The Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, together with the Five College Astronomy Department, are currently engaging in an initiative to modernize the undergraduate curriculum and ensure that students obtain training fundamental to entering a wide variety of careers in the industrial and academic sectors. The keystone of this initiative is the integration of computational physics and astronomy elements and skills into all levels of the undergraduate program, both for the widely subscribed service courses in physics and astronomy and the required courses for majors. Students will be exposed to the roles and techniques of scientific computation and visualization throughout their undergraduate experience from interactive laboratory demonstrations and homework assignments on the introductory levels to data interfaces and numerical simulations in the advanced courses. To enable full realization of these objectives we are creating a physics and astronomy student computation and visualization laboratory. The equipment allows computational laboratory projects to become an integral feature of the courses, offers students a solid introduction to the types of computational problem solving and data analysis used daily in modern scientific and technological projects, and enables hands on experience in high performance and parallel computing and graphical visualization. Students learn physics through multiple methods (verbal mathematical, graphical, observational) and are able to engage in active exploration through multiple environments (text, equations, static and animated graphics, and simulations of conditions, experiments, and observations). A key product of this program is the generation and export of laboratory and lesson project modules for the national educational community.
