Physicists to Develop Teaching Programs

Two Harvard professors are among 17 members of a unique commission recently established by the National Science Foundation to develop new programs and methods of teaching college physics. Gerald Holton, professor of Physics, and Edward M. Purcell, Gerhard Gade University Professor, have been named to the National Commission on College Physics.

With an initial $130,000 grant, the Commission will develop a physics curriculum stressing relativity and quantum mechanics. The scientists will design lab equipment and produce films for all levels of college instruction.

Appointed to four-year terms, the commissioners will hold continuing studies and conferences and publish a series of books on specific topics in the field. `Holton, one of 12 scientists who proposed the commission, said that it has no equivalent in any other field.