I can’t remember what I did on my first day of teaching in September 1964. I was 26 years old, and some of the seniors in my pre-med course at Kenyon College were only four years younger. However, by the next year I had found a ploy that I found useful in breaking the ice. This was a tough group—30 to 40 sophomores and juniors who were taking physics largely because it was required for medical school admission. Many of them were biology majors, with a few chemists and an occasional English or classics major.

In my first class I wanted to show how important it was to do an experiment under controlled conditions. In experimental physics we strive for situations that are clean: we know all of the variables and can control them. In actual practice this never really works out, but physicists certainly are better off than, say,...

AAPT members receive access to The Physics Teacher and the American Journal of Physics as a member benefit. To learn more about this member benefit and becoming an AAPT member, visit the Joining AAPT page.