Application of Airborne Television to Public Education

In an effort to bring the advantages of television teaching to the maximum number of public schools, particularly those in hilly or sparsely settled parts of the country, a project has been launched to provide airborne transmission of six simultaneous school lesson program. Coverage area is increased approximately 20 to 1 by this means compared to the usual ground station coverage. Airborne transmission is the most economical and effective use of the available (UHF) frequency spectrum. Results already established regarding the use of television as a teaching medium are projected via an airplane flying at 23,000 feet altitude over an area covering parts of six Midwestern States. Educational advantages and problems inherent in ground station TV are intensified in this larger coverage area, and planning is governed accordingly. Technical problems include multiplex transmission of six lessons simultaneously, keeping the airplane on station, accommodation of transmitting equipment in the airplane, and determination of bandwidth for optimum picture quality.     

Federal support of basic research: Some economic issues

Summary There is no necessary connection between leadership in basic science and leadership in the applications of science, because scientific progress is a cooperative endeavour and not a competitive game; indeed, there may be a conflict between basic research and applied science. The notion of a position of leadership; in science raises questions of what leadership consists in and what its value is to the nation. The two main arguments for government support of science are cultural-social, and economic. The cultural-social argument stresses scientific activity as a form of social consumption of wealth and raises the question of whether other uses of the resources employed would contribute more to the greatness of the society. The economic argument stresses basic scientific research as a form of investment for the future, and raises the questions of what the rate of return on such investment is and whether and to what extent government support is called for. Relevant economic research results bearing on this problem are scarce. Economic theory suggests that competition in the market will supply less than the optimal amount of basic research; but our society substantially supplements the market through private contributions to and government support of science, and the question is whether this supplementation is deficient or excessive. Here difficult problems arise, on which more economic research is needed; one of these concerns the relative merits of government and private support of science. The rule-of-thumb procedures generally recommended for determining the volume and allocation of government support to basic scientific research generally ignore these problems, and amount to endorsing the present level of government support or recommending that it be increased. Allocation of federal support of science should take account of the possibility of stimulating the economic development of poor regions of the country by locating scientific research facilities in them.     

Europe in the Curriculum. An Approach for British Sixth Forms

This short biographical presentation was written by Mike Bruce himself to be published with this article, written for Pädagogik und Schule im Ost und West. It comes out in German in no. 3, 1991.