New Curriculum Materials for Upper Level Undergraduate Courses on Thermal and Statistical Physics

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*** 9801878 Gould Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics are important in many areas of science and engineering. These subjects have evolved especially rapidly during the recent past and should be central to the undergraduate physics curriculum. This activity will define a core set of concepts and skills for thermal physics and develop new curricular materials to update and strengthen undergraduate instruction in this area. These materials will encourage more active student involvement than do traditional textbooks and lectures, and will include hypertext linked to tables of experimental and simulation data, computer tools for the analysis of data, templates for the writing of short computer programs to enable students to go beyond idealized algebraic calculations, and self-contained modules on contemporary applications. The proposed contributions include a reinvigoration of classical thermodynamics, an increased emphasis on the conceptual understanding of probability, entropy, maximum work, and free energy, and the application of basic ideas in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics to contemporary problems. These materials will be disseminated to the physics community via a World Wide Web site, which will also serve as a platform for the co-principal investigators to help the physics community to continually improve their thermal and statistical physics courses and to encourage students to use the self-contained application modules. They will also edit a special issue of the American Journal of Physics devoted to thermal physics, give an AAPT workshop, and organize a symposium on teaching thermal physics. ***