Dear Attendee: Just a reminder that the welcoming reception will take place in Lobby 13 (please reference the map that was faxed or mailed to you with your confirmation) on Sunday, 24 June from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Your registration packets will be available there for pick up. We look forward to seeing you soon. MIT Conference Services -- ============================= Eva Marie Cabone MIT Conference Services Office Room 7-111 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 (tel) 617-253-1700 (fax) 617-258-7005 ecabone@mit.edu ============================= Session D1. Town Hall Meeting: Advances Important to Computation Physics Education. Monday afternoon, 15:30, Building 10, Room 250 TOWN HALL MEETING: Advances Important to Computational Physics Education Organizer and moderator: Rubin H Landau (Oregon State) In the past we may have been content to let physics students use computers as black boxes whose purpose was to help get the physics done without worrying much about what goes on inside the boxes. Yet the premise of computational science, of which computational physics is a part, is that our increasing reliance on computation makes this viewpoint less than wise today and even less wise for the future. This town hall meeting focuses on current advances and activities that affect computational physics education. While some of these issues are also of importance for physics education in general, the focus will be on what we should be teaching the next generation of practicing computational physicists. Each of three panel members will speak for 20 minutes on quite different activities that relate to the theme. Charles Patterson (Physics Department, Trinity College, Dublin) will describe the "Computational Physics Degree Program at Trinity College", and how it differs from related programs in North America. Geoffrey Fox (School of Computational Science & Information Technology, Florida State University) will describe advances being made in "Portals for Education" and how portals are changing modern education and computation. Finally, Roscoe Giles (Center for Computational Science, Boston University) will describe educational activities associated with the National Computational Science Alliance and the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure. After individual presentations, the panel will be opened to questions and statements from the audience. Particularly welcomed will be suggestions as to what needs are currently not being met and how technology can improve the educational process D1.002] Computational Physics Degree Program at Trinity College Charles Patterson (Department of Physics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.) The Department of Physics at Trinity College Dublin began teaching a degree program entitled, 'Computational Physics' in 1997. The first group of students to enter the course will graduate at the end of the current academic year. The structure and content of the program and its relationship to other physics degree programs taught by the Department are outlined. Insights into pedagogical benefits and pitfalls of using computers for physics education, gained by teaching in the program, are discussed. D1.003] Physics Curriculum in the Virtual University Geoffrey Fox (School of Computational Science and Information Technology. Florida State University) We describe the emerging methodology and technology needed to build virtual universities with special attention to physics curricula. We discuss base ideas such as learning objects and peer to peer networks; base standards such as IMS and ADL; authoring of course pages and modules; management and collaboration in synchronous and asynchronous modes. The technology is still a bit rough but enough is understood to allow one to start building virtual universities and physics curriculum for them. See http://aspen.csit.fsu.edu/collabtools