An introductory physics laboratory has been equipped with 6 high speed, networked IBM-compatible computers and appropriate software. The project is designed to increase student interest and to render physics more intuitive. The idea is to remove some of the abstraction from the subject, and at the same time to replace pre-Newtonian concepts with more correct ones. In addition, the equipment is being used, with appropriate simulation software, in lecture sessions to accomplish the same ends. A third application of this equipment is to enhance the natural science CORE lectures and to provide a lab exercise that is more stimulating and motivating, in part through the use of up-to-date technology. Present-day students do not have sufficient background to pursue physics, because they have not internalized basic mathematics and have not been challenged to solve problems by thinking, but only by parroting what they have been drilled in. This laboratory is intended to evoke understanding and insight through discovery, which has been the missing element in present day pre-college education.
