Presents the philosophy and mechanics of a professionally oriented astronomy laboratory for nonscience majors. Design of the laboratory, description of the exercises, and the results of using this approach at the University of Kansas are also described. (HM)

Traces the development of college physics laboratories. Discusses the motivating forces that produced these laboratories, sources of experiments and the first and most influential laboratory manual prepared by E. C. Pickering for use at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (JN)