TITLE: Open Source Physics: Curriculum Material for Teachers, Authors, and Developers

SPEAKER: Professor Wolfgang Christian,

TIME: Thursday Feb. 23, 2006 at 4 PM

PLACE: George P. Williams, Jr. Lecture Hall, (Olin 101)

Although there are many computer-based resources for teaching physics, few are based on an object-oriented open source code library. What is needed by the physics education community is not another computer program (although programs are essential), but a synthesis of curriculum development, computational physics, computer science, and physics education research that will be useful for students and adaptable for teachers wishing to write their own simulations and develop their own curricular material. The Open Source Physics (OSP) project was established to meet this need. OSP is an NSF-funded curriculum development project that is developing and distributing a code library, programs, and examples of computer-based interactive curricular material. This talk will present an overview of this material. The Open Source Physics code library, documentation, and sample curricular material can be downloaded from . http://www.opensourcephysics.org/. Partial funding for this work was obtained through NSF grant DUE-0126439.

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