[mattegan]

At Georgia Tech, the labs associated with Physics I and II have a large programming portion. They had us use VPython [1], which is a strange package which includes a version of python and a graphics library. It worked pretty well, and I got a good kick out of it. They had us model gravitation of planets (using discrete time steps). In Physics II one of the assignments was to create vector field displaying a magnetic field, and then animate a magnet around the field in a circle.

I think the programming might have been a little too complex for some, as some people took physics first or second semester before having a programming class, and it became difficult for the TA's to help people with their code as they taught how to accomplish things, not accomplish it in a clean manner.

Overall though, I think it added a good bit of value to the course.

[1] : http://vpython.org/

[poikniok]

Note that this is only for modern physics 1 and 2, which I think roughly half of the students take, the rest taking the classical physics 1 and 2.

[mattegan]

Yes. Though they are pretty "hush hush" about the differences between the two classes, in fact, the course numbers are the same, it's just common knowledge that one professor teaches "Modern" physics, and one teaches "Classical" though, those are kind of informal, the differences are not in the material, but mainly in the teaching style.