Personal computers will be integrated into introductory physics laboratory classes for engineering, physics, and other science majors, for Honors Program students, and for elementary education majors. Application of computers will be introduced gradually, beginning with arithmetic manipulation of data entered by hand and proceeding, in subsequent experiments, to statistical analysis, data acquisition, and simulation. Computers will be used in all fourteen of the experiments done in a one-semester course, and they will be used to collect data in nine of the experiments. Use of the computers will make the laboratory much more interesting to most students, will permit some new experiments, and will relieve the time-wasting drudgery that students dread. The university will match the award with an equal amount of funds.
