livro ensino com projetos física

8/12/2019 Livro Ensino Com Projetos Fsica

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About The Project Physics Course

An Introduction to the Teacher Resource Bo


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Directors of Harvard Project PhysicsGerald Holton, Department of Physics,

Harvard UniversityF. James Rutherford, Capuchino High School,San Bruno, California, and Harvard UniversityFletcher G. Watson, Harvard Graduate School

of Education

Copyright 1971, Project PhysicsAll Rights ReservedProject Physics is a registered trade mark


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About the Project Physics Course

An Introduction to theProject Physics Course

Published byHOLT, RINEHART and WINSTON,New York, Toronto Inc.


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CONTENTSThe Project Physics Course in Brief 1Introduction to the Project Physics Course 3

General Background 3Specific Goals 5

Evaluating the Project Physics Course 6Some Evaluation Findings 6About Enrollments 8Research and Evaluation Bibliography 9

The Project Physics Learning Materials 11Text 11Handbook and Laboratory 12The Reader 13Programmed Instruction 13Film Loops (8mm) 14Sound Films (16mm) 14Transparencies 14Supplemental Units 15Tests and Student Evaluation 15

Instructional Approaches to the Project Physics Course 18Conventional Teaching Methods 18The Multi-media Systems Approach 18Independent Learning Approaches 19

The Basic Course 20Unit 1 Concepts of Motion 20Unit 2 Motion in the Heavens 22Unit 3 The Triumph of Mechanics 24Unit 4 Light and Electromagnetism 26Unit 5 Models of the Atom 28Unit 6 The Nucleus 30

Project Physics Teacher Preparation 32Institutes 32Teacher Resource Book 32Teacher Briefing Films 32

Where to Obtain Project Physics Materials 33


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THE PROJECT PHYSICS COURSE IN BRIEFFOR USE OF TEACHERS AND OTHERS WHO NEEDA SHORT STATEMENT ABOUT THE PROJECT PHYSICS COURSE

This is an introductory, one-year physicsprogram for high school students that presentsa core of coherent ideas in an integrated learn-ing sequence, using a multimedia system for amultilevel, flexible course. This course is basedon Harvard Project Physics, a national curricu-lum improvement project, which was fundedby the U.S. Office of Education, the NationalScience Foundation, the Carnegie Corporationof New York, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,The Ford Foundation, and Harvard University.The Project Physics Course selects from theenormous bulk of possible materials a sequenceof coherent ideas that deals with good physicsand can be related to a clear story line. Besidespure physics, the course shows how physicsconnects with other sciences, particularly as-tronomy and chemistry, and includes aspects ofthe philosophy and history of science that putthe development of the major ideas of physicsinto a humanistic and social context.The Project Physics Course provides a basictext for the course that is shorter than almostany other physics program. Certain topicsfound to be difficult to learn merely by readingare dealt with through other components of theprogram. The variety of learning aids for theProject Physics Course are assembled in anintegrated, multimedia system, including text,readers, film loops, films, experiments with spe-cially coordinated laboratory apparatus, pro-grammed instruction booklets, transparencies,student handbook, and teacher resource book.The structure of the course allows studentsand teachers to select and emphasize aspectswhich interest them most. Those classes (orindividual students) who can complete the corecontent in less than the school year are givenample opportunity to explore further or moredeeply through selection of additional topicsand learning aids. These include additional textunits, other experiments and activities, addi-tional films and film loops, other sections of thereaders, and individual projects. Different stu-dents, from the science-shy to the science ma-jors, may demonstrate achievement in differentways, whether it lies in pursuing a more mathe-matical treatment, doing further laboratory

experiments, or historical readings. The mostcrucial element in any physics course is theteacher, who determines the final shape of thecourse. The teacher of this course may choosefrom a wide range of styles the one most con-genial to him. Some teachers who like to deem-phasize their role as lecturers and transmittersof information prefer seeing themselves ascounselors, guides, and amplifiers of latent en-thusiasm; their style of teaching allows studentsto show different rates of progress through dif-ferent aspects of the course.The view shared by most of the nation'sthoughtful scientists, educators, policy makers,and physics teachers is that a physics coursewith a cultural component is needed by nearlyeveryone. Nobel Prize physicist I. 1. Rabimember of the Advisory Committee of the Pro-jectspoke for this view when he said thatphysics now lies at the core of the humanisticeducation of our time, and he added, Scienceshould be taught at whatever level, from thelowest to the highest, in the humanistic way. Bywhich I mean it should be taught with a certainhistorical understanding, in the sense of thebiography, the nature of the people who madethis construction, the triumphs, the trials, thetribulations. The Project Physics Course fol-lows the precept that a good introductorycourse today can validly use the history andsocial consequences of science as teaching aidson various occasions without causing physics toyield its just claim as an individual discipline ofprimary importance.

Every component of the Project PhysicsCourse was tested in hundreds of classroomsthroughout the United States and redesigned onthe basis of these tests. Through anonymousquestionnaires, the overwhelming majority ofstudents reported that they would recommendthe course to their friends. Besides enjoying it,students profited intellectually as shown onachievement tests. It is encouraging that evenstudents who are regarded as having modestacademic talent show gains in achievementscores as great as those of the regular physicsstudent.


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INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT PHYSICS COURSE

GENERAL BACKGROUNDThe Project Physics Course is based on theideas and research results of the Harvard Pro-ject Physics curriculum development group.This national course improvement effort for-mally began in the spring of 1964. At thattime Gerald Holton, James Rutherford, andFletcher Watson of Harvard University re-ceived support from the United States Office ofEducation and the National Science Founda-tion, which enabled them to bring togetherprofessional people from all parts of the nationto work on the improvement of physics educa-tion.

Informally, the Project had started severalyears earlier. In 1962, when Rutherfordwas a physics teacher and science departmenthead in a public high school, Holton and Wat-son agreed to collaborate with him in testingthe feasibility of designing a new physicscourse. With the story-line and aims in GeraldHoltons college text, Introduction to Conceptsand Theories in Physical Science, as a generalguide, preparation of a course outline and in-structional materials was begun. In 1962 thegroup of founders obtained initial support fromthe Carnegie Corporation in New York, whichallowed them to test their materials. The suc-cess of these tests, coupled with the increasingnational awareness that something needed to bedone about decreasing high school physics en-rollments, led to the formation of Harvard Pro-ject Physics. The decision to expand to a na-tional program was stimulated by a requestfrom the National Science Foundation late in1963.The general purposes of Project Physics re-mained constant from the beginning, whenthree individuals worked without support,through the time of peak developmental activ-ity involving hundreds of scientists, teachers,psychologists, artists, and other professionalparticipants from throughout the United Statesand Canada, as well as thousands of students intrial classes. To some degree, the purposes re-flected the fact that the co-directors of theProject were, respectively, a university physi-cist, a professor of science education, and anexperienced high-school physics teacher.The chief purposes were:

1. To design a humanistically oriented phys-ics course. Harvard Project Physics would show

the science of physics in its proper light asa broadly based intellectual activity that hasfirm historical roots and that profoundly influ-ences our whole culture.

2. To develop a course that luould attract alarge number of high school students to thestudy of introductory physics. Such a coursemust be meaningful not only to those who arealready intent on a scientific career, but also tothose who may not go on to college and tothose who while in college will concentrate onthe humanities or social sciences.

3. To contribute to the knoiuledge of thefactors that influence science learning. In addi-tion to its long-term value, this extensive educa-tional research should supply informationneeded by teachers and administrators in de-ciding whether to introduce the course and, ifso, in what way and for which students. Theresearch results have been reported in profes-sional journals and dissertations (see Bibliogra-phy), and in the book A Case Study in Curricu-lum Evaluation: Harvard Project Physics.Assumptions About Physics and its PresentationThe first two Harvard Project Physics goalsdeveloping a humanistically oriented courseand increasing enrollments in high-school phys-icswere based on certain assumptions aboutthe nature of physics, the needs and preferencesof students, the role of teachers, and the placeof introductory physics in high school educa-tion. It may be helpful to state some of theseassumptions explicitly.

1.Physics, as usually taught and presentedin texts, provides a description and explanationof the main parts of the physical universe, aswell as a way of thinking about the universe.The conceptual content of physics is of surpris-ingly small extent, since it is composed of aHmited set of related principles. This content isnot immutable; parts of it change by growthand restructuring, and occasionally it un-dergoes a radical modification. Understandingthis content and the way it grows is far moreimportant than memorizing any number of su-perficial facts and isolated laws and equationsabout the physical world.

2.The content of physics as it exists at anygiven time is a powerful tool for scientists andfor society in general. The scientist uses it tounderstand nature, and other professionals, for


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Introduction

2. The classroom teacher is, and ought toremain, the primary decision maker in his do-main. The content, emphasis, level of difficulty,organization of instruction, and other essentialfeatures of a course in physics must be deter-mined by the physics teacher. No matter howcarefully prepared the instructional materialsare, a course must finally be shaped by theteacher. There are no teacher proof courses.

3. A teacher can increase a student's moti-vation and help him to learn more effectively,but the teacher cannot do the work of learningfor the student. It is now widely agreed that,with suitable guidance from the teacher, stu-dents should gradually be allowed to be moreindependent. This can involve learning fromother students, individualized instruction, andother techniques. In each case there is littleemphasis on the teachers role as dispenser ofinformation to a whole class at one time, andincreased emphasis on a role that motivatesstudents to undertake meaningful independentstudy. The teacher guides them through thelearning materials, and provides help to indi-vidual students when they need it.Assunfiptions About thePlace of Physics in Education

1. Introductory physics, like introductoryhistory, art, music, literature, and language,should first of all contribute to liberal educa-tion. It should serve the student by enhancinghis appreciation of the world around him. Thisdoes not necessarily exclude, of course, theequally important aim of helping a student todiscover his talent in a physical science.

2. An introductory physics course shouldnot assume that all students are heading to-wards scientific careers. However, a successfulscience course will certainly identify and nur-ture those who wish such careers, motivatesome students in this direction, and inform allstudents of the nature of work in scienceprofessions and in occupations related to sci-ence.

3. One can never learn enough in any intro-ductory course to serve a lifetime. A physicscourse will have done much if it instills instudents a desire for learning science through-out their lives, and assists them in developingthe necessary learning skills. At the very leastthe course should avoid a common complaintabout physics courses in the past, namely thatthey induce a flight from all future contactswith scienceSPECIFIC GOALS OF THE PROJECT PHYSICSCOURSE

In view of these assumptions about students,teachers, and the educational purposes of intro-ductory physics, the first two general aims ofHarvard Project Physicsto develop a human-istically oriented physics course, and to helpincrease high school physics enrollmentscanbe restated in somewhat more specific terms.The Project Physics Course and course mate-rials were designed to accomplish the follow-ing goals;

1. To help students to increase their knowl-edge of the physical world by concentrating onthe ideas that characterize physics as a scienceat its best (for example, the conservation laws),rather than concentrating on isolated bits ofinformation (such as the lens formula).

2. To help students see physics as the many-sided human activity that it really is. Thismeans presenting the subject in historical andcultural perspective, and showing that the ideasof physics have not only a tradition but meth-ods of adaptation and change.

3. To increase the opportunity for each stu-dent to have immediate rewarding experiencesin science while gaining knowledge and skillthat wiU be useful throughout life.

4. To make it possible for teachers to adaptthe physics course to the wide range of interestsand abilities among their students.

5. To recognize the importance of theteacher in the educational process, and the vastspectrum of teaching situations that prevail.


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EVALUATING THE PROJECT PHYSICS COURSEHow nearly does the Project Physics Course

achieve the goals listed above? There are twoquite different ways to go about finding ananswer to this question. One is by inspection ofthe various materials comprising the course,and of the statements and suggestions in theTeacher Resource Book. Each teacher shouldlook with some care at the course materials andthen answer for himself pertinent questions. Dothe materials present physics in the broad cul-tural context suggested? Does the course in-clude most of the physics topics he believes hewould like to teach? Is there enough variety formost of his students to find something of inter-est? Do the books, readers, laboratory andout-of-school activities, film loops, transparen-cies, and all the rest provide the flexibilitynecessary to adapt the course to individualdifferences? Would he, given his own situationand characteristics, be able to teach this courseeffectively?

In order to answer such questions honestly,the teacher must have the opportunity to studythe materials in detail. This is one reason whypreparation in a methods course summer insti-tute, an academic year institute, or in-serviceinstitute largely or fully dedicated to the Pro-ject Physics Course is so valuable. Most teach-ers who have attended such institutes, and thushave had the chance to study the materialscarefully, have reported that in their judgmentthe instructional materials do make it possiblefor them to attain such goals.The second approach to judging the ProjectPhysics Course is the record of experience.Studying materials in abstraction from actualclassroom teaching can never be entirely satis-factory. At best it may indicate what is possi-ble; but one can never know whether the possi-ble will be attained until the test of experiencehas been made.

This experience may be that of the individ-ual teacher, or it may be collective. HarvardProject Physics itself has attempted to find outwhat results were obtained when the coursewas taught to different students with differentteachers under different circumstances in manydifferent parts of the country. The study wasunique among curriculum development studiesin terms of its large scale and its rigorousresearch design, just as the Project itself wasunique in the number of detailed revision cy-cles based on teacher feedback. The results arefully reported in a publication entitled, A CaseStudij in Curricidinn Evaluation: Harvard Proj-ect Physics. We believe it is fair to say thatthese results, which explain some of our own

satisfaction with the course, merit your carefulconsideration. A very brief summary of theProject research and evaluation activities fol-lows.

SOME EVALUATION FINDINGSThe development of Harvard Project Physicswas accompanied by a massive evaluation under-

taking. Three brief summaries of evaluation find-ings are included here. The condensations omitmany subtleties of research methods, instru-ments, and statistics which can be found in thecomplete report of the evaluation, A CaseStudy in Curriculum Evaluation: Harvard Proj-ect Physics.

Research design Part of the research designinvolved the selection offiftv-three teachers at ran-dom from an NSTA list of over 16,000 highschool physics teachers in the continental UnitedStates during the school year 1968-1969.Thirty-four teachers were assigned to attend asummer institute and then to teach ProjectPhysics. The remaining nineteen teachers wererequested to continue teaching what they hadbeen teaching. Because the Harvard ProjectPhysics and control groups were randomly as-signed from the randomly selected pool, the dif-ferences found between the groups can be legiti-mately generalized to the national population ofhigh school physics teachers. Note that almostall, if not all, previous research on curriculumhas used volunteer groups and has not legiti-mately allowed such statistical generalizations.

Students' course satisfaction At the end ofthe course, the student averages on a measureof satisfaction were significantly higher forclasses taught by Harvard Project Physics teach-ers than for control teachers. In fact, this findingwas the most significant statistically in all the re-search. The satisfaction score was a compositeof questionnaire responses. The questionnaireitems with the greatest differences showed Har-vard Project Physics students more hkely to agreewith these statements;

I think this physics course is designed in sucha way that even those who have little back-ground in mathematics can gain much fromthe course.The book was really enjoyable to read.I think learning about men and women whomade physics grow helped to make thecourse more interesting.I hope they don't change the course toomuch.


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Evaluating the Course

Furthermore, Harvard Project Physics studentswere less likely to agree with the statements:

Physics is one of the most difficult courses Ihave taken in high school.No matter how you look at it, physics had tobe a difficult course.Because the satisfaction score is so closely

tied to major goals of Harvard Project Physics,further analysis was done to see whether this ad-vantage might be lost for certain kinds of stu-dents. Satisfaction averages were computed forstudents divided into three IQ levels, and thenfurther subdivided by sex, by three levels ofinitial interest in physics, by three levels of anattitude score( Theoretical Outlook, ') and bythree levels of a personality score( Dogma-tism. ) The Project Physics Course presentsscience as more speculative and less absolutelytrue than most other courses. The Dogmatismscores were tried because it was thought thatperhaps students who tended to be authori-tarian and dogmatic might be uncomfortablewith the lack of certainty.The results of these breakdowns of data areshown graphically below. Each plotted pointrepresents 25 or more students.

As inspection of the graphs shows, thesatisfactionadvantagefor Harvard Project Physicsis rather uniform across all the subdivisions. Ifthe advantage is less in any case, it is forlow-IQ students with high initial interest or astrong theoretical outlook. Remember that allof these students elected to take physics. Eventhe low-IQ group had an average IQ ofabout 106.

Student sex differences The achievementgain was greater for girls than for boys on theHarvard Project Physics achievement examina-

tions. This was a gratifying result for it suggeststhat this new curriculum appeals to a greaternumber of students who have diverse interests.

In addition to achievement, male and femalephysics students were contrasted on attitudinal

Achievement Gainon a 40 Point Project Physics Test

by SexTest 7Points

H CGirls

H CBoys

H: Harvard Project Physicsstudents

C: Control Group students

COURSE SATISFACTION AVERAGES for subgroupsdivided by IQ and initial Interest in Physics

STUDENTS WITHLOW INITIAL INTERESTSTUDENTS WITH

MEDIUM INITIAL INTEREST

7-


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8 Evaluating the Course

and personality measures. From all the meas-ures studied, four distinguishing patterns wereidentified. Girls were higher on verbal aptitude,had great social values, were more cautiousabout science experiences and emphasized aes-thetic values over theoretical values. These find-ings are not surprising but are probably worthremembering.

Students who normally would not take phys-ics About forty teachers were asked to in-vite a number of students who had not chosento take physics to try the new course. In mostinstances, teachers explained Harvard ProjectPhysics to students and asked them to recon-sider their decision. In other schools the guid-ance counselors made the selections. A total of194 students accepted. The recruited group ofstudents was distinctly less academic thanthe regulars. They had significantly lower scoreson academic activities, on physics achievementpretest, on interest in physics, and on IQ. Theaverage IQ for regular physics students was116; for recruits, 108. Although the recruitsbegan lower and ended lower on almost alltests, they showed greater gains than the regu-lar students on all but a tinkering activitiesscore. However, on only one score, Lab-fun,was the greater gain for recruits statisticallysignificant.

While the collective experience of teachersand students as reported in the evaluation studymay buttress a teacher's own impressionsgained by studying the materials himself, it isthe teacher's own experience that is the mostimportant. This suggests that during the firstyear a teacher ought to teach the course moreor less as outlined in this Teacher ResourceBook, keep careful notes of his observations ofthe results, and aim at least to cover the mate-rial in the six basic units. A teacher may wishthen, during a second year, to modify thecourse in some ways (for example, by adding asupplemental unit or two), and to favor thoseteaching approaches which seemed to workbest for him. This process of adaptation andmodification based on daily classroom eval-uation should continue until a teacher is sat-isfied that the course achieves the goals setfor it. This doesn't imply that the course needever be frozen. The richness of course materialshould encourage and enable teachers to res-pond to changing circumstances and to theirown dynamic interests with a continuallyevolving course.

In the years ahead, the learning materials ofthe Project Physics Course will be changed asoften as is necessary to remove remainingambiguities, clarify instructions, and to con-tinue to make the materials more interesting

and relevant to students. We therefore urge allstudents and teachers who use this course tosend to us (in care of Holt, Rinehart and Win-ston, Inc., 383 Madison Avenue, New York,New York 10017) any criticisms or suggestionsthey may have.ABOUT ENROLLMENTSOne of the hopes of the staff of Harvard

Project Physics was that the use of this coursewould help stem the tide running against thestudy of physics in high schools in the UnitedStates. The number of senior high-school stu-dents taking any variety of physics course was,according to the most recent statistics of theU.S. Office of Education, only 526,000. This isless than 20% of the total number of seniors inhigh schools. In the past two decades, thepercentage of students taking high-school phys-ics has been dropping while enrollments inbiology, chemistry, and mathematics courseshave generally either held their own or showngains. In the 1950's, one student in four tookphysics; in the 60's, the fraction was down toless than one in five. Thus each year more thaneighty percent of the U.S. high-school studentsare now graduating without having had a phys-ics course in senior high school, although thesubject remains basic regardless of later careerplans. Nothing like this is experienced in otherdeveloped nations.While it is too early to tell whether and whenthe introduction of the Project Physics Coursecan help improve this dismal record, early in-dications from recent studies are hopeful. Oneset of data comes from an independent studycarried out at Knox College, Salesburg, Illinoisamong the alumni of its Harvard ProjectPhysics teacher-training institute. Thirty-fiveparticipants from 35 schools responded to arequest for information. Against an only slowlychanging total twelfth-grade population inthese schools over the last three years. It wasfound that the introduction of the Project Phys-ics Course changed their physics enrollmentstatistics drastically. The school year 1967-8was one year before Project Physics in an inter-im version was introduced in these schools, andthe total physics enrollment in all types ofcourses was then 1683 students (of which 179rwere girls). During 1968-69, the Harvard Proj-ect Physics was begun with a total of 298 stu-dents. By 1969-70, the total number of stu-dents enrolled in all three types of coursestaught (the Harvard Project Physics, PSSC, andtraditional physics) was 2456. This total figureincluded 823 students (32% of them girls) inHarvard Project Physics courses.


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Evaluating the Course

In short, the total physics enrollment in twoyears since 1967-68 had jumped by 773 stu-dents, or 41% .And it should be noted that these schoolsmade their gains not at the expense of sig-nificantly decreasing enrollments in other typesof physics courses: during this same period theenrollment in traditional physics courseschanged from 674 to 610 students, and inPSSC from 1009 to 1023. The 823 HarvardProject Physics Course studentsone third of allthe students taking physics in those schools in theyear 196970may well be considered newlyfound students who, through Harvard ProjectPhysics, were brought to the study of the subject.

In a second study, a short questionaire wassent at the end of the 1969-70 school year toteachers who were using the Project materialsin their interim versions. From all parts of theU.S., 222 replies containing at least some us-able data were returned. The survey yielded thefollowing results, which must be measuredagainst the continuing percentage decreases instudent enrollments in physics across the na-tion. The total number of 12th-grade studentsin these 222 schools was approximately con-stant at about 96,200 students over the periodfrom 1968 to 1970. But the total enrollment inall types of physics courses from one year to thenext changed from 18,160 (or 19%) in1968-69 to 20,689 (or 21.6%) in 1969-70.The number of scheduled sections of all typesof physics courses increased from 780 to 885.Again, the growth may be considered at least ingood part to be coupled to the fact that duringthe same period, the number of Harvard ProjectPhysics students in those schools increased from5,805 to 11,475.

Finally, a third study of this type was madein which alumni of teacher-training institutesheld at San Diego State College were asked aboutthe growth of student enrollments in their Har-vard Project Physics classes. There were repliesfrom 51 participants in 51 schools, mostly in Cali-fornia and Western States. The number of Har-vard Project Physics students went up as follows;

1967-68: 1241968-69: 3991969-70: 1231

These increasesby a factor of about 3 be-tween the first and second year, and againbetween the second and thirdare not untypi-cal of the experience found in many schoolsthat have introduced the course.

RESEARCH AND EVALUATION BIBLIOGRAPHYThe articles listed in this bibliography were

written as part of the research and evaluationprogram of Harvard Project Physics. Many arti-cles are concerned with problems of educationalresearch while others are devoted directly to theevaluation of Harvard Project Physics.Anderson, Gary J. and Walberg, Herbert J.Classroom Climate and Group Learning.

International Journal of the Educational Sci-ences 2: 175-80; 1968.Anderson, Gary J.; Walberg, Herbert J.; andWelch, Wayne W. Curriculum Effects on the

Social Climate of Learning: A New Repre-sentation of Discriminant Functions. Ameri-can Educational Research Journal 1969.Bridgham, Robert G. and Welch, Wayne W.Physics Enrollments and Grading Practices.Journal of Research in Science Teaching 4:44-46; 1969.Rothman, Arthur I. Effects of Teaching a NewPhysics Course on Teacher Attitudes. Sci-ence Education 52: 6669; 1968.

Teacher Characteristics and StudentLearning. Journal of Research in ScienceTeaching 6. 340-48; 1969.Rothman, Arthur I.; Walberg, Herbert J.; andWelch, Wayne W. Effects of a SummerInstitute on Attitudes of Physics Teachers.Science Education 52: 46973; 1968.Rothman, Arthur I.; Welch, Wayne W.; andWalberg, Herbert J. Physics TeacherCharacteristics and Student Learning. Jour-nal of Research in Science Teaching 6.59-63; 1969.

Rutherford, F. James and Welch, Wayne W.Evaluation Activities of Harvard ProjectPhysics. Science Education News. AAASPublication No. 6-67, pp. 5-6.Smith, M. Daniel. Response to a Multi-MediaSystem. Journal of Research in ScienceTeachings. 322-31; 1969.

Walberg, Herbert J. Class Size and the SocialEnvironment of Learning. Human Relations22: 465-75; 1969.

Dimensions of Scientific Interests inBoys and Girls Studying Physics. ScienceEducation 51: 111-16; 1967.A Model for Research on Instruction.School Review 7. 185-200; 1970.

Personality Correlates of FactoredTeaching Attitudes. Psychology in the Schools4: 67-74; 1967.

Physical and Psychological Distance inthe Classroom. School Review 77: 6470;1969.


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10 Evaluating the Course

Physics, Femininity and Creativity.Developmental Psychology 1. 4754; 1969.

Reading and Study Habits of HighSchool Physics Students, journal of Reading11: 327-89; 1967.

Structural and Affective Aspects ofClassroom Climate. Psychology in theSchools 5: 247-53; 1968.

Teacher Personality and ClassroomClimate. Psychology in the Schools 5:163-69; 1968.

Walberg, Herbert J. and Anderson, Gary J.The Achievement Creativity Dimension andClassroom Climate. Journal of CreativeBehavior 2: 281-91; 1968.Classroom Climate and Individual

Learning. Journal of Educational Psychol-ogy 59. 414-19; 1968.Walberg, Herbert J. and Welch, Wayne W. ANew Use of Randomization in ExperimentalCurriculum Evaluation. School Review 75:369-77; 1967.

Dimensions of Personality in SelectedPhysics Teachers. Journal of Research inScience Teaching 5: 357-61; 1967-68.

Personality Characteristics of Innova-tive Physics Teachers. Journal of CreativeBehavior 1. 163-71; 1967.

Walberg, Herbert J.; Welch, Wayne W.; andRothman, Arthur I. Teacher Heterosexual-ity and Student Learning. Psychology in theSchools 6: 258-66; 1969.Welch, Wayne W. Correlates of CourseSatisfaction in High School Physics. Journalof Research in Science Teaching 6; 54-58;1969.

Curricular DecisionsHow CanEvaluation Assist Science Teachers? TheScience Teacher 35: 22-25; November1968.High School Physics Enrollments.Physics Today 20: 9-13; September 1967.The Impact of National Curriculum Proj-

ectsThe Need for Accurate Assessment.School Science and Mathematics 68: 225-34-1968. The Need for Evaluating NationalCurriculum Projects. Phi Delta Kappan 49:530-32; 1968.Some Characteristics of High SchoolPhysics Students: ciica 1968. Journal of Re-search in Science Teaching 6: 242-^7-1969.

Welch, Wayne W. and Bridgham, Robert G.Physics Achievement Gains as a Function ofTeaching Duration. School Science andMathematics 47: 449-54; 1968.

Welch, Wayne W. and Rothman, Arthur I. TheSuccess of Recruited Students in a NewPhysics Course. Science Education 52:

- 270-73; 1968.Welch, Wayne W. and Walberg, Herbert J. ADesign for Curriculum Evaluation. Science

Education 52: 10-16; 1968.An Evaluation of Summer InstitutePrograms for Physics Teachers. Journal ofResearch in Science Teaching 5: 10509;1967-68.Are the Attitudes of Teachers Related

to Declining Percentage Enrollments inPhysics? Science Education 51: 436-42;1967.

Welch, Wayne W.; Walberg, Herbert J.; andAhlgren, Andrew. The Selection of a Na-tional Random Sample of Teachers for Ex-perimental Curriculum Evaluation. SchoolScience and Mathematics 49: 210-16;1969.

Winter, Stephen S. and Welch, Wayne W.Achievement Testing Program of ProjectPhysics. The Physics Teacher 5: 22931;1967.The following selected doctoral theses were

related to certain aspects of the evaluation ofHarvard Project Physics, and may be of specialinterest:

Anderson, Gary J. The Reliability and Validityof a Measure of Classroom Climate. Un-published qualifying paper. Cambridge:Harvard University, 1967.Bar Yam, Miriam. The Interaction of StudentCharacteristics with bistructional Strategies:A Study of Students' Performance and At-titude in a High School Innovative Course.Unpublished doctors thesis. Cambridge:Harvard University, 1969.

Geis, Fred Jr. The Semantic Differential Tech-nique as a Means of Evaluating Changes in'Affect'. Unpublished doctors thesis. Cam-bridge: Harvard University, 1969.

Lapp, Douglas M. Physics and the Disadvan-taged Learner: Case Studies of Two Studentsin an Inner-City School. Unpublished doc-tor's thesis. Cambridge: Harvaid Universitv,1967.

Poorman, L. Eugene. A Comparative Study ofthe Effectiveness of a Multi-Media SystemsApproach to Harvard Project Pliysics withTraditional Approaches to Harvard ProjectPhysics. Unpublished doctors thesis. Bloom-ington: Indiana University, 1967.


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11

THE PROJECT PHYSICS LEARNING MATERIALSThe Project Physics Course includes texts,

student handbooks of laboratory and otheractivities, laboratory equipment, programmedinstruction, tests, film loops (and some longerfilms), overhead transparencies and books ofselected readings. These varied learning mate-rials make possible a more effective use of yourcapacities as a teacher in providing for individ-ual differences and environmental contingen-cies. In a word, they permit you to shape thecourse to fit the diverse needs and interests ofyour students.Each of the kinds of materials has beendesigned to perform special and sometimesmultiple functions in the course. Sometimes agiven learning material serves a unique purposein the course and sometimes it overlaps withothers. You should develop a clear notion ofwhat roles these materials can play in yourclasses and for your students, as such an un-derstanding is essential for their effective use.

TEXTOne of the important learning materials in

the Project Physics Course is the Text. It is,however, only one component of the courseand should not be thought of as anything more.It shares with the laboratory, the films, theHandbook, and the rest the task of helping thestudent learn some significant amount of phys-ics. The Project Physics Course simply cannotproperly be taught using the Text alone. Norcan the course be effectively taught without it.

If the Text has any unique function to serve,it is as a systematic guide for the student. Itpresents the main concepts to be dealt with inthe course and establishes the logical anddevelopmental relationships among those con-cepts. For this reason the Text is frequentlyreferred to as the student guide. A road mapmay be enormously helpful in establishingdirection and perspective, but reading a map isnot an adequate substitute for an actual drivethrough the mountains, or even for a goodmotion picture of such a drive. The physicsText alone is not able to supply the rich varietyof insights and experiences needed to make thecourse intellectually and emotionally enriching.Thus it would be a mistake to assume thatstudents can master topics just because they areintroduced or used in the Text. From time totime, indeed, the Text treatment of a topic (forexample, vectors), is deliberately shallow orincomplete just because there exist in thecourse other instructional materials which can

deal with that topic more effectively. Theoverprinted student text pages in this TeacherResource Book, as well as the chapter organiza-tional charts, attempt to clarify for you the rela-tionships between the Text and the other coursematerials.The value of the Text to the students de-

pends to a large extent on how they use it. Mostimportant, they should look upon it as aconceptual guide that presents ideas, discussesthose ideas in a broad context, and raises is-sues. Students should not look upon the Text asan infallible compendium of the facts of phys-ics.

Great care has gone into trying to makethe Text as cogent and understanding as pos-sible. The level of reading difficulty was re-duced as far as seemed consistent with present-ing the ideas at a level suitable for high schoolstudents. Students who have trouble readingcan still understand what the Text is saying ifthey will work reasonably hard at it. Similarly,students do not have to have highly developedmatematical skill in order to follow the Textdiscussion. This is not to say that the ProjectPhysics Course ignores mathematics. Indeed, adetermined effort is made to help studentscome to understand the role of mathematicsin physics even though they themselves neverbecome competent practitioners of advancedmathematics.You can help your students utilize the Textmore efficiently than they might otherwise doby insisting on these techniques.

1. The Prologue and the Epilogue of eachunit should be taken seriously. By reading thePrologue carefully and then referring to thetable of contents from time to time, the studentwill find he is better able to keep his work infocus. Reading the Epilogue will reinforce themajor thrust of the unit and help the studentmake connections with the unit which follows.

2. In studying any particular chapter, a stu-dent should first of all rapidly skim the entirechapter. This overview (along with occasionalreference to the chapter table of contents) willhelp direct him as he then studies in detail theindividual sections of the chapter.

3. As soon as a student finishes studying agiven section, he should immediately answerthe end of section questions and check hisanswers against those given in the back of theText. These questions are intended to enablethe student to find out for himself whether ornot he grasped the one, two or three main ideasin that section. If he finds that his answers arecorrect, then his learning will have been rein-


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12 Learning Materials

forced and his self-confidence enhanced. If hisanswers are wrong, he should then restudy thesection.The Study Guide at the end of each chapteris also intended to help the student learn phys-ics. How the Study Guide is used depends tosome extent, however, on how the teacher de-cides to organize instruction (see the sectionwhich follows on instructional approaches tothe Project Physics Course). In some situations,the teacher customarily assigns problems tobe done at night by the students. In othersituations the teacher does not assign home-work, but leaves that to student judgment. Ineither case, it should be kept clearly in mindthat each Study Guide contains many differentkinds of items. There are short-answer ques-tions, essay questions, drill problems and prob-lems based upon real events, questions andproblems relating physics to other sciences,derivations to be completed, and activities to becarried out. Furthermore, these items range indifficulty from very easy to extremely challeng-ing.

Clearly then, a student should not be ex-pected to do everything in the Study Guide.Either the teacher or the student himself mustmake a wise selection. To help students deter-mine which Study Guide items are relevant to aparticular part of the text, all Study Guidequestions have been keyed to the margins of thetext. Also, answers to approximately half ofthe Study Guide items are listed at the end ofthe Text.One other feature of the Project PhysicsText needs to be mentioned. Since many teach-ers do use an independent learning approachthat puts much of the responsibility on thestudent, it was felt necessary to make the Textas much like a guide as possible. It is for thisreason that all of the learning materialsassociated with a given unit of the Text (filmloops, experiments, activities, films, programmedinstruction booklets, readers, transparencies, sup-plementary units and tests) are listed at the be-ginning of the Study Guide for each chapter.Many of these are also indicated at appropriateplaces in the margin.The Teacher Resource Book for each unitdiscusses the background and development ofideas of the whole Text and of each chapter. Itshould be pointed out that although the ProjectPhysics Text is published in two forms, hardcover and soft cover, the content and page bypage design are identical. In the hard coverform the six text units are bound together into asingle book and the corresponding six studentHandbooks are available in separate, singlesoft-cover books. In the soft-cover form each

separate text unit is bound together with itscorresponding Handbook. The Teacher Re-source Book serves the hard and soft boundforms equally well.HANDBOOK AND LABORATORYThe students' experiences with nature in the

Project Physics Course are provided primarilythrough student experiments, teacher-group ex-periments and teacher demonstrationsandonly secondarily by means of film loops, soundfilms, transparencies and programmed instruc-tion materials. In addition, many opportunitiesfor interested students to carry out in-vestigations or activities on their own in schoolor at home are suggested in the Handbook.From this collection of activities every studentshould find something appealing.

Teacher demonstrations present phenomenawith the student cast in the role of spectatoralthough hopefully not as an entirely pas-sive one

In teacher-group experiments students areencouraged to make observations and collectdata, participate in the analysis and interpreta-tion of the data. This technique can furnishprecise data or opportunities for you to makepersuasive observations in response to studentarguments or questions.

Student experiments are exercises performedby the student himself in the laboratory. Herethe individual student (or a small group ofstudents) organizes and manipulates the ap-paratus, carries through the required steps,answers questions as they arise, and then drawshis own conclusions. Individual results vary, ofcourse, and thus at times only the pooling ofresults from all of the students (or studentgroups) will lead to useful conclusions fromwhich generalizations can be made. Through-out the course, the purpose of the experimentand plan of investigation should comprise themajority of your pre-lab discussions, while theanalysis should always be a part of post-labdiscussions.A description of the experiments for eachchapter and comments on them are found inthe Experiment sections of each Teacher Re-source Book. A briefer description and list ofequipment needed for each experiment isincluded in the section dealing with Or-ganization of Instruction. Descriptions of dem-onstrations are located in the Demonstrationsection of each Teacher Resource Book.Whether the experimental work at a givenpoint in the course takes the form of teacherdemonstrations, teacher-group experiments orstudent experiments, you should decide aheadof time what the main purposes of the activity


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Learning Materials 1

are. In the Project Physics Course, any givenexperiment may serve one or more of the fol-lowing student purposes;

1. To become familiar with some of thephenomena with which the course deals. Thus,even before they understand them, studentsshould encounter cases of uniform acceleration,wave refraction, spectra and the like.

2. To provide one of several approaches tothe understanding of an important physicalconcept. Some students seem to learn bestthrough laboratory activity, whereas otherscan learn by reading, viewing films, discussion,or even listening to lectures. In this sense, lab-oratory, is simply one of the learning media.

3. To learn something about the nature ofexperimental inquiry and the role of the labo-ratory in the advancement of scientific knowl-edge.

4. To learn some things about the physicalworld other than by written or oral assertion;in a sense to discover something.

5. To have a pleasant experience. One ofthe advantages of science (and art and drama)courses over many others is that there are ac-tive, nonbookish ways for the student to be-come involved. With help and reassurance it islikely that even the most apparatus-shy young-ster can learn to operate effectively in the labo-ratory and to enjoy doing so. It is probablyimportant for students long-run achievementin the course that the laboratory activity be apleasant experience even for those who do notbecome terribly good at it.The Handbook is a somewhat unique docu-ment. It is much more than a laboratory guidein that it also contains student activities andfilm loop notes. The Activity section of eachchapter of Handbook should guide your stu-dents into interesting investigations beyond theusual classroom laboratory activities. It lists avariety of activities and materials to assist themin learning more effectively the conceptualmaterial treated in the Text and can take thembeyond the Text.The Handbook should, above all, help youto tailor the Project Physics Course to the inter-ests and strengths of individual students. This iswhy such a wide variety of experiments andactivities, ranging from simple to complex andtouching on many aspects of physics, were in-cluded in the Handbook.

will be found in the section of each TeacheResource Book entitled Brief Description oLearning Materials. Also, a very brief summary of the content of each Reader articleprinted right above the title in the Reader itselBiographical information about the authorscontained in the back of each Reader.We suggest that the Readers be made available to students at all times. If some sign-ousystem is necessary, it should be the responsibility of the students and require a minimuamount of paperwork on your part. This doenot mean, however, that the Readers can bput on a shelf and just left there for the studentto read when they get interested. An important element in making the Reader attractive tstudents is the manner in which you makreference to specific articles. For example, yomight try, now and then, reading short quotations from articles during class timewithouthowever, letting this take much time from otheclass activities. But most of all, you shoulbecome as familiar as possible with the Readerso that you can refer students to specific articlewhen their interest in a certain topic is revealeduring class discussion.The Reader is not a textbook. It is not evensupplementary textbook. You need not requirthat every student read a certain article. Yoshould assign Reader articles only occasionallytrying to guide students to these articles in suca way that they discover by themselves hointeresting many of them are.The very nature of the Readera collectioof many different types of articles by authorUving at different times and working in differ

ent fieldsmakes some part of the Readepotentially appealing to every student. This potential can be distorted if the student gets thfeeling that the Reader is just one more piece othe package which must be studied anlearned by exam time.Some teachers have students turn in a briecomment on all articles they read. Other teachers have students jot down their reactions ocomments in their course notebooks. These another techniques can work providing they dnot become too formal and restricting. Youattitude toward the Reader, and the manner iwhich you present it to your class will determine how the Reader is accepted by your students.

THE READERThere are six collections of articles from

periodicals and textbooks, bound in paperbackProject Physics Readers, one for each of the sixunits of the text. Descriptions of Reader articles

PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTIONEach Project Physics Programmed Instruc

tion Booklet presents a carefully graded sequence of tasks to the student. The sequenchas been designed to assure a high degree o


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success and to provide each student with infor-mation about the correctness of his response oranswer. This enables the student to learn byhimself and increases the probability that hewill stay on the right track.Sample questions for each ProgrammedBooklet generally appear at the beginning ofeach booklet. Students are instructed to try thesample questions and, if they have difficulty, tocomplete the booklet. Programs can be usedeither in class or as homework. While taking aprogram, and sometimes after taking it also,the student may still have questions. However,his need for help from you in solving problemsat the end of the chapter or in learning certaindifficult concepts from the Text will decrease.No less than with other learning materials, youare urged to go through the programs yourselfif you intend to use them; this will alert you tostudent questions which are likely to arise.

It is important that students refrain fromspending too much time on programmed in-struction at first, since the degree of concentra-tion required may result in a negative reactionif the student has not become accustomed to it.Sessions of fifteen minutes or less are best atfirst. This is one of the reasons why the ProjectPhysics programs are brief. Another reason isthat each program deals only with a restrictedset of concepts or skills. Still another reason forshort programs is that any given program is notmeant to stand alone, but is rather one of anarray of learning materials dealing with a topic.

FILM LOOPS (8mm)There are forty-eight Project Physics Film

Loops. The 8mm loops, packaged in cartridgesand adaptable to any reel type super-8 projec-tion, require 3 to 4 minutes running time.The Project Physics Film Loops are closelyintegrated with other Project Physics Coursematerials, and are intended both to comple-ment and to supplement them. Some of theFilm Loops are purely qualitative demonstra-tions in physics, but the majority are quantita-tive. For the best results, the student should notjust passively view these films, but rather heshould take data from the projected images andthen analyze them himself.

Instructions for the specific uses of each ofthe Film Loops are found in the Handbook. Inaddition, the contents of the loops are summa-rized in the section of the Teacher Guide enti-tled Film Loop Notes.SOUND FILMS (16mm)

There are three Project Physics films. Theseare: People and Particles, Synchrotron, and

The World of Enrico Fermi. The first of theseis suitable for general viewing very early in thecourse, and again very late in the course. Thesecond is, in effect, a tour of the CambridgeElectron Accelerator and can be shown duringUnit 6. The last film is a two-part biographicalfilm on Enrico Fermi, and while it can bereasonably shown either at the beginning of thecourse or at the end, the latter choice is proba-bly preferable. By that time, many of the indi-viduals seen and heard in the film (Bohr, Ein-stein, Planck, etc.) will have been encounteredin the Text.The main purpose of these films is to givean accurate portrayal of some of the social, cul-tural, psychological, and historical aspects ofscientific work. In both People and Particlesand The World of Enrico Ferrni, we see realscientists at their work and hear them com-menting on many of its features. Thus, thesetwo documentary films are especially importantto the broader aims of the Project PhysicsCourse and should be shown if at all possible.

There are, of course, many excellent physicsfilms in addition to the Project Physics filmsdescribed. Many of these are keyed into thecourse and noted in several places in theTeacher Resource Book. You should, however,use (and add to the list) other films that youfind relevant and effective.TRANSPARENCIES

For each of the six units of the Project Phys-ics Course there are about eight color transpar-ency sets. Each of these sets deals with a spe-cific topic and is itself made up of from three tosix overlays. The transparencies can be markedon with wax pencils and water soluble ink.The transparencies for any one unit are col-lected together in a Visii-book. This allows thetransparencies to be used with convenience andflexibility on any projector 10 X 10 or larger.The individual overlays can be shown in theorder in which they are placed in the Visu-bookor in another desired order.More than other materials in the ProjectPhysics Course, the transparencies are teacher-oriented. While some teachers find that it isuseful to allow small groups of students to usethe transparencies for study purposes, mostteachers utilize them in making their own pres-entations. In either case, the transparencies areuseful because they accurately portray dia-grams that are difficult to put on the black-board and because they allow one to present acomplex development step by step. Some of thetransparencies are most useful in presentingnew ideas and skills, while others are most effec-tive when used to help summarize a concept.


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Learning Materials

In each Visu-book, the sets of transparenciesare separated by a heavy fiberboard sheet. Onthis sheet are printed suggestions for the use ofthe overlay. Summaries of the individual trans-parency sets are given in the section of eachTeacher Resource Book entitled Brief Descrip-tions of Learning Materials. Indications onwhen to use each one are given in the variouschapter resource charts of the Teacher Re-source Book and in the overprinted text com-ponent of the Resource Book.

SUPPLEMENTAL UNITSIn order to accommodate the wide range of

interests, talent and background among stu-dents and teachers, the Project Physics Coursewas intentionally designed to provide substan-tial diversity and flexibility. This is why thelarge array of multimedia multimodal learningmaterials described above was developed andcoordinated into the basic course units. In or-der to insure conceptual structure and continu-ity, and to provide a common core of topics, allstudents are expected to study the six basicunits, even though individual students, usingthe unit learning materials, may study the coretopics from different perspectives, in differentways, and to different levels of sophistication.The Project Physics Supplemental Units pro-vide quite another opportunity for the teacherto adjust the course in the light of his own andhis students interests.The basic Project Physics Course was de-liberately designed to be less than a full year's

study for most students. Thus even a classmade up entirely of academically slow andpoorly prepared students working under ad-verse conditions will complete the basic coursewithin the school year, and while they will nothave covered as many topics as are found in thebooks of other physics courses, what they dostudy will be significant, have structure and becomplete in itself. For most classes, however,the six basic units will be completed in six toeight months, leaving ample time to augmentthe course with the study of one, two or threeSupplemental Units. It will eventually be possi-ble to select these units, which can be used byindividual students, small groups or an entireclass, from a pool of about twenty.Some of the projected Supplemental Unitsare historical or methodological, some focus onthe laboratory, some have an engineering bias,some deal with connections between physicsand other sciences or disciplines, and some dealwith in depth with a special physics topic. Unitson Optics and on Electricity and Electronicsare nearing completion, and two, Elementary

Particles by Haven Whiteside and Discoveriein Physics by David L. Anderson, are in pressOthers will be announced as they appear in thnear future.

Elementary Particles focuses on acceleratioand bubble chamber experiments which havrevealed photographic evidence of over 20different particles believed to be the basibuilding blocks of nature. In this unit the stdents have an opportunity to make calculationand inferences based on actual measurementof tracks on bubble chamber photographs.

In Discoveries in Physics four separate casstudies are presented. These serve as the basifor a thoughtful and informed analysis of thways in which discoveries are made and of thvarious meanings for discovery. The discoveries examined are of the planet Neptune, nuclear fission, the neutrino, and cathode rays.TESTS AND STUDENT EVALUATION

To develop a testing program and an approach to grading that will serve sound studenand teacher purposes is clearly a difficult taskThe difficulty is probably compounded in thcase of a course, such as Project Physics, thatnew and different in its objectives, contentapproach and instructional materials. Thusthere will inevitably arise questions concerninthe testing and grading of students taking thcourse. We hope that the following commentmay be of some assistance as you make youown evaluation decisions.Evaluation of the growth of each studenduring a course is essential, and teachers dthis in various ways. Students expect that thcriteria used will be fair, that is, consistenwith and representative of the overall objectives of the course. For the Project PhysicCourse this fairness requires an extension othe usual bases of student evaluation and grading. The course deliberately provides many opportunities for student initiative and for individualized learning; it permits different studentto pursue different interests and to shape fothemselves somewhat different experiences.follows that each student ought to have oppoturnities to demonstrate his achievement in thareas of his interests and to select the means bwhich he can best demonstrate this achievement. Clearly the ritual of formal testing, witits tensions, the inevitable artificial numericaproblems, and pressures of time can at besonly provide one of many kinds of informatioon which to assess student achievement. Although Project Physics had carefully producefour different tests for each Unit, scores othese tests should not be taken as the sole basi


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on which each student's achievement is as-sessed and graded.

Proper recognition must be given to manystudent behaviors which can be observed andrecorded by the teacher. Examples are: interestexpressed by student questions and self-initiated work, extra reading, creation of mod-els representing theories, observations of theway physics operates in the world, literary andother artistic elaboration or criticism of con-cepts, and historical studies. These accomplish-ments might take the form of research papers,creative writing, critical book reviews, debatesand discussions, adaptations and extensions oflaboratory experiments, further mathematicalexploration of the laws of physics, and class-room leadership functions. Both individual andsmall group approaches should be acceptable.

It is in the context of these beliefs aboutstudent evaluation that the Project PhysicsTests should be understood. For each unit ofthe course there is a Project Physics test book-let containing four tests. Teachers can choosefrom each set of tests those which seem to bemost appropriate for their students. Each set ofunit tests includes a 40-item multiple-choicetest, a test composed of problems and essay ques-tions, and two tests containing different mixturesof multiple choice itesns, essay questions andproblems. Students have some choice ofquestionsto answer on all except the 40-item multiple-choice test. Questions have been assigned to thevarious tests with the intention of making theseveral tests in each booklet nearly alike in diffi-culty and coverage. Suggested answers for allquestions are provided for the teacher in the An-swers to Tests section of Teacher Resource Book.

The objectively-scored items in each ProjectPhysics unit test booklet and in the mixed testshave been selected with care to represent rea-sonably well the range of topics considered inthe Unit. Most of the items have been usedin previous years and have been examinedthrough item analysis for difficulty and dis-criminating power. Although there are someobviously hard items, most of the items in theseobjectively-scored tests have about the samelevel of difficulty for students enrolled in Proj-ect Physics classes.The multiple-choice tests have been devel-oped with the expectation that average scoreswould be between 65 and 70 percent. Suchscores are reasonably encouraging to students,yet allow room at the top for the demonstrationof higher achievement, as well as room at thebottom. On such tests 20 to 25 percentagepoints would be expected from random guess-ing among the alternative responses.

The particular pattern of tests selected byProject Physics has resulted from extensive dis-cussions about the effectiveness of variousmeans of estimating student learning. The mul-tiple-choice form of tests is widely used becauseit can be scored quickly and has pre-determined answers. However, as various crit-ics have pointed out, most objectively scoredtests require only the selection of the bestchoice from among a limited number of alter-natives. Such items do not oblige the student toappraise the relevance of what he knows, andthen express it coherently and concisely in hisown words. The critics of objective testingmaintain that the student learns that broadercomprehension and ingenuity are not rewardedon tests.

Recognizing the limitations of objectively-scored tests, the Project Physics test bookletsalso include essays and problems. Essay itemsrequire the student to analyze the question,decide what he knows that is relevant, and thenframe a coherent but brief answer. The GroupI questions should each take about five minutesto answer adequately, while the Group II ques-tions should take about ten minutes. Caution:Because science students in some schools havenot taken essay tests for some years, if ever, theteacher may need to discuss with the studentswhat constitutes an adequate answer, and thenprovide practice on one or two sample essayitems well in advance of giving such a test.The mixed tests, which include both multi-ple-choice items, essay questions and problems,may be a more realistic means of probing therange of student learnings than either a testmade up entirely of multiple-choice questionsor of essay questions and problems. In any case,the four tests in each booklet exist as a re-source, and it is up to the individual teacher todecide how best to use them.However the unit tests are administered, theproblem of grading will still remain. Eachteacher will assign the grades he feels are ap-propriate in terms of the total informationavailable about the achievement of each stu-dent and not on the basis of test scores alone.The criteria for grades should be broad, andstudents enrolled in Project Physics should, onthe average, receive grades no lower than thosethey receive in their other courses.

Application of this premise is of central im-portance if more students are to elect to studyphysics. If teachers persist with the assumptionthat acceptable achievement in the study ofphysics can only be demonstrated through skillin the solution of complex mathematical prob-lems, or if teachers make grading standards sorigid that students are reluctant to risk taking


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Learning Materials 1

the course, then Project Physics will not appealto many students and enrollments in physicscannot be expected to rise.While there is no single or best basis forweighing the various evidence of studentachievement, the blending of test results withother data is surely necessary. Unusual achieve-ment on any aspect of the course, such asstudent activities, should compensate for some-what lower achievement on other aspects. Such

a procedure would, for example, balance highabstract mathematical but low humanistic so-cial achievement for one student with the con-verse pattern for another student. Only a broadassessment of student achievements across thewide range of opportunities provided in thiscourse will make clear to successive classes ofProject Physics students that teachers reallybelieve all students can profit, in different ways,from a study of physics.


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18

INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES TO THE PROJECT PHYSICS COURSEThe Project Physics Course was dehberately

conceived to promote flexibility of instruction.Given the great diversity of students, of teach-ing situations, and of teachers, there is no oneabsolutely best way to teach physics or anyother subject. It seemed that what was neededwas the kind of supple course that could beadapted to the realities of the educational vari-ables.Thus Project Physics is not a monolithiccourse that must be taught one way and oneway only. Indeed, there are many effectiveapproaches and you are urged to experiment inorder to determine the ways which suit you,your students, and your situation best. Pleasedo experiipent critically and with an openmind As you introduce the Project PhysicsCourse do not immediately assume that theway you have always taught physics is the onlyway for you to teach in all situations. Try theways suggested here and also other methodsthat you may know about. With experience youcan become competent in a variety of ap-proaches to classroom instruction.

Three general kinds of approaches to theteaching of Project Physics are outlined here.The names assigned to those approaches shouldnot be taken too seriously, nor is it necessary tolook upon these as mutually exclusive catego-ries.

CONVENTIONAL TEACHING METHODSThe so-called conventional or traditionalways to teach a science course involve some

mixture of lecture, lecture-discussion, teacherdemonstrations, and laboratory sessions in whichstudents working in groups perform the sameexperiment, homework assignments, and test-ing, all under the direction of the teacher.

Perhaps the main advantage of this ap-proach is that it is the one with which teachersare most familiar. This is what they themselvesexperienced in nearly all of their sciencecourses from high school through college. Thetechniques are well known. There are somedangers and disadvantages, however. For onething, the focus is on the imparting of informa-tion. More than any other approach this re-quires that the teacher be firmly grounded inclassical and modern physics, in related sci-ences, and in the history and philosophy of sci-ence, and that he keep up to date. It has the addeddisadvantage that it is not easily adapted to theability and interests of the individual students.

In any event, the learning materials of theProject Physics Course are easily adaptable tothis method. The Teacher Resource Book pro-

vides background information on the topicsbeing covered in the course, suggests a varietyof demonstrations, and keys in the variousteaching aids, such as the transparencies for theoverhead projector, film loops, etc.To teachers who do wish to follow the con-ventional approach we make the followingsuggestions:

1. Attempt to reduce lectures in favor ofclass discussion and laboratory activities. TheText is deliberately written in such a way thatmost students can get the information theyneed directly from the Text and monitor theirown learning as they proceed. Thus the teachercan use his lecture time for developing impor-tant ideas that are of special interest to hisstudents or which may be particularly difficultfor many students.2. During the laboratory period consider al-lowing different students to work on differentexperiments from time to time. The Handbookprovides an ample selection of experiments tointroduce such variety into the laboratory.

3. Utilize the Project Physics Readers andProgrammed Instruction Booklets to introducesome individualization into the course.THE MULTI-MEDIA SYSTEMS APPROACH

This approach has been devised to exploitthe rich multi-media learning resources of thecourse. For each unit a day-by-day schedulehas been worked out that represents one ofmany ways of incorporating available materialsand media and that suggests different ap-proaches to teaching and learning which thesemedia make possible. The system is designed sothat the bulk of the information disseminationaspects of teaching are based upon the interac-tion between students and the learning mate-rials, thus freeing the teacher to assume theroles of monitor, guide, and consultant.One objective of the multi-media systemsapproach is to encourage and make possibleindividualized instruction and a vaiiety of ex-periences in the classroom. It also emphasizesthe need to introduce physical phenomena be-fore generalizing and abstracting physical lawsfrom them. The system makes use of suchtechniques as laboratory stations for qualita-tive experience with phenomena, small groupdiscussions to encourage a high level of indi-vidual participation, and various classroom ac-tivities designed to reinforce attention to histor-ical, philosophical, and sociological aspects ofphysics.

As with any other approach to the teachingof the Project Physics Course the teacher


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Instructional Approaches

should keep notes as he teaches one or moreunits the first year. On the basis of his experi-ence he can then modify the multi-media se-quence during the second and subsequent yearsuntil he is satisfied with it. Even then, of course,he should continue to alter the program as newinstructional materials become available in thefuture.

INDEPENDENT LEARNING APPROACHESBoth of the previously described instruc-

tional approaches are teacher-dominated in thesense that the teacher determines the goals ofinstruction, the sequence of classroom experi-ences, and the work to be done by the studentsout of class. The various independent learningapproaches that have been tried differ from theabove pattern in that the teacher transfers someof these responsibiUties to his students.The basic idea is that within the frameworkof a given course unit each individual studentdecides for himself which aspects of the topicshe wishes to concentrate on, which instruc-tional media he will use to learn from and whatwork he will do out of class. Under this planthe students are told, when beginning a newunit, which general ideas they will be heldresponsible for, what learning materials areavailable, and how much time will be spent onthe unit. It is then up to a student to decidewhether he wishes to concentrate on an overallview, on an historical approach, on the experi-mental or mathematical aspects, or on someother approach. In order to do this he is per-mitted to use whatever film loops, experimentalapparatus, readings or other materials areavailable.The teachers job is to motivate individualstudents, to help them get started, to give themsuggestions on how to study or which materialsto use. He will also work with individual stu-dents and small groups as they need help insolving problems, in understanding the Text, incarrying out experiments, or whatever. Note thatthe teacher, in this approach, is very deeplyengaged in guiding each student as needed.The students are not simply turned loose tostruggle through the course entirely on theii-own.

There are, to be sure, many variations onthis approach. Some teachers, for example, di-vide the class into groups and require that eachgroup of four students turn in a minimumamount of work, usually specified. Other teach-ers utilize a contract system whereby individ-ual students and the teacher agree ahead oftime on the amount and quality of the work tobe carried out bv the students in return for a

specified grade. Some examples of such contracts are included in the Teacher ResourcBook. Still other teachers provide students wita list of chapter learning objectives and a listiof required and optional activities that leadthe attainment of those objectives. Exampleare given for each unit.What all of these variations have in commois that they place the major responsibility flearning on the shoulders of the student himself. The main rationale for this is thatsucceed in the modern world each person museventually become an independent learner. Hmust learn how to decide for himself what ithe needs to know and how to go about learninit. If we want students to be able to organizand monitor their own learning then we musgive them the chance to develop this skill.The evidence in trials so far indicates thathe risks inherent in independent learning approaches are not as great as many teachermight expect. While students frequently do nolike this approach at first, because they finthemselves initially confronted with unusuaresponsibilities, they nevertheless do quite wellPerformance is at least as good on physicachievement tests as under more conventionaapproaches. Also, students come to appreciathaving the opportunity to follow their owinterests and to develop their skill as independent learners.

Teachers who use this approach do nospend much time preparing lectures or correcting homework papers. However, they usuallreport that this is a very taxing method oinstruction. Every class session is an intensiveconcentrated period of teaching in the fullessense. As soon as the individual rather than thclass becomes the focus of instruction it turnout that some students requke a great deal oattention and some very little; some merelneed to be guided and motivated whereas others have to be helped every step of the wayThe teacher must at times give nearly full attention to one or two students who are poor readers, mathematically unskilled or maladroit witapparatus while at the same time keeping hieye on other parts of the room where experiments and other activities are going on.

Individualizing instruction is possible provided that there is a rich enough variety olearning materials bearing on a given subjec(as there is in the Project Physics Course) anthat the teacher is willing to try novel methodof instruction (as many are). The purpose othis approach is not to bring the class to somlevel of understanding of physics but rather thelp as many individuals as possible attain amuch as they can in physics and particularly ithose aspects of physics that interest them most


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20 THE BASIC COURSE UNIT 1

CONTENT IN BRIEFUnit 1 Concepts of MotionHow do things move? Why do things move? The principal

task of Unit 1 is to lead students to answers to these ques-tions. A secondary task is to provide insight into the wayscientists go about their work.The basic question of kinematics (how do things move?) isintroduced first. This question is answered gradually, start-ing with a very simple motion and proceeding to morecomplex motions.Chapter 1 : The Language of MotionThe motion of things. A motion experiment that does notquite work. A better motion experiment. Leslie's 50 andtne meaning of average speed. Graphing motion and findingthe slope. Time out for a warning. Instantaneous speed. Ac-celerationby comparison.Chapter 2: Free FallGalileo Describes MotionThe Aristotelian theory of motion. GaUleo and his time.Galileo's Two New Sciences. Why study the motion of freelyfalling bodies? Galileo chooses a definition of uniform accel-eration. Galileo cannot test his hypothesis directly. Lookingfor logical consequences of Galileo's hypothesis. Galileoturns to an indirect test. Doubts about Galileo's procedure?Consequences of Galileo's work on motion.Chapter 3: The Birth of DynamicsNewton Explains MotionExplanation and the laws of motion. The Aristotelianexplanation of motion. Forces in equilibrium. About vec-tors. Newton's first law of motion. The significance of thefirst law. Newton's second law of motion. Mass, weight, andfree fall. Newton's third law of motion. Using Newton's lawsof motion. Nature's basic forces.

EXPERIMENTS AND ACTIVITIESExperimentsNaked Eye Astronomy

Regularity and TimeVariations in DataMeasuring Uniform MotionA Seventeenth-Century ExperimentTwentieth-Century Version of Galileo's ExperimentMeasuring the Acceleration of Gravitv(A) a^ by direct fall

(B) an from a pendulum(C) Gfi with slow motion photography (film loop)(D) a from falling water drops(E) fly with falling ball and turntable(F) an with strobe photographyNewton's Second LawMass and WeightCurves of Trajectories

Prediction of TrajectoriesCentripetal ForceCentripetal Force on a Turntable

ActivitiesUsing the Electronic StroboscopeMaking Frictionless PucksWhen is Air Resistance Irnportant?Measuring Your Reaction TimeExperiencing Newton's Second LawMalcing AccelerometersSpeed of a Stream of WaterPnotographing a Waterdrop ParabolaMotion in a Rotating Reference FrameMeasuring Unknown Frequencies

Chapter 4: Understanding MotionA trip to the moon. Projectile motion. What is the path ofa projectile? Moving frames of reference. Circular motion.Centripetal acceleration and centripetal force. The motion ofearth satellites. What about other motions?


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2

LEARNING MATERIALSProgrammed Instruction Booklets

Vectors 1 The Concept of VectorsVectors 2 Adding VectorsVectors 3 Components of VectorsEquations 1 Solving Simple EquationsEquations 2 Application of Simple EquationsEquations 3 Combining Two Relationships

Film LoopsAcceleration Due to GravityMethod IAcceleration Due to GravityMethod IIVector AdditionVelocity of a BoatA Matter of Relative MotionGalilean Relativity IBall Dropped from Mast of ShipGalilean Relativity IIObject Dropped from AircraftGalilean Relativity IIIProjectile Fired VerticallyAnalysis of a Hurdle RacePart IAnalysis of a Hurdle RacePart II

Sound Films (16mm)People and ParticlesThe World of Enrico Fermi

Reader ArticlesThe Value of Scienceby Richard P. FeynmanClose Reasoningby Fred HoyleOn Scientific Methodby P. W. BridgmanHow to Solve Itby G. PolyaFour Pieces of Advice to Young Peopleby Warren W. WeaverOn Being the Right Sizeby J. B. S. HaldaneMotion in Wordsby J. B. Gerhart and R. H. Nussbaum

The Representation of Movementby Gyorgy KepesMotionby R. P. Feynman, R. B. Leighton, and M. SandsIntroducing Vectorsby Banesh HoffmannGalileo's Discussion of Projectile Motionby G. Holton and D. H. D. RollerNewton's Laws of Dynamicsby R. P. Feynman, R. B. Leighton and M. SandsThe Dynamics of a Golf Clubby C. L. StrongBad Physics in Athleticsby P. KirkpatrickThe Scientific Revolution

by Herbert ButterfieldHow the Scientific Revolution of the Seventeenth CenturAffected Other Branches of Thoughtby Basil WilleyReport on Tail's Lecture on Force:B. A. 1876by James Clerk MaxwellFun in Spaceby Lee A. DuBridgeThe Vision of Our Ageby J. BronowskiBecoming a Physicistby Anne RoeChart of the Futureby Arthur C. Clarke

TransparenciesUsing Stroboscopic PhotographsStroboscopic MeasurementsGraphs of Various MotionsInstantaneous SpeedInstantaneous Rate of ChangeDerivation of d = v,t -f V2 at'^Tractor-Log ProblemProjectile MotionPath of a ProjectileCentripetal AccelerationGraphical Treatment


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CONTENT IN BRIEFUnit 2 Motion in the Heavens

Unit 2 is an account of the physics that developed as menattempted to deal with the motions of heavenly bodies. It isnot a short course in astronomy.The climax of the Unit is the work of Newton. For thefirst time in history, scientific generalizations to explainearthly events were found to apply to events in the heavensas well. This remarkable synthesis, summarized in Chapter 8,had profound consequences not only in physics but also inphilosophy, poetry, economics, religion, and even politics.The early chapters are necessary to establish the nature andmagnitude of the problem that Newton solved. They alsoshow that observational data are necessary to the growth ofa theory. Thus Chapters 5, 6, and 7 are a prelude to Chapter8 and constitute a case history in the development of science.Chapter 5: Where Is The Earth?The Greeks' AnswersMotions of the sun and stars. Motions of the moon. Thewandering stars. Plato's problem. The Greek idea of expla-nation. The first earth-centered solution. A sun-centered solu-tion. The geocentric system of Ptolemy. Successes and limita-tions of the Ptolemaic model.

EXPERIMENTS AND ACTIVITIESExperimentsNaked Eye Astronomy

Size of the EarthThe Height of Piton, a Mountain on the MoonThe Shape of the Earth's OrbitUsing Lenses to Make a TelescopeOrbit of MarsOrbit of MercuryStepwise Approximation to an Orbit

ActivitiesMaking Angular MeasurementsCelestial Sphere ModelScale Model of the Solar SystemStonehengeMoon Crater NamesFrames of ReferenceThree-Dimensional Model of Two OrbitsInclination of Mars' OrbitModel of the Orbit of Halley's CometHaikuHow to Find the Mass of a Double Star

Chapter 6: Does the Earth Move?The Work of Copernicus and TychoThe Copernican system. New conclusions. Arguments for

the Copernican system. Arguments against the Copernicansystem. Historical consequences. Tycho Brahe. Tychos ob-servations. Tycho's compromise system.Chapter 7: A New Universe Appears

The Work of Kepler and GalileoThe abandonment of uniform circular motion. Kepler'sLaw of Areas. Kepler's Law of Elliptical Orbits. Kepler'sLaw of Periods. The new concept of physical law. Galileoand Kepler. The telescopic evidence. Galileo focuses thecontroversy. Science and freedom.Chapter 8: The Unity of Earth and SkyThe Work of NewtonNewton and seventeenth-century science. Newton's Prin-cipia. The inverse-square law of planetary force. Law ofUniversal Gravitation. Newton and hypotheses. The magni-tude of planetary force. Planetary motion and the gravita-tional constant. The value of G and the actual masses of theplanets. Further successes. Some effects and limitations ofNewton's work.


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2

LEARNING MATERIALSFilm Loops and Film StripsRetrograde Motion of Mars (film strip)Retrograde MotionGeocentric Model

Retrograde Motion of Mars and Mercury, shown byanimationRetrograde MotionHeliocentric ModelJupiter Satellite OrbitProgram Orbit IProgram Orbit IICentral ForcesIterated Blows (computer program)Kepler's Laws (computer program)Unusual Orbits

Reader ArticlesOpening Scenesbv Fred Hoyle

Roll' Callby Isaac AsimovA Night at the Observatoryby Henry S. F. Cooper, Jr.Preface to De Revolutionibusby Nicolaus CopernicusThe Starry Messengerby Galileo Galilei

Kepler's Celestial Musicby I. Bernard Cohen

Keplerby Gerald HoltonKepler on Marsby Johannes KeplerNewton and the Principiaby C. C. GillispieThe Laws of Motion, and Proposition Oneby Isaac NewtonThe Garden of Epicurusby Anatole FranceUniversal Gravitationby Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and MatthewSands

An Appreciation of the Earthby Stephen H. DoleMariners 6 and 7 Television Pictures: Preliminary Analysisby R. B. Leighton and othersThe Boy Who Redeemed His Father's Nameby Terry MorrisThe Great Comet of 1965by Owen Gingerich

Gravity Experimentsby R. H. Dicke, P. G. Roll and J. WeberSpace the Unconquerableby Arthur C. ClarkeIs There Intelligent Life Beyond the Earth?by I. S. Shklovskii and Carl SaganThe Stars Within Twenty-Two Light Years That CouldHave Habitable Planetsby Stephen DoleScientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objectsfrom the Condon Report with an Introduction by Walter

SullivanThe Life-Story of a Galaxyby Margaret BurbidgeExpansion of the Universeby Hermann BondiNegative Massby Banesh HoffmannFour Poetic Fragments about Astronomyby William Shakespeare, Samuel Butler, John Ciardi andFrancis JammesThe Dyson Sphereby L S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan

TransparenciesStellar MotionThe Celestial SphereRetrograde MotionEccentrics and EquantsOrbit ParametersMotion under Central Forces


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CONTENT IN BRIEFUnit 3 The Triumph of Mechanics

Units 1 and 2 developed the basic principles of Newto-nian physics and their successful application to the astronomyof the solar system. Historically, this success led physicists inthe eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to use these sameprinciples in explaining many other natural phenomena.

Unit 3 focuses on the generalization of Newtonian me-chanics by means of conservation laws for mass, momen-tum, and energy, and on the application of Newtonianmechanics to collisions of objects, heat, and waves.In presenting the conservation laws, the stress is not onlyon physical applications but also on the historical origin of

these laws in seventeenth century: the idea that the world islike a machine, which God has created with a fixed amountof matter and motion. Again, in the discussion of the gener-alized law of conservation of energy, attention is called toconnections with steam-engine technology and other factorsthat prepared for the simultaneous discovery of this law byseveral scientists in the middle of the nineteenth century.The purpose here is to make students both competent to usephysical laws and also aware of the relationships betweenphysics and other human activities.Chapter 9: Conservation of Mass and MomentumConservation of mass. Collisions. Conservation of mo-mentum. Momentum and Newton's laws of motion. Isolatedsystems. Elastic collisions. Leibnitz and the conservationlaws.

Chapter 10: EnergyWork and kinetic energy. Potential energy. Conservationof mechanical energy. Forces that do no work. Heat energyand the steam engine. James Watt and the Industrial Revo-lution. The experiments of Joule. Energy in biological sys-tems. Arriving at a general law. A precise and generalstatement of energy conservation. Faith in the conservationof energy.

Chapter 11: The Kinetic Theory of GasesAn overview. A model for the gaseous state. The speeds ofmolecules. The sizes of molecules. Predicting the behavior ofgases from the kinetic theory. The Second Law of Thermo-dynamics and the dissipation of energy. Maxwells demon andthe statistical view of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.Time's arrow and the recurrence paradox.Chapter 12: Waves

Properties of waves. Wave propagation. Periodic waves.When waves meet. A two-source interference pattern. Stand-ing waves. Wave fronts and difTraction. Reflection. Refrac-tion. Sound waves.EXPERIMENTS AND ACTIVITIESExperiments

Collisions in One DimensionCollisions in Two Dimension

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