I would like to be involved in efforts to develop Java-based visualizations and simulations for teaching physics to a wider audience than traditional physics majors. A good example of this is the new course I gave for the first time last Fall - PHY307. (http://physics.syr.edu/courses/PHY307/) This nominally goes under the title of `Science and Computers' but in the Fall I concentrated on the multidisciplinary topic of chaos and fractals.

This is a modern field which has depended heavily on the use of computers for its development. It lends itself well to small-scale simulations and animations on student PCs. I chose to use Java exclusively as the programming language for the course. Students learned how to create their own Web pages, compile and link Java applets and learned the basics of Java programming. This was generally popular (indeed my enrollment was around 30 - some of these people were in the course because it had the Java content - of this there is no doubt). I believe students were very happy with the concept of exposure to Web and information technologies in parallel to a physics topic - the IT stuff is a useful practical skill, which complements the development of critical thinking for which physics is well known. Students with this sort of background can be at an advantage over non-technical people, traditional physics majors and computer scientists.

Most significantly very few (2 or 3) of my students were physics majors - they came from a wide variety of technical and less technical areas. The prerequisites were minimal - just calculus I - many of the students had done no other physics courses. The level is above a traditional `survey course' but significantly less than a true physics course. In these days of dwindling student numbers courses like this can put students back in the classroom and even potentially lure a few into becoming true physics majors.

Much of the course assessment was for the successful completion of Java-based labs (I wrote 14 in the end). These had a twofold goal - to allow the students to progressively improve their coding skills sufficient to write their own simple applets by end semester and to use hands-on simulations to help aid the physics learning process. My feeling is that the course was greatly enhanced over a traditional course because of these elements. However, the development of such materials takes a lot of time and it is prohibitive to do it every semester. It is appropriate to seek support to extend these activities.

It would be very interesting to port these applets to TangoInteractive and experiment with teaching an entire lab `from the front' sometime next fall. I think it could be a useful addition to help orient students at various points throughout the lab session.

I am currently assigned to teach quantum mechanics next Spring and would like to have the opportunity of developing similar computer tools and labs. The course is meant for majors, but it should be possible to spin off material at a variety of lower levels for use in some future `advanced survey course' similar to PHY307. I think a course in Quantum Physics at the 300 level could probably get enough support - judging off PHY307 and the comparable relativity course PHY312 which I'm teaching this semester.