PICUP: A Community of Teachers Integrating Computation into Undergraduate Physics Courses

Abstract

The need to integrate computation into the physics curriculum has long been established: using simulations and computational modeling can enhance students’ conceptual understanding, and the computational skills students acquire are both useful and necessary in their careers. However, making changes to an established physics course is a challenge on many fronts: instructors need to be comfortable with their own computational skills, they need time to find and adapt appropriate materials, and they may have questions about how to integrate computation into their course(s). The Partnership for Integration of Computation into Undergraduate Physics (PICUP) was organized to identify the barriers underlying these challenges, to document the current state of computation use in physics courses, and to explore avenues to reach and engage physics teachers.