[flannelhead]

I'm a physics sophomore, and I would be very glad to see more programming, especially FP, integrated to physics courses. During my studies, I've programmed some simulations related to the physics courses I've taken. My main purpose has been to gain a deeper, more practical insight on the subject which would've otherwise remained quite theoretical and distant.

For example, I made a little rollercoaster simulation to demonstrate the power of Lagrangian mechanics and generalized coordinates to myself. On the electrodynamics course I programmed a solver for Poisson's equation using the finite difference method to see a little more than the few simple geometries we calculated by hand. That kind of voluntary activities have greatly motivated me and helped me to understand various concepts.

On some courses we already have some simulation work and numerics in homework problems. Maybe deeper integration of programming into teaching requires time and, more importantly, a driving force and resources behind it. Then, of course, not everyone would be happy to see that kind of integration – I'm sure some would feel like they're forced to learn to program. And, as it has been seen on our entry level numerical physics course, learning programming, numerics and physics the same time is really quite hard.

Given those shortcomings, I still feel this is the way to go for future physics education. A gentle introduction and slowly teaching programming alongside physics would be the key, I think.

[Steuard]

Have a look at the Matter & Interactions textbook by Chabay and Sherwood. It's a really cool concept for a first-year physics course, and it incorporates a lot of programming (and even just programming-inspired perspectives). (The authors use the "VPython" programming package for easy creation of 3D simulations.)

[jeffreyrogers]

I'll second this. I took a course using this textbook and it was one of my favorites.

[bkcooper]

Your activities sound useful and worthwhile. A comment on this:

And, as it has been seen on our entry level numerical physics course, learning programming, numerics and physics the same time is really quite hard.

Yeah. My feeling is that the numerical side of things is a lock to get short shrift in this type of course. In my own education, there were certainly lots of nods at numerical work, but they really undersold the subtle difficulties of doing numerics well.