Open Source Physics is an online curriculum resource, created and edited by a group of college professors, that provides students new ways to understand and predict physical phenomena through computational physics and computer modeling. For students who learn best by exploring and doing versus just reading this is an outstanding resource.
Open Source Physics came to fruition because these professors felt like there was a gap between what students were learning in the classroom and the skills they needed. Unfortunately, such realizations appear to be consistent within education as a whole. The authors note on the site:
Computers and computer-based instruction pervade our educational institutions, and much of experimental and theoretical physics cannot be done without the aid of computers. Despite these advances in teaching and research, computational physics remains absent from the typical undergraduate physics program....The absence of computation and modeling is one of the most striking examples of our failure to update the curriculum. The OSP Collection seeks to address this failure.
Recently, Open Source Physics won Science magazine's Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE). The goal of SPORE is to raise the profile of worthwhile science education projects.
Congratulations, Open Source Physics!
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