University of Maryland
Computers in Physics Education

Use of Computers in Physics Education

For more than a decade, a major thread in the department's educational activities has been the innovative application of technology to teaching physics. Faculty and students in the department have won numerous national awards for their educational software and have led in the creation and development of a number of national-scale projects. Support for these projects has been obtained from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Education (Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education), the Annenberg/CPB project, IBM, and Apple. Specific projects have included:

Maryland University Project in Physics and Educational Technology (M.U.P.P.E.T.)

• The M.U.P.P.E.T. Utilities:

  Pascal tools to allow physics majors to learn to program while doing physics;

• Spreadsheet M.U.P.P.E.T.

  : Spreadsheet tools to allow non-majors to solve a wide class of physics problems.

The Comprehensive Unified Physics Learning Environment (CUPLE)

• Link to CUPLE page at RPI

A hypermedia environment to permit the development, delivery, and distribution of interactive and multi-media physics education software. Available CUPLE tools include graphers, object-oriented programming tools, microcomputer based laboratories, and video.

The Consortium for Upper-class Physics Software (CUPS)

Prof. W. M. MacDonald was a co-director of CUPS, a multi-university project to develop a suite of software for upper-class physics courses funded through George Mason University. Nine areas are covered, ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to quantum, nuclear, and condensed matter physics.

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