Physical Sciences Study Committee
Encyclopedia
The Physical Science Study Committee was inaugurated at MIT in 1956 with the objective of reviewing introductory physics education
and designing and monitoring improvements. It produced a major new physics textbook, many instructional movies and classroom laboratory materials, that were used by high schools around the world during the 1960s and 1970s .
Physics education
Physics education or physics education research refers both to the methods currently used to teach physics and to an area of pedagogical research that seeks to improve those methods. Historically, physics has been taught at the high school and college level primarily by the lecture method...
and designing and monitoring improvements. It produced a major new physics textbook, many instructional movies and classroom laboratory materials, that were used by high schools around the world during the 1960s and 1970s .
Original members
- Professor Jerrold ZachariasJerrold R. ZachariasJerrold Reinach Zacharias was an American physicist and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.-Career:Zacharias was involved in both the Radiation Laboratory at MIT and the Manhattan Project...
, chair. - Professor Francis L. Friedman.
- Professor George GamowGeorge GamowGeorge Gamow , born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov , was a Russian-born theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He discovered alpha decay via quantum tunneling and worked on radioactive decay of the atomic nucleus, star formation, stellar nucleosynthesis, Big Bang nucleosynthesis, cosmic microwave...
. - Professor Sanford C. Brown.
- Professor Victor WeisskopfVictor Frederick WeisskopfVictor Frederick Weisskopf was an Austrian-born Jewish American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr...
.
Books
- PSSC. Physics. 1st Edition 1960. D.C. Heath
- Judson B. Cross, John H. Dodge, James A. Walter, Uri Haber-Schaim. PSSC Physics. 3rd edition 1971. D.C. Heath
Films
- "Coulomb's Law".
- Abraham Morochnik, Donald IveyDonald IveyDonald G. Ivey was the principal of the University of Toronto's New College from 1963 to 1974.-Brief Biography:"In collaboration with his colleague Patterson Hume, Ivey helped to steer the direction of physics teaching in a new direction through the use of educational television programs and movies...
and Patterson Hume", Frames of ReferenceFrames of ReferenceFrames of Reference is a 1960 educational film by Physical Sciences Study Committee.The film was made to be shown in high school physics courses. In the film University of Toronto physics professors Patterson Hume and Donald Ivey explain the distinction between inertial and nonintertial frames of...
". - Elbert Little, "Random Events".
- John ShiveShive wave machineA Shive wave machine is a device used to demonstrate waves and wave mechanics. The Shive wave machine consists of a set of evenly-spaced horizontal rods all attached to a square wire spine. Displacing a rod on one of the ends will cause a wave to propagate across the machine...
, "Simple Waves".
External links
- AAPT Celebrates PSSC's 50th Birthday Links to more than twenty articles written by instructors of physics.
- Physical Science Study Committee, 1956, MIT Institute Archives & Special CollectionsSpecial collectionsIn library science, special collections is the name applied to a specific repository or department, usually within a library, which stores materials of a "special" nature, including rare books, archives, and collected manuscripts...
, summary of fonds.