Teaching computational physics as a laboratory sequence

Abstract

In spite of the difficulty of adding new courses to an already full undergraduate physics curriculum, the education of undergraduate physics students would be greatly enhanced by learning computational methods. The standard method of addressing this need is to offer a computational physics course. We have chosen to use the standard three credit hours allotted to computational physics by offering three separate one-credit laboratories, one for sophomores, one for juniors, and one for seniors. Students are introduced to symbolic methods using MAPLE when they are sophomores, and to numerical methods using MATLAB beginning in their junior year. This introduction helps prepare students for their upper division courses, for the research they will do for their senior projects, and spreads computational methods throughout the undergraduate curriculum.