PSSC

Physical Science Study Committee 

The program was started at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA in 1956. The program started with the grand from National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation and Alfred P Solan Foundation. The program recommends changes in the Physics curriculum in the light of practical needs of the people. It presents Physics as a unified and continuing process by which man continue to understand the nature of the Physical world, as well as to encourage the spirit of inquiry through laboratory experimentation. Practical work is considered as the core of the course and pupils are expected to discover the principles of Physics by themselves. Emphasis is given to improvisation of gadgets by pupils themselves.

Objectives

1. To present Physics as a unified and ever changing subject

2. To demonstrate the interplay between experiment and theory in the development of Physics

3. To develop the skill to observe nature closely and to interrogate it, thus learning not only the laws and principles of Physics but the evidence on which they are based

4. To lead students to recapitulate the process by which knowledge is based

5. To extend the capacity of students to read critically

6. To provide foundations for those students who will go for further study in science and technology.

PSSC Course

PSSC course consist of four parts distributed in 34 Chapters

Part I- Fundamental Concepts of time, space and matter

Part II- Optics and Waves

Part III- Mechanics

Part IV- Electricity and Physics of atom

Part I- Fundamental Concepts of time, space and matter.

A general introduction of fundamental physical notions of time, space and matter, how we grasp them, how we measure them etc. For a student learns these dimensions from very large to very small quantities and from a fraction of seconds to billions of years. He learns how these magnitudes can be measured, learns that instruments serve as an extension of his senses. From these experiments measuring time and space, moves to an understanding of velocity and acceleration of vectors and of relative motion, he then goes on to study matter and develop the concepts of mass and its conservation. The topics of Physics course are selected and ordered from simple and familiar to

complex ideas. In part I we see the broad picture of the universe. 

Part II- Optics and Waves.

This section discusses about light. In light the student moves into the study of sharp and diffuse shadows, reflection, refraction and then to particle theory of light. Later on this particle model particle model proves inadequate and another model, wave model was introduced and two important phenomena interference and diffraction was also studied.

Part III- Mechanics

This section deals with motion. Here Newton's laws of motion, gravitation, conservation of energy and momentum, kinetic theory of gases etc were dealt in an order. 

Part IV- Electricity and Physics of atom

This area introduces student to electricity and through it to the physics of atom. Here the student uses the knowledge of dynamics gained in part III. They go to study about electric charges, motion of charged particles and then move on to magnetic field, magnetic currents, induction laws, electromagnetic effects etc.

Materials

1. Text Books

2. Teacher's Guide

3. Laboratory Experiments

4. Supplementary Text Materials

5. Films or Documentaries

6. Achievement Tests

7. Simple low cost apparatus (Kits)

Advantages

1. Facts are linked and not learned in isolation. The project shows the unified nature of Physics

2. The learner's involvement is ensured by the open-ended experiments

3. The course stimulates creative and critical thinking

4. Rote memorization is reduced

5. Experimentation helps to develop skills of drawing inferences

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