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A Trial of a Taste of Physics Research Course

During the academic year 1961-62, while I was on Sabbatical, a colleague, David Douglass, gave my Introduction to Solid State Physics course in the Fall term and ran a test of a course designed to introduce undergraduates to realities of the research life and which was rich in MIT research assets. The course was an elective substitute for the Junior year laboratory course, 8.10. The rationale and results of the trial run were published in a paper under our joint authorship. (http://web.mit.edu/mwpstr/www/ajp.htm) The paper, published in The American Journal of Physics, was the basis for a press release 29 August 1963 by the AIP, for use the next morning. (http://web.mit.edu/mwpstr/www/aip.htm) The New York Times Sunday issue, 1 September 1963, ran a story under the head, Giving a Taste for Research. The course was based on the use of seven laboratories at MIT, each for one week. Every other week groups of 3 or 4 students, of a class of 16, ran experiments that were the same as, or similar to, the professional work going on in those laboratories. Lectures were given to introduce the students to each experiment. A report summarized the results of the laboratory experiment. Rich in assets, indeed, and rich in staff generosity. Courses with only a few students enrolled in them are certainly supported at MIT. It is part of the administrations articulated desire that any young genius be able to achieve his full potential with instruction at MIT. When Richard Feynman found the physics course unchallenging, Professor Morse arranged a challenging section of his Introduction to Theoretical Physics for him and a few others. The President's Report for 1961-62 contained a glowing report on the course with assurances of its expansion and continuation in the future. Based on feedback at the end of the course, the experiment had produced in all 16 students a high level of pleasure and satisfaction.

However, something happened on the course's way to fame and fortune. Admittedly, the Taste of Research course made heavy demands on the department assets. So, on sober reflection, it was not given the promised support by the physics department. The following academic year Dave Douglass was at the Institute of Metals at the University of Chicago. It had been made clear to him that his career objectives were better met elsewhere than at MIT. At the beginning of the 1962-63 academic year I discussed the future of the course with the Head of the department. He said it would be OK if I carried on the course in the Spring -- on my own time. The department could not free me from required teaching of other courses. So I dropped the course. Only issues with rich personal gain should be promoted against department acceptance. This took place in an atmosphere in the physics department of obsessive searching for the best mode in which to treat undergraduate laboratory experience in the undergraduate curriculum. For about a decade after the end of WWII the G.I. Bill provided a kernel of highly motivated students who were intellectually determined to absorb anything the department put before them. What were the undergraduate research opportunities at that time?


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Next: The Beginnings of Undergraduate Up: Bibliography Previous: Harvard's Temporary Student Employment,

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Malcom W. P. Strandberg
2000-01-07