384 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1320 



An aim of a science course is to give 

 training in how to do with a background of 

 knowledge which will allow of a selection in 

 the matter of action. An aim of a biolog- 

 ical course is to give training in how to use 

 eye, hands, and brain in the control of our- 

 selves and our environment, with a back- 

 ground of knowledge that will aUow of a 

 selection of action. 



AIM, INCENTIVE AND CONTENT 



Aims, as outlined above, furnish little in- 

 centive for work. The ultimate object is too 

 big a picture to be " interpreted " by one so 

 close as a student in a laboratory class. The 

 needed perspective can only be acquired after 

 the com-se has been completed. Minor aims, 

 clearly within the experience of the student, 

 selected with a thought not only to the prin- 

 cipal aims but also with the available mate- 

 rial in mind, must be presented. These aims 

 must seem to the student clearly important. 

 Exi)erience has shown that a combination of 

 the problem method as illustrated in Hunter's 

 " Problems in Civic Biology " and the project 

 method now being worked out by teachers in 

 the high schools gives the most science and 

 information with the most incentive. 



Harold Sellers Colton 



Univbesitt op Pennstlvania 



PHYSICAL METHODS AND MEASURE- 

 MENTS, AND THE OBLIGATION 

 OF PHYSICS TO THE OTHER 

 SCIENCES 



Several months ago there appeared in 

 Science a brief article'- by the present writer 

 in which he advocates a carefully planned 

 course in physical measurements, supplement- 

 ing the beginning course in college physics, to 

 suit the needs of students of the chemical, bio- 

 logical and the related sciences. In response 

 to the article, there have been received more 

 than twenty communications from scientific 

 workers in the colleges and in the industries, 

 relative to the subject. They are unanimous 

 in expressing their agreement with the views 

 stated. At the same time they express doubt 



1 Science, N. S., 50, 199, 1919. 



as to the existence of a college physics depart- 

 ment which will oiler a course designed espe- 

 cially for the science student outside of phys- 

 ics. 



To those who are working in the various ex- 

 perimental sciences, or who are in position to 

 see and judge the work in numerous labora- 

 tories, it is evident that the need for better 

 training in physical principles, methods and 

 measurements is an urgent one.^ To secure 

 evidence of the truth of this contention, one 

 needs only to obtain the views of the heads of 

 industrial laboratories in which the services 

 of many science graduates of our colleges are 

 required. Or let the physicist who is — and, 

 more than anyone else, shoiold be — interested, 

 interview his scientific colleagues to learn 

 how much the lack of familiarity with physics 

 may have proved a handicap in their own 

 work or in that of their graduate students. 

 There is concrete evidence in the report that 

 some of the industries are contemplating or 

 have already taken steps towards establishing 

 training schools for their young technical 

 graduates, to give them the sort of training 

 which the colleges should have provided. 



It seems to me that here is clearly an ob- 

 ligation upon the physicist. It is also an 

 opportunity. It is an opportunity in the 

 sense that if he could be instrumental in pro- 

 viding the coming generation of scientific 

 workers with adequate training in physics, 

 greater progress in science might assuredly be 

 looked for. This not because physics is at all 

 more potent than the other sciences in ex- 

 ploring the unknown, but because it is so fun- 

 damental. At every turn we encoimter a 

 physical phenomenon; every experiment that 

 is planned involves some sort of measuring in- 

 strument, some form of control device, some 

 physical method. Physics plays such an ob- 

 viously important part in the great majority 

 of researches that it leads one to wonder why 



2 On this poinit ' ' Qiemieal and Metallurgical 

 Engineer" says: ". . . we know from experience 

 that an adequate familiarity with them (pliysioal 

 methods) is far too often lacking among young 

 chemists, and Mr. Klopsteg's proposal would seem 

 to cover an important gap." 



