The objective of this project is to give our students experience with state-of-the-art computer equipment and to increase their familiarity with quantitative physics. To address these issues, we have equipped our physics laboratory with 12 computer-interfaced data acquisition stations to be used with traditional laboratory equipment for measurements of heat, light, sound, electricity, magnetism and motion. These data acquisition systems, supported by the appropriate software, are capable of data storage, analysis, manipulation and retrieval and are therefore more advanced than the traditional methods used to perform analysis of physics data. Also, the simulation capabilities of the computer are being exploited for visualization of equations as well as the modeling of physical systems. Mastery of this equipment provides the students with backgrounds for understanding the operation principles of other types of equipment using the sensor/transducer/amplifier/recorder component series. The simulation experience helps students bridge the conceptual gap between theory and experiment and it is hoped that this process will lead the student to an increase in critical thinking regarding phenomena in the physical world.
