Amos Eaton: A Pioneer Teacher of Science In Early America

Abstract

Following almost a decade of varied experience and experimentation as a scientific lecturer and investigator, particularly in geology, Amos Eaton became Senior Professor of Rensselaer School in Troy, New York, in 1824. Established by Stephen Van Rensselaer for the “application of science to the common purposes of life” and the training of science teachers, Rensselaer School offered Eaton the opportunity to try out and to publicize his original ideas concerning students learning through preparing and presenting their own experiments and lectures. The school's almost exclusive emphasis on science at this early date was novel and rather unique in education. It became Rensselaer Institute in 1835, when civil engineering was added to applied science in its program. Eaton's many disciples included some of the leading geologists and science teachers in the country, among them James Hall, Ebenezer Emmons, Douglass Houghton, George Cook and Eben Horsford. By his own example and through them he had a profound influ...