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Re: Computer Skills



Since I began teaching (in the 50's) I have argued for basic electronics
as a necessary ingredient of the physics curriculum, citing its ubiquity
in the implementation of almost any modern experimental procedure. In
the same vain I would now insist on a familiarity with computer
programming as an essential tool of our 20/21 century armamentarium.
Give them a grounding in SOME (it doesn't matter which) programming -
they can then branch out on their own as prompted by interest and study /
job requirements. (Much more so than electronics, a student given a
start in some programming can then teach himself more sophisticated
programming by reading manuals.)

As with electronics, computer implementation is a tool ; they need not be
experts in the nuts and bolts details. In both cases, they need mostly
to understand what the technology will, and will not, do and how to best
exploit it as a means to the development of their physics.

Electronic hardware and computer software have become an expected
extension of what it means to measure and think quantitatively.

-Bob

Bob Sciamanda
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (ret)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor