Teaching "Symmetry" in the Introductory Physics Curriculum

Modern physics is largely defined by fundamental symmetry principles and Noether's Theorem. Yet these are not taught, or rarely mentioned, to beginning students, thus missing an opportunity to reveal that the subject of physics is as lively and contemporary as molecular biology, and as beautiful as the arts. We prescribe a symmetry module to insert into the curriculum, of a week's length.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Dormitory Ground-Breaking

I think I have participated in a lot of ground-breaking ceremonies. In 1968, I watched them dig the first shovel for the creation of Fermilab -- eighteen years ago. You wield a ceremonial shovel and go about your business and before you know it -- a building exists and you say -- my God, where did the time go? But it isn\u27t the building that we are breaking ground for today -- it\u27s the institution; the I.M.S.A. and it is here -- within this volume of space, in middle America -- that we will make history -- that legends will be told and retold about how IMSA began -- about how its first class had to rough it -- how primitive were the Macintoshes and IBM PC\u27s and the CRAYS that the students were forced to use -- how easy the science was but how hard it seemed. I think it is crucial that we be very sensitive to the fact that we will be part of legends -- the beginnings of a dramatic evolution of science education -- a response born in the prairie to the alarms sounded in Washington and throughout the nation

Letter to Ms. Marjorie G. Bardeen President, Board of Education

This is to invite you to participate in a novel workshop to be held on December 9 - 11, 1983. The purpose of this workshop is to produce a curriculum for a new kind of magnet school, described in the enclosed proposal. You are one of about thirty-five invitees, including high school teachers, college teachers, and others, according to the recipe contained in the proposal. All expenses, including travel, meals, etc., will be covered by the Corridor Partnership for Excellence in Education (CPEE). The participating institutions are also listed

For the Governor\u27s Commission on Science & Technology

1. Brief History The idea grew out of the experience of Saturday Morning Phy9ic3 at Fermilab where we recognized that the exceptionally bright high school student was not being challenged by the generally good schools in the affluent suburbs. An important event was a design workshop held on December of 1983 in which all the educational constituencies were represented: high schools, experts in gifted education, seven Illinois universities, community colleges, industrial research scientists, Fermilab and Argonne. The proposal was formulated as a result of the curriculum design and presented to the Governor\u27s Commission on Science and Technology and the Ta3k Force on Quality of Mathematics and Science Education in Illinois. It was discussed before the BHE and the SBE and approximately one million talks were given before meetings of PTA\u27s, school superintendents, service clubs, etc. , etc

The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy: a Philosophy

In establishing a\u27 new kind of educational institution which is heavily dependent on public funding, it is incumbent to describe the goals and the means as clearly as possible. We do this here in several steps: We define the general objectives, the specifications and finally, the general philosophy

Proposal to Establish a Public Middle School Academy

The objectives of the Academy would be to accept gifted high school juniors and, in three years, provide students completely prepared to enter college as juniors. It is proposed that the school be very strong in math-science, but it does not take too much thought to realize that it must be almost as strong in English, Social Studies and the Humanities. As a pilot project, an entrance class of 300 students per year with an average population of 800 students may represent a reasonable scale. Some of the virtues of this Academy, as contrasted with a Science High School, are listed below. We accept the strong evidence that high schools restricted to the intellectually gifted students are very successful by every yardstick one can propose

Stop the Century--We’re Not Ready!

The distinguished Nobel Laureate and contributing author of the newly released Science Literacy for the Twenty-first Century and author of The God Particle will explore how science and technology serve as the drivers for 21st Century changes in our social, political and economic lives. Profits and conveniences made by deployment of new knowledge force the issue of whether such deployment is in society’s best long-term interest. The need grows exponentially for the voting public in our democratic society to play a significant role in making decisions. Lederman discusses whether we can devise a feasible educational system that will produce high school graduates with a sense of how science works, as well as whether voter-citizens can employ a “science way of thinking” in order to participate in issues affecting their lives and those of their children. The lecture will be followed by a proclamation from Mike McCoy, Chairman of the Kane County Board: The Kane County “Dr. Leon Lederman Day” and a book launch, refreshments and signing of Science Literacy for the Twenty-first Century

Brochure for Teachers: the Life of Staff at IMSA

If Bread is the staff of life, the life of the teaching staff at IMSA will be Time. It is our plan to assemble an outstanding staff of instructors, drawing from high schools, colleges and research laboratories. We expect to embellish the core staff with visitors on leave from other institutions and with a continuing stream of distinguished visitors

1989 Charge to the Graduating Class of IMSA

I considered a number of snazzy subjects for my remarks to you today: The Unexpurgated Story of the Big Bang The Unbearable Lightness of Neutrinos Symmetry, Complexity and the Origin of Eagle Food