9451274 Roberge We will develop a laboratory suitable for teaching introductory physics in a "workshop" format, where the lecture, recitation, and laboratory components of a traditional physics course will be integrated into one learning environment. The purpose of the project is to assess the viability of the workshop format in a university setting, by conducting a pilot program for 30 students. If successful, the program will be scaled up to serve approximately 900 science and engineering students per year. We will outfit a laboratory with computers to run the Comprehensive Unified Physics Learning Environment (CUPLE), a multitasking, multimedia learning tool which was developed by Rensselaer and other universities. CUPLE will provide (1) on-screen videos to help students set up lab experiments; (2) data acquisition via video technologies and other traditional transducers; (3) a variety of tools for data analysis, visualization, and modeling; and (4) access via hyperlinks to databases of text, graphical, and video information. The multimedia software and data acquisition capabilities of the hardware will enable the students to work jointly on group learning assignments, problem solving sessions, laboratory experiments, and the preparation of oral and written presentations. The equipment is a vital component of the interactive, cooperative learning strategy on which the workshop format is based.
