This project is designed to improve the physics laboratory equipment and instrumentation at North Idaho College in support of a program to develop a contemporary high quality physical science curriculum at the undergraduate level. The opportunity for students' active involvement in a laboratory setting is essential and the absence of modern equipment will adversely affect their attitudes to physics courses. In order to provide a contemporary laboratory capability, the equipment includes computer interface units, smart pulley system and sonic range finder, wave analysis system, precision interferometer, thermodynamics quantitative measurement system, equipment to measure charge to mass ratio, Franck/Hertz critical potentials and electron diffraction, and an electron spin resonance experimental system. The project will provide new and revised laboratory experiments and lecture demonstrations. In addition, it will introduce this capability across other academic disciplines and support a program designed to improve quality of mathematics and science instruction for local teachers in grades 7-12. The college will match the award with an equal amount.
