Signedon face: [crossed-ovals logo] DAMON
on face: Project Physics
Inscribedon face: Scaler
on blue label tape, on side: SCI CEN / NS-7
Historical AttributesThis apparatus was designed to be used with Project Physics, a national physics curriculum developed in the 1960s. Project Physics materials included teaching aids, apparatus for student experiments, and books.
The Project Physics Course grew out of a Harvard University initiative to teach all students physics, not just those who would go on to careers in science. The course aimed to be a "humanistically oriented" introduction to "science at its best."
Damon Engineering produced and marketed a set of Project Physics laboratory equipment in coordination with the curricular work of Harvard physics professor Gerald Holton, California high school science teacher F. James Rutherford, and Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Fletcher G. Watson.
This instrument is marked "NS-7." This refers to a General Education (Gen Ed) course, Natural Sciences 7, which was colloquially known as Nat Sci 7. Nat Sci 7 was a physics course for non-scientists first taught by Gerald Holton in 1966. It was part of the newly established General Education curriculum at Harvard. Holton was vice-chairman of the Faculty Committee on General Education and Holton designed Nat 7 as a model course to "make science irresistible" and improve the public image of physics.
Primary SourcesThe Project Physics Collection of course books is archived online here.
Linda J. Greenhouse, "Gerald Holton: The Discovery That Scientists Are Also Philosophers Should Not Depend On Accidents," The Harvard Crimson, December 12, 1966; found online here.
ProvenanceScience Center Physics Lab