[Sci-tech-public] STS Circle, March 3 - David Meshoulam (Please RSVP)

[STS]

Please Note: Change of speaker from the earlier published program.

STS Circle at Harvard
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David Meshoulam
University of Wisconsin, Madison,

on
Science Education Across Mass Ave: PSSC and the History of (Harvard) Project Physics, 1961-1970

Monday, March 3
12:15-2:00 pm
Room 100F, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street

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Lunch is provided if you RSVP.
Please RSVP to sts<mailto:sts at hks.harvard.edu>@hks.harvard.edu<mailto:sts at hks.harvard.edu> by 5pm Wednesday, February 26.

Abstract: In the decades following WWII, the high-school science classroom served as a site for scientists to buttress their epistemic and political authority. Curricula from the 1950s, as exemplified by MIT professor Jerrold Zacharias's PSSC course, presented science through the lens of experimentation. Yet from the start educators decried Zacharias's monolithic approach. In 1961 Harvard professor Gerald Holton and student James Rutherford began to develop an alternative Science-Humanities curriculum based on Harvard's Nat. Sci. courses. They argued that historical context would attract and engage students and reconfigure how the public came to understand the relationship between science and culture. By 1963, with implicit blessing from the NSF, their project grew into Harvard Project Physics (HPP). Yet many considered HPP orthogonal to the goals of the foundation and denied it funding. A new political landscape in the mid 1960s, however, shifted the relationship between the NSF and Office of Education, providing space for HPP.

Biography:  David Meshoulam recently completed his PhD in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work examines the history of science education, specifically the incorporation of history of science in science pedagogy. His doctoral work traces the history of Harvard Project Physics, a curriculum developed during the 1960s. He also holds a Master's degree in the History of Science from UW-Madison; his thesis examined the incorporation of biographies in early 20th-century science textbooks. His interests lie in how scientists and educators present  the idea of "science" to students and how students come to understand scientific knowledge, the use of evidence, and ideas of expertise. His work has been published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and The Role of Public Policy in K-12 Science Education. David currently teaches physics at Newton North High School in Newton, MA.




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