Pre‐college: The PSSC course

TODAY, TEN YEARS after the formation of the Physical Science Study Committee, the PSSC course in physics is used in its entirety by more than half the high‐school students taking physics in the United States. The laboratory equipment and films have found their way into many classrooms where other texts are used. There are 18 foreign editions of the PSSC text and laboratory guide in 15 languages. The course is being tried intensively in several countries and is already beyond that stage in some English‐speaking countries. PSSC equipment is being manufactured and labeled as such in Asia, Latin America and Europe. Films have been successfully provided with synchronized translations. In this country, the second commercial edition of the printed material is on the market as well as an advanced‐topics supplement. A college edition of the course, incorporating the advanced topics and deleting some elementary topics that are now taken up in earlier grades, is now in the editing stage. How did all this come about?

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