Integrating Numerical Computation into the Modeling Instruction Curriculum

Abstract

Numerical computation (the use of a computer to solve, simulate, or visualize a physical problem) has fundamentally changed the way scientific research is done. Systems that are too difficult to solve in closed form are probed using computation. Experiments that are impossible to perform in the laboratory are studied numerically. Consequently, in modern science and engineering, computation is widely considered to be as important as theory and experiment.