Instrumentation for Freshman Physics Lab - The Study of Motion

华盛顿大学正在启动一项重大计划，以提高初级科学课程的质量。正如大学教务长所说，一个主要目标是改进实验室课程，并要求所有参加讲座课程的学生也必须参加相应的实验室课程。物理学专业正在解决这两个问题：改进专业课程，并为增加实验室招生做准备。物理计划从改进入门课程中的力学实验室实验开始。参与该项目的教职员工在过去几年里一直致力于开发基于计算机的实验，为学生提供新的机会，让他们使用比以前更准确和更通用的工具来研究一维和二维的运动。到目前为止，对这些实验进行测试的实验室部分的经验表明，学生能够在对运动概念有更深入的理解的情况下，研究更广泛的现象。正在利用国家科学基金会的支助来匹配大学为购买工作站(PC 386/SX)和两个运动数字化设备提供的资金：一个视频系统和一个光学编码器。这些元素被整合到一个“运动测量站”中，形成实验室测量和分析系统的主干。美国国家科学基金会的赠款资金正在与非联邦来源的资金相匹配。

The University of Washington is initiating a major program to improve entry-level science courses. A major goal, as stated by the University Provost, is improvement of laboratory courses, and the requirement that all students enrolled in the lecture course shall also take the corresponding laboratory course. The program in Physics is addressing both issues: improvement of thelaboratory courses, and preparing for increased laboratory enrollment. The Physics plan begins with improvements in the mechanics laboratory experiments in introductory courses. Faculty and staff who are participants in this project have been working for the past few years developing computer-based experiments that provide new opportunities for students to investigate motion in one and two dimensions with much more accurate and versatile tools than were previously available. The experience to date with lab sections where these experiments were tested shows that students are able to investigate a much wider range of phenomena with a deeper understanding of the concepts of motion. NSF support is being utilized to match the University funds provided to purchase workstations (PC 386/SX) and two motion digitizing devices: a video system and optical encoders. These elements are being integrated in a "motion measurement station" and form the backbone of a laboratory measurement and analysis system.NSF grant funds are being matched with funds from non-federal sources.