Hello! Welcome to the NACSE at physics group office/lab.


In this group we are involved in two types of computer based activities 

computation and education.  


Since Brian and I are primarily involved in education projects,

thats what we'll talk about today.



One project is our UNIX tutorial, which you may have seen at the poster

session.



This tutorial was created primarily for our new graduate students to help

them to get a solid start on using UNIX machines in general and our cluster in

particular.  We have been working to generalize it for use by anyone over the

WWW.



One important aspect of computer based education is interactivity.  To make a

computer tutorial more useful than a book.  Let's face it, most people, if

given the choice between sitting in a comfortable chair and reading a book and

reading the same text on a computer screen, would choose the computer screen

hands down.




Most of our educational materials provide some kind of interactivity.  The UNIX

tutorial allows students to log into one of our computers  --- you can get an

account and try it --- and practice UNIX commands as they are discussed.  

They can learn UNIX on any machine with WWW access and JAVA even a PC or MAC.

SHOW - tutorial

By the way, you can use the tutorial now if you want.




The high school physics manual provides interacivity by hiding answers to

solved problems, encouraging students to attempt the problems before they are

solved.  Another obvious advantage to a HS physics manual on the WWW is

availablility.  

SHOW - HS physics


We have also created a chance for HS students to learn computaion over the

internet.  This allows them to solve problems that they would otherwise be

unable to do.

SHOW (and explain) Paul's stuff?



We also do tutorials at a more advanced level.  The senior undergraduate /

graduate course has modules created for the WWW.  Currently we have modules for

Monte Carlo,  Differential equations, One displaying several things that can be

shown with sound effects.

SHOW Sounds


We are also working on a tutorial explaining the chaotic pendulum.  How many

people are familiar with chaotic theory?  (Weather exp if not many) 
 
The chaotic pendulum is one of the simplest physical chaotic systems.

We have created some pages which explain the physics behind the chaotic 

pendulum and the create animations for data you enter.

SHOW some pre-made movies

The final movie is of a chaotic pendulum.

SHOW chaotic pendulum



The really exciting part of this project is that faculty members who have

studied this for years are still somwhat amazed to see this behavior. 

It is very unintuitive.




We are working this term on enhancing this tutorial to show the other plots

being created at the same time.  Also when the chaotic pendulum is viewed over

a slow connection, it is hard to tell if it is pausing because of the physics

or because of the connection.


QUESTIONS