The rapid development of computer power is shifting the focus of undergraduate science teaching away from reproduction of prescribed procedures to observing, investigating, and even discovering physical laws. This project is using the analytical tools that were once available only to the research scientist, and that can now be used by undergraduates to visualize data and mathematical functions, to broaden the range of problems accessible to them, and to develop model-building and simulation skills. Also, the computer has itself become an integral part of nearly all scientific instrumentation and its use must be included in the modern physics curriculum.The project is being implemented by developing a computing laboratory using the software packages Mathematica (for visualization and computational power), LabView (a data acquisition and analysis code), and LogicWorks and PSPlCE (electronics simulation codes). The codes are being run on Macintosh IIci computers using computer interfaces and associated hardware from National Instruments.The Department of Physics of the University of Richmond is applying these new technologies to the introductory course program and are now being extended to the upper-division courses. Quantum mechanics is one of most mathematically foreboding courses undergraduates face. The laboratory is enabling students to experiment graphically and symbolically and to investigate the science more deeply. We are also incorporating modern simulation and data acquisition and analysis techniques into our two-semester electronics sequence. The students are learning to transform physical measurements into electrical signals, process the signals, and collect them with the computer. They are using simulation software to design, develop, and test circuits.
