Southwestern College (SWC) is a primarily minority, public community college. Through this grant the college is acquiring computer-automated laboratory instrumentation that provides dynamic, modern laboratory experiences. Existing physics lab equipment dates from the 1960's did not reflect the changed technology SWC students encounter in four-year transfer institutions and in the work place.The proposed equipment allows students to replace current lengthy manual data acquisition with automated instrumentation techniques, leaving time in the laboratory to explore the physical principles that incorporate the measurements. This is a major shift in emphasis from the prior tedious, time-consuming measurement and manual computation too often associated with physics. The shift enables students to discover the excitement and joy of scientific inquiry and thought, helping to develop critical thinking skills.This project is part of the Physics Department Five-Year Plan, developed to achieve excellence within the Physics Department and thus increase the number of minority students who enter professional fields within science and engineering. Equipment acquired includes IBM Computers and Interface Component Kits, Linear Motion Instrumentation, and Rotational Motion Instrumentation--all items making a complete package. The equipment has direct impact on six of eleven core experiments conducted in undergraduate physics courses by 450 students per year.NSF grant funds are being matched with funds from non-federal sources.
