This project is expanding the Oberlin College physics department's existing network of two UNIX work-stations (currently used solely for research) to nine machines. These computers are being used for student/faculty research and for assignments and projects in existing courses, but most importantly they are making possible a new course entitled "Introduction to Computational Physics". This course takes advantage of the many cases in which the physical question and its algorithmic solution are intimately linked, so the physics and the algorithm illuminate each other. Because it exploits this link to the fullest, the course has only one prerequisite physics course, and thus is taken by students as early as their freshman year. The course 1) excites and attracts students at an early stage in their college careers, 2) allows appropriate use of computation throughout the physics curriculum, and 3) develops the student's physical insight.NSF grant funds are being matched with funds from non-federal sources.
