The Use of the Talking Picture as an Additional Educational Tool at the University Oe Chicago

Committed to a policy of under graduate education of a general type during the first two college years, the College was faced with the problem of presenting the natural sciences to the entire undergraduate body by means of lectures only. A b-sence of effective laboratory work seemed to doom the enterprise to failure. Demonstration lectures have serious limitations with large groups. The talking motion picture is a perfect medium to use in support of the demonstration lecture in these two ways: close-ups of delicate apparatus can be projected on gigantic scale; natural large-scale phenomena out of doors, and industrial processes may also be brought vividly into the classroom by this means. — The University of Chicago is engaged in producing a series of films designed specifically for the four Introductory General Courses of the University, viz., the humanities, and the social, biological, and physical sciences. Completed and already used with excellent success are films on the molecular theory of matter, oxidation and reduction, energy and its transformations, and electrostatics. In production to be ready for use this year are two reels on wave motion and sound, magnetism and electromagnetism, one reel each. Films on the velocity of chemical reaction, chemical equilibrium, atomic and molecular structure, spectra, interference of light, the velocity of light, carbon and its compounds, the atmosphere, the solar system, the changing surface of the earth, weather and forecasting, time and the calendar, and volcanic phenomena and earthquakes are among those planned for in the physical sciences.

Print ISSN

0097-5834

Published

1934-01

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J12962