1000 Students = One Million Dollars



                                        
PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY  PROPOSAL
1000 STUDENTS = ONE MILLION DOLLARS
Physics is the cornerstone of technological development. Training of physicists,engineers, and technologists is of prime importance to a modern industrial society.
There is at present a severe deficiency in the physics programs which are presently available to  mature entry level students. These students are the backbone of all  university programs, and are a large source of  university revenue. The following proposal is for approximately  300 students (100 in Mechanics,100 in Electricity, 100 in Waves) for each of  three semesters in a school year.

1.    One lecture per week in a large class room suitably  equipped  to handle computer demonstrations, and  access to  the audio visual libraries. 
The course curricula for Physics -Mechanics,Electricity,Waves - have  been
developed  over a period of 29 years and are contained in my teaching notes. 
The  notes include the lectures , sample progress exams with answers, sample final  exams with answers, computer programs, simulations, and movie lists.
Every course should have a comprehensive document such as these.
4.Computer programs are integrated into the lecture material. Computer simulations with graphical user interfaces illustrate various physical concepts. 
5.Three  2 hour computer laboratories per week would be available to the students for assistance with computer programs and simulations. E-mail and internet access would be part of the computer account package.
6. More and more of the course activity would be directed through the computer laboratory. The  computer laboratories would be run by the computer academic services department. A computer lab could be set
up in underutilized physics lab space.
7. The student monitors in the computer laboratories would be specialists in computer software and physics, and should be paid on an hourly basis to keep costs down.
8.The internet should be used as way to provide added information, course control, and chat lines, but not as a substitute for the above activities.
9.Other sections could be added which deal with physics and other software packages such as visual basic.
10.A computer oriented curriculum provides a bridge  to the world of computer science which is so necessary in the modern work place. This is very important to the mature entry level student whose final work destination is not a career in physics.
11. A  number of simulations have been developed and these  can be found at
                           http://www.sonetis.com/~htran/physics.html         
        
                                                                         JAM  December 1997