Computational Modelling Group

Seminar  23rd February 2010 1 p.m.  Physics Seminar Room (46/5081), Highfield Campus, University of Southampton

Development of model-based learning in first year mechanics

David Sands
University of Hull

Web page
http://www.hep.phys.soton.ac.uk/
Categories
Python, Visual Python
Submitter
Nicki Lewin

Anyone who has ever built a computer model to investigate a difficult concept will appreciate the power of computers in fostering understanding. As described so eloquently by Chabay and Sherwood1; ‘Perhaps the most significant advantage of writing programs from scratch is that there are no “black boxes”: students write all of the computational statements to model the physical system and visualize the abstract quantities. In doing so students must bring together various components of their physics knowledge; for example, identify all interactions, describe them mathematically, and correctly write and apply fundamental principles such as the momentum principle. All the physics is nakedly exposed in the program.’ This seminar will describe a first year mechanics course based on 3-D visual programming in Python (VPython). Some of the computer programmes used in the course will be demonstrated along with an evaluation of the course and the implications for future progress in this area. References