The M.U.P.P.E.T. Manifesto

Abstract

The Maryland University Project on Physics and Educational Technology uses microcomputers in the classroom to teach physics. M.U.P.P.E.T. has found that there are many elements of the traditional course that are unbalanced or inappropriate in a modern environment. The power of the computer permits one to address a number of these problems. Including the computer in the students' first physics course permits one to begin their training in skills normally neglected until graduate school; to introduce contemporary topics; and to let the students undertake creative, open ended investigations of interesting and unsolved problems, even at the freshman level.