The History of New York High School Regents Physics.

New York State (NYS) has a long, rich and well-documented history of involvement in U.S. High School physics education. The widely known Regents Physics examinations, for example, were first offered in 1878 and have been in continuous operation ever since. Over the last 138 years, millions of students have taken the exam, including at least twelve Nobel Laureates in Physics. Despite this background, recent histories of high school physics education make little or no mention of New York's remarkable contributions to the history of the field. This poster addresses this lacuna using original historical source material. It examines from the mid-19th century, how the physics course developed in the academies and high schools of New York, focusing on the syllabi produced, the examinations given, the textbooks used, the transition of natural philosophy to physics, how short courses became a one-year one-credit course, the introduction and incorporation of laboratory work and the methods advocated for teaching physics.