In the April 2023 issue of AJP, William Flannery1 cited a paper Jack Wilson and I wrote 34 years ago2 in which we predicted that computers would produce a revolution in physics education. He asked when it was going to happen and what would it take to make it happen. Thanks for that! It was great to look back and see what we were envisioning in those early days.

But…not happening? I think you're missing a lot, and you're missing a lot of the message we were stating in our papers. You stress the value of computational physics, particularly solving differential equations numerically. While this was one of our messages (strongly stressed in some of our papers3,4), our vision was broader.

When graphical user interfaces (GUIs) came out in the late 1980s, Jack and I immediately saw many of the possibilities. In addition to the use of computers for calculation that we had stressed in the M.U.P.P.E.T. project,5 we saw that the computer was going to produce a revolution that enabled going beyond a fixed text-based curriculum. It could lead to

  • modularity for flexibly matching courses to populations,

  • integrated use of computer tools for visualization and exploration as well as calculation,

  • sharing materials from multiple sources.

We created a demonstration product to show how this might be done, modestly (?) named, “The comprehensive unified physics learning environment,” or CUPLE. This product, published by John Risley's Physics Academic Software in 1994, showed how to use existing software products to create modular readings, bring in videos and data collected by computers, use 2D and 3D graphers to explore functions, use a spreadsheet to analyze data and solve differential equations, use simulations, and more. We discussed these ideas in the M.U.P.P.E.T. papers. Figure 1 shows a lesson palette (left) and the Toolbox (right) from CUPLE. Note computational tools (Turbo Pascal), a spreadsheet, and an equation explorer.

Fig. 1.

1994 – A proposed lesson plan in CUPLE using modular materials and general-purpose computer tools.

Fig. 1.

1994 – A proposed lesson plan in CUPLE using modular materials and general-purpose computer tools.

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What Jack and I missed in 1989–1991 when we were creating CUPLE was the web. We saw that sharing materials was one of the most exciting possibilities of the new computer environments. In the last chapter of the CUPLE Developer's Manual, we talked about connecting and building a community through a Listserv (anyone remember Listservs?) and setting up an ftp site for exchanging materials. The web (and URLs!) was only a few years away, but by the time it became widely available, Jack and I had moved on—Jack climbing up the ladder in university administration and me drilling down into physics education research.

However, has the computer revolution happened? You bet! Here are some of the things you can do with currently available shared computer tools:

Want to draw from a modular structure as suggested in CUPLE? Check out HyperPhysics!6 

Need the flexibility to adapt to a specific population? In the last year, I taught before the pandemic finally drove me into retirement, I was teaching an Introductory Physics for Life Sciences (IPLS) class. Did I adapt my class to my population using modular materials? Sure did!

I created a textbook, Living Physics,7 drawn from the NEXUS/Physics open-source wiki8 with integrated autograded “check-your-understanding” questions, videos from YouTube, simulations from the University of Colorado PhET simulations,9 and “dig-deeper” links to articles in Wikipedia.10 

Our laboratories have students taking data from videos (sometimes with microscopes studying biological systems),11 using spreadsheets to analyze data in the lab and to do homework exploring functional dependence and solving differential equations.

Homework problems are drawn from the open-web NEXUS/Physics problem collection in ComPADRE.12 These can be auto-graded in a commercial environment (ExpertTA). Students do readings, review the lecture slides, and even do some of their homework on supercomputers they carry in their pockets and backpacks.

It looks so much like what Jack and I had envisioned that I am both amazed and delighted. Figure 2 shows a screenshot of some of the tools a student can use today.

Fig. 2.

2023 – A lesson in NEXUS/Physics on the potential caused by a water molecule using an amazing array of tools from the open web.

Fig. 2.

2023 – A lesson in NEXUS/Physics on the potential caused by a water molecule using an amazing array of tools from the open web.

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What I had not envisioned was the way that the computer revolution would change how instructors can interact with students. In my new high-tech classroom, I had three projectors and screens. Multiple cameras let me show demos, my writing on the (physical) desktop, and a video all at once. I could ask the class questions and collect and display the responses in live time. (CUPLE was pre-clickers!)

When the pandemic hit, I was able to run classes and hold office hours over Zoom, recording lectures and making them easily available to students who missed classes because a sibling had to use the single computer in the house for an elementary-school class. When we had to cancel live labs, I was able to create an on-line simulation using a publicly available GitHub simulation that worked like a charm.13 

While I was excited by this and I see myself as an early adopter (I first used computers—mainframes!—in one of my classes in 1981), Millennials and Gen-Xers are digital natives. Watching them teach with computers can be thrilling and awe-inspiring. I watched one of my former grad students14 be head instructor in one of our IPLS classes in a SCALE-UP15 setting using computers like a true wizard.

He had the students do random-walk coin-flip experiments at their seats and enter their data in a common Google docs spreadsheet which he then could show to the class as a normal distribution emerged. He used Kahoot™ to set up short games where students competed to learn to estimate. While students were working in groups to solve problems on standing whiteboards, he walked around with his tablet, using its camera to show notable results to the entire class, and held whole class discussions where students tossed a microphone wrapped in a small pillow to the next speaker.

Want to include more computing in your class? Try Chabay and Sherwood's Matter & Interactions, wrapped around a core of VPython programming.16 Or go to the AAPT's PICUP website on ComPADRE to download numerous tools and examples.17 The APS gave the 2023 Excellence in Physics Education award for work enabling the inclusion of computation in classes.18 

Want to find bits and pieces of curated materials to build your classes on? Try PhysPort19 or The Living Physics Portal!20 

The computer revolution in physics education is here and it's all around you! Don't miss out!

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See <https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/education.cfm> for APS Physics Education Prize awarded to Kelly Roos, Larry Engelhardt, Marcos (Danny) Caballero, Marie Lopez del Puerto, Norman Chonacky, and Robert Hilborn.
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Living Physics Portal
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