Making Sense of Physics Through Computation

Learning physics often requires abandoning ideas about the world that "feel" correct. As teachers, this offers a unique difficulty. How do we convince students that physics has any applicability to the real world when it goes against principles that served them well for their entire lives? Certainly, our current lecture/lab methods do not work. Introductory physics classes are traditionally taught the wrong way around -- coaxing a chalkboard of math to give birth to various theories. Lab experiments claim to teach experimental skills, but they are typically an exercise to see whose results best match the theory despite ignoring friction. Modern computers present a solution by allowing students to analyze non-idealized situations. This talk discusses how a computational class element can be the glue between lecture and lab, making physics a more sensible, realistic endeavor worth learning.