Advancing the Cause of Computation in the Physics Curriculum

Abstract

There are numerous approaches to incorporating computational science advances in education. Many physics departments now teach a course in CP, usually in the upper division. Some also teach a lower division scientific computing class. And, of course, computers are often used to help teach physics classes, but value is usually placed on the physics and not the computation. Although there is as yet no standard CP curriculum, there are now several excellent texts available for CP classes. However, few textbooks cover the standard topics in a physics curriculum while also integrating modern computational techniques. The authors are proposing a series of advanced textbooks that address the interface of physical and computational sciences.