Summer Scientific Soundings

Disparity between what goes on in classrooms and what happens in research seminars at national laboratories is getting sharper and communication between the teachers and the researchers is getting more difficult and less frequent. This was the motivation to apply to the NSF for funds to establish a project that would deal with these problems. The project involved about 40 science teachers who committed themselves for three years to go to three successive, intensive workshops and to three booster sessions. It was decided to produce materials and documents which would summarize and capture the information and insights gained during this period. The book contains some of the outside lectures and the reactions of the teachers to the whole project. Some of these reactions are written in terms of essays; others are new lesson plans and new materials suggested by the information. Still others describe their reaction to the outside researchers.
The lectures include 26 lectures by Max Dresden (topics discussed include: central themes in contemporary science; particle physics, quarks, grand unifications; cosmology and black holes, dark matter; fractals, chaos, catastrophes; case history superconductivity, conductivity; styles in physics), six by Cindy Burrows on organic chemistry and one by Les Paldy on disarmament. Participants' essays represent the reaction of 30 of the best science teachers in the country to a continued exposure to contemporary science.