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Introducing the Physics of Technology into the High School Curriculum

JAN 01, 1991
Educators at Rutgers University, together with physicists at Bell Labs and Bellcore, have developed teaching modules around technologies familiar from everyday life.
Barbara Eisenstein
Sidney Millman
George Pallrand

Only about 20% of American high school graduates have studied physics, and this percentage has not changed much the last couple of decades. The situation is distressing when one considers that our way of life has become increasingly tied to technology, with physics playing a critical role. In many other developed countries, including Japan, England and Korea, all high school students study physics, and they start much earlier than the 11th or 12th grade.

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References

  1. 1. M. Neuschatz and M. Covalt, “Physics in the High Schools: Findings from the 1986–87 Nationwide Survey of Secondary School Teachers of Physics,” AIP, New York (1988).

More about the authors

Barbara Eisenstein, Rutgers Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer Education, Rutgers University.

Sidney Millman, AT&T Bell Labs, Rutgers Center.

George Pallrand, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 44, Number 1

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