Laboratory for Training Pre-College Physics Teachers The Simulation/Interactive Video Physics Laboratory consists of a six computer workstations equipped with a laserdisc player and associated color monitor. This laboratory forms an integral part of the one semester course Physical Science (taken by elementary education majors) and the two semester course sequence Physics 1 and Physics 2 (taken by secondary education science majors). The purpose of the project is to enhance student understanding of basic physics through the use of a planned sequence of student centered activities. The simulation/video lab forms part of a larger project which includes a separate computer-based physics lab in which students are able to use equipment interfaced to a computer to acquire and display data in real-time and then to manipulate the data both visually and numerically. In the proposed simulation/video lab, students at each computer workstation have available a complete array of physics simulation software, The Physics Explorer, with which they are able to investigate the full range of physical phenomena normally studied in introductory physics courses. In addition, each student has a comprehensive package of interactive video software based on the Mechanical Universe. Upon completion of the project, the courses Physical Science, Physics 1, and Physics 2 will have undergone a complete transformation from traditionally taught elementary physics courses to courses based on student centered data acquisition, simulation, and interactive video activities.
