored by Carl Sagan on "Is there Intelligent Life
Beyond the Earth" and a excerpt from the Condon Committee's "Scientific
Study of Unidentified Flying Objects".
The course also came with an arsenal of impressive equipment and additional resources, including
Polaroid cameras, air tables and air rails, film loops and projectors, stroboscopes,
telescopes, large scale lunar photographs, radioactive isotopes and
specialized equipment such as this one for performing the Millikan oil drop experiment -
http://dssmhi1.fas.harvard.edu/emuseumdev/code/emuseum.asp?style=text¤trecord=1&page=seealso&profile=objects&searchdesc=Related%20to%20Harvard%2 0Project%20...&searchstring=seealsoid/,/is/,/7991/,/false/,/true&sessionid=D408C9B6-6F9E-4DAF-8ABC-8317E9EB75E2&action=searchrequest&style=single¤trecord=8
Through the donation of one of its original directors, James Rutherford, the Project
Physics Texts, Handbooks, Readers and other printed material have been
photographed with a Canon 5D camera and placed on archive.org here -
http://archive.org/details/projectphysicscollection
They are available for download or reading online in a variety of formats including
as PDF's or in various ebook formats.
Though physics has advanced since the course was last taught, nevertheless much
of its material still holds true and areas such as vectors, waves, laws of motion
and the history of physics remain essentially immutable.
The material may be of interest to those who did not have the opportunity to
study physics in high school or for those who did long ago but would like
to brush up on the fundamentals.
When one browses the original Texts, littered with photographs spanning the
sciences and the arts, one can appreciate the authors intent in presenting
physics with an exciting, engaging narrative. There is even good humour with the
occasional Johnny Hart comic thrown in.
Apparently some high school physics curricula in use today are absent of historical
content and there have been some calls for a revised course (http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=harvard%20project%20physics&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&ved=0CFgQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphysicsed.buffalos tate.edu%2Fpubs%2FPHY690%2FLindley2 010%2FLindley%2520-%2520ASU%2520Modeling%2520and%2520H PP%2520-%2520Integration%2520and%2520Applic ability.doc&ei=mC3hUMz-ErCUmQXy6oDYAw&usg=AFQjCNH18tuLLc-UGVplxI42fwdTJrapFw) much along the lines
of the original Project Physics approach.
The archive is available here -
http://archive.org/details/projectphysicscollection