Peer Review

Center for History of Physics

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: May 20, 2002 by Physics

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: This is the American Institute of Physics site for History of Physics. It
includes exhibits about Einstein: Image and Impact, Marie Curie
and Radioactivity, The
Discovery of the Electron, href="http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/">Heisenberg and Uncertainty, href="http://www.pbs.org/transistor/">Transistorized!, href="www.aip.org/history/lawrence">Lawrence and the Cyclotron, and href="http://www.aip.org/history/sakharov/">Sakharov-Nuclear Weapons & Human
Rights, as well as mini exhibits, pictures and quotes. The site also
contains links to other history sites, and short biographical sketches of famous
physicists. There are also links that enable the user to search the AIP
extensive photographic archive as well as holdings in the Niels Bohr library.
Type of Material:: Web pages, images, and multimedia.
Recommended Uses:: Self Study, Background material for reports
Technical Requirements:: Some exhibits require the Quicktime and RealPlayer plug-ins to be installed.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Learn about the history of 20th century physics and allied fields.
Target Student Population:: General Audiences, all levels
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: None

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: The exhibits authored by the AIP are professionally done and accurate. They are
great references for students who want to know more about the people behind the
physics and the times they lived in and the methods they used to make their
discoveries. The quality is unsurpassed for a web-site and the reputation of the
site can naturally be judged to authoritative.
Concerns:: The number of exhibits is still quite small. However, there are links to web
pages about the history of physics maintained by other people or institutions.
The quality of these pages varies.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Recommended Use(s) for Material: Self study, background material for
homework and reports.

This site is a rich resource for basic information regarding biographies and
several physics topics. Naturally this site provides a useful starting point
for more detailed research.

The presentation of the material is of high quality and engaging. It will keep
readers interested in the history of physics.

Concerns:

Much of the material contained within should not be used as the sole source of a
student's written reports at the college level. But the site provides a useful
starting point for finding more detailed material upon which to base a report.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The material can easily be used. It can be accessed with any modern
Web-browser. Perhaps of greatest interest to educators is the section in the
site showing 16 (at the time of this review) actual syllabi from history of
physics (science) courses taught at various universities. These typically not
only show course outlines but have reading lists associated with them, which
provide a rich source of references of which many teachers may not be aware.
This section also provides a handy text and reference list.
Concerns:: The topics that are addressed are still very limited.

Other Issues and Comments:: The topology of the site is well designed and it is very easy to navigate. This
material can make the physics discussed in a standard physics course more
interesting, by providing background material about the people involved and by
putting things in context. It is particular useful as accompanying material for
physics courses for non-scientist, who often miss that angle in physics books.
The site rather necessarily must appeal to general audiences, so one shouldn?t
expect detailed physics explanations in the ?exhibits?. One no doubt would need
to look elsewhere for detailed physics explanations that correspond to the
history of those aspects of Physics.
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