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Re: [Phys-l] Simulations and Computer Homework Problems for Freshman and Sophomores



I'm a tenured full professor at a four-year public university, and I've also failed to convince my colleagues to incorporate spreadsheet calculations/simulations into their introductory physics labs. However, I suspect this is because I have lousy people skills and couldn't persuade them that that sky is blue if they didn't already believe it!

Seriously, here's the story. Several years ago the department agreed to try some exercises of this type on a provisional basis. So I wrote up detailed instructions for one spreadsheet "lab" for each semester of the calculus-based course. The first is an Euler-method solution of Newton's second law for one-dimensional projectile motion with air resistance. The second is the calculation of the electric field at arbitrary points around a uniformly charged finite line segment (divided into 50 point charges). We already had a free week in the lab schedule each semester, so we were able to add these exercises without taking away any actual lab experiments.

After the first year, my colleagues quietly dropped these exercises from their sections. The only stated reasons related to specific details of these particular exercises, but nobody has stepped forward to remedy the perceived deficiencies, so I have to conclude that this sort of student experience just isn't a priority for my colleagues. I've continued to use the exercises in my own sections, and I'm happy with the results, but I've just "retired" from that course for the foreseeable future so in all likelihood, no such exercises will be used at my university any time soon.

Based on our experience, I can say with confidence that nobody should attempt to assign these sorts of exercises as homework problems. Very few students in the calculus-based course are equipped to write, test, and debug a computer spreadsheet of this type on their own. They absolutely need the support infrastructure of a lab setting where they are working in groups and can get help from an instructor or lab assistant whenever they're stuck. (The only exceptions might be at elite schools or in honors sections where most of the students could already have some programming skills.)

In my view, the value of these exercises is twofold: First, students are learning an incredibly useful tool (mathematical programming) that in all likelihood they will use again in their careers. Second, students are forced to learn the actual laws of physics (in these cases, Newton's second law and Coulomb's law), rather than focusing all their attention on special-case solutions of these laws as we normally do in our introductory courses. There is no better way for students to come to appreciate the generality of the laws of physics.

Others commenting on this thread have mentioned PhET and other examples of what I call "canned simulations". I want to emphasize that I'm talking about students writing code--not running canned simulations. Canned simulations have their value too, and I've created quite a few in my time, but in my view they serve a very different purpose (and they certainly can be incorporated into homework assignments).

Best wishes to all in these endeavors,

Dan


From: "Donald Polvani" <dgpolvani@verizon.net>
Date: December 10, 2011 8:46:33 AM MST

I am an adjunct physics instructor teaching at a community college. I have
been trying to get the full time faculty to add computer simulations to
their lab courses and computer programming to their homework assignments....