Computation in the Paradigms Curriculum at Oregon State University

Paradigms in Physics is a novel upper-division physics curriculum developed at Oregon State University. It teaches students to think like professional physicsists, and computation is an essential element. The junior year comprises ten modular courses, each focused on a specific paradigm or class of physics problems that serves as the centerpiece of the course and on which different tools and skills are built. A variety of computational examples and exercises are used throughout the courses. Our students are familiar with computational techniques and tools since they take a required introductory computational physics course that also acts as a gateway for our Computational Physics degree program. We use Maple, Mathematica, Java, and other software packages to help students do calculations, visualize graphics, and perform simulations. In particular, we have developed a Java version of a program to simulate Stern-Gerlach spin 1/2 experiments that forms an integral part of our first quantum mechanics Paradigm course. This and other examples from our curriculum will be presented.