The intent of this project is to integrate the use of computers and associated technology into the introductory physics courses in order to 1) assist students in becoming more competent in the use of these powerful tools in the laboratory and their homework, 2) improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the teaching of physics and 3) to increase the insights into and understanding of physics by students by involving them in the more computational and model building/simulation aspects of physics.The goals are being accomplished through the establishment of a network of laboratory workstations connected to a file/print server and printers. This network is also connected to a lecture teaching station, instructor stations, and an existing local area network. The laboratory stations are supplied with hardware and software to support data and graphical analysis, analog and image data acquisition, report generation, tutorials and a problem/question database. The students do experiments designed to teach them competency in the use of these tools for analysis and increase their understanding of physics concepts. The teaching station supports the display of large static images, high resolution dynamic images, interactive videodisc and videotape as well as conversion of computer images to videotape.
