Lecture demonstrations

The important position of the lecture demonstration in the teaching of physics has long been recognized. The Educational Advisory Committee of the American Institute of Physics suggested that a discussion of the aims and nature of the lecture demonstration could be fruitful, and that such a discussion could suitably be sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers. V. E. Eaton was asked to arrange a meeting in 1959 at Wesleyan University to fill this need. As a result of these suggestions, about 35 college physics teachers and others who are keenly interested in the teaching of physics gathered last summer in Middletown, Connecticut, to discuss the subject of “Lecture Demonstrations in Physics”.