This project is primarily one of laboratory curriculum development. We propose to develop digitized video experiments for the general physics curriculum at PU/NC. New experiments in mechanics and wave motion will be developed for the general physics courses offered to science, engineering, and technology students. The mechanics data would be captured and digitized at the start of each laboratory by the students under the supervision of the laboratory instructor. The digitized movie would be played frame by frame by the students in a scripted Multimedia ToolBook Application which would allow the use of mouse and cursor for data collection and subsequent analysis by comparison to numerically modeled data or by curve fitting procedures. In addition, multimedia lessons involving real world situations will be developed using the Multimedia ToolBook authoring software. These lessons will help explore the connection of physics principles to real life situations and aid in classroom instruction of students majoring in elementary education as well as those in science, engineering and technology programs. In this project, we also plan to study the student's learning behavior and understanding of the concepts related to the proposed experiments. A survey questionnaire will be devised to obtain feedback from the students regarding the usage of the new laboratory equipment. The results obtained from this project will be disseminated through articles and/or laboratory manuals and through the Purdue Home Page on the World Wide Web.
