How to Become a Scientist — High School Years 83 



many fields of physics. Finally the decision was made to 

 eliminate some fields almost entirely and concentrate on 

 the nature of the atom and the mechanics of motion. We 

 shall not review here the reasons for this choice as they 

 are well covered elsewhere. The important thing is that the 

 group had the courage to limit the amount of material 

 to be learned so that there would be time to get a reasonably 

 full understanding of one very important branch of physics. 

 Equally significant was the decision to present the course 

 in such a way that the student would get a real insight into 

 and feeling for the material to be learned. Whenever possi- 

 ble he would be led into discovering for himself the basic 

 ideas by performing the experiments that gave rise to the 

 ideas in the first place. No scientific statement was to be 

 presented as mere dogma to be memorized and parroted 

 back on the exam. When the student could not for one 

 reason or another arrive at an idea himself, he was at least 

 presented with a careful account of the evidence either in 

 the textbook, in a lecture demonstration, or a carefully 

 prepared movie. The reasons for believing a given propo- 

 sition were felt to be more important than the proposition 

 itself. Thus the course is designed to show what science is 

 as an active method of discovery, not merely as a static 

 set of generally accepted truths. 



Space does not permit discussion of the courses in chem- 

 istry and biolog}^ which at this writing have not yet pro- 

 gressed to the stage represented by the Physical Science 

 Study Committee's (PSSC) course in physics. The general 

 principles and the procedures followed are in any case much 

 the same. Mention should also be made of the very exten- 

 sive work undertaken by several groups in mathematics. 

 This is especially noteworthy because of its emphasis on 

 the primary grades. Here there seems to be a very real hope 

 that the imaginative presentation of basic mathematical 



