Introductory physics courses often obscure the elegance and simplicity of the topic by reducing it to unrealistic situations described by a forest of mathematical formulae. ESCAPE’s innovation lies in giving Physics 160 students access to software and numerical techniques used by practicing physicists. With laptop computers handling the number crunching, students can focus on analyzing conditions and building realistic simulations, starting with the trajectory of an inelastic, bouncing racquetball and culminating with a capstone project in which they thoroughly examine a physical situation of their choice.

 

As they write computer programs to model and solve problems, students make plenty of mistakes, and much of the learning comes from the debugging process as they track down errors in logic by returning to a well understood behavior from which they can move forward slowly, systematically checking each step as they go. This is a challenging mental workout, yet students are highly motivated to tackle realistic and interesting problems that were previously the exclusive domain of physics majors and graduate students. Exercising higher order thinking skills earlier in their academic careers can only help students attain future success, no matter what career path they follow.

 

The challenge now is to rework more of the physics curriculum in order to promote the higher levels of modeling, abstraction, understanding, and intellectual engagement made possible through the inclusion of scientific numerical computation techniques.

 

Brad Orr (Physics)