"The Case for JavaTM in the 21st Century Physics Curriculum"
Michael A. Lee
Department of Physics, Kent State University
Kevin E. Schmidt
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University
A decade ago, many of us worked to incorporate a computational component in our classrooms using Fortran. Commercial software packages, resistance from our our peers and the fact that our students were learning C contributed to the situation that leaves many graduate and undergraduate courses with almost no numerical component. Now, there is another chance.
We will discuss some pros and cons to using computational tools (some old and some new) and describe our positive experiences at developing and using Java-based applets and applications in upper division physics courses. We will argue that an open-source Java model meets the needs of this educational group by providing interactive computational and visualization tools that enhance the effectiveness of classroom teachers (rather than trying to replace them). We will demonstrate some of the tools we have developed.