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150 Years of Advancing Science: A History of AAAS
AAAS and the Maturing of American Science: 1941-1970
The 1947 "Steelman
Report."
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Science education and public understanding of science, long part of AAAS's
portfolio, grew to be major foci in the postwar era. An early effort
was a survey of AAAS members on science education issues conducted in support
of the federal government's 1947 science policy study known as the "Steelman
Report."
The Association entered the science education field in a more substantial
way, in 1955, when it received a $300,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation
of New York and hired John Mayor, a University of Wisconsin mathematician
to develop a "Science Teaching Improvement Program." Over the next
20 years, Mayor ran projects, organized conferences and workshops, and
helped create guidelines for teacher preparation in science. One
of his conferences brought together the people who later formed the School
Mathematics Study Group, originators of the "new math."
Another memorable AAAS initiative from this period was creation of a
"traveling library" of science books for schools without their own science
libraries. Headed by Hilary Deason, the program was supported by
a grant from NSF until 1962. By 1963, when the program was transformed
in a Guide to Science Reading, it had reached nearly 6,000 schools
around the United States. The current Science Books and Films,
published nine times a year by AAAS, is a direct descendant of the program
From 1962 until 1974, a Commission on Science Education provided guidance
and direction to a wide range of AAAS educational activities. One of its
most widely-known products was "Science--A Process Approach," a kit of
materials for children in kindergarten through sixth grade. SAPA
was supported by NSF and published commercially by the Xerox Corporation.
Despite evidence that it was considerably more effective than traditional
teaching methods, SAPA never really achieved the kind of market penetration
that had been hoped.
AAAS appointed a Committee on Public Understanding of Science in 1958.
Three years later, a full-time staff member, E. G. Sherburne, Jr., was
hired to direct activities in this area. With funding from the Sloan
Foundation, NSF, and other sources, Sherburne undertook a range of initiatives
in the new medium of television, including a series of luncheon seminars
on science for members of the Writers' Guild of America in Los Angeles
and New York.
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