Computation is ubiquitous in the practice of physics, and therefore “… a curriculum in which computation is absent or plays a minor role is inauthentic to the contemporary discipline.”1 Recognition of this fact led the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) to formally adopt a statement2 in 2011 urging “… that every physics and astronomy department provide its majors and potential majors with appropriate instruction in computational physics.” The AAPT also established the Undergraduate Curriculum Task Force (UCTF) in 2013 to develop “… recommendations for coherent and relevant curricula… for different types of physics majors.” Relevant curricula facilitate the development of skills that are useful to physics majors in their post-baccalaureate careers. Later, the AAPT and the American Physical Society (APS) established the Joint Task Force on Undergraduate Physics Programs (J-TUPP) in 2014 to identify the “… skills and knowledge that… physics degree holders [need to] possess to be well prepared for a diverse set of careers.” Skill development is therefore an important aspect of the 2016 J-TUPP report.3 Because computational physics skills are highly valued by research, industry, and many other employment sectors, the UCTF took on the task of developing a set of recommendations for integrating computational physics into undergraduate physics curricula, and the report containing these recommendations4 was approved by the AAPT Executive Board of Directors in October 2016.
The AAPT UCTF report provides a concise rationale for incorporating computational physics into undergraduate physics programs, and also describes explicitly both technical computing skills and computational physics skills, along with corresponding learning outcomes and different ways to achieve these outcomes. The many challenges that must be overcome are acknowledged and described,5 and pointers to helpful resources are provided.
The challenge posed by the AAPT statement and the UCTF report is to help students develop a level of proficiency in computational physics through intentional and effective practice throughout the undergraduate curriculum. Although developing such proficiency is neither quick nor easy, students will benefit from having another tool for learning and doing physics, and from developing valuable skills. These skills include the ability to translate a model into code, choose scales and units, subdivide a model into manageable computational tasks, choose algorithms and computational tools, test and validate code, and—most importantly—extract physical insight.
Many readers of this journal are instructors who care deeply about student learning of physics and skill development, and will respond to the challenge described above. The response can be facilitated by effective support in the form of useful curricular materials, professional development opportunities, and a community of similarly motivated colleagues. It is the mission of the Partnership for Integration of Computation into Undergraduate Physics (PICUP) to provide this support. The new, and growing, PICUP collection6 contains open-source, peer-reviewed computational exercise sets, including instructor guides and solutions that include completed code written in a variety of programming languages and platforms. In addition to this collection of materials, PICUP conducts half-day workshops at the national meetings of both the AAPT and the APS, at select AAPT section meetings, and at week-long, intensive residential workshops during the next three summers (2017–2019).7 It also provides continuing post-workshop support to participants. Through these workshops, and computational physics sessions at AAPT meetings, PICUP is working to build a community of developers and users of computational physics materials.
We are grateful for the long-term efforts of so many to promote the inclusion of computational physics in the undergraduate curriculum. We hope that the UCTF report and the recent work of PICUP mark a moment where we can both celebrate previous efforts as well as gather momentum for the work ahead. We invite you to join us, as user, developer, critic, and/or friend, to help students gain valuable proficiency in computational physics.
References
A particularly significant challenge is the shortage of discipline-based educational research on the assessment of computational physics skills and practice.