Using Computational Methods to Bring New Topics to the Curriculum
(see also http://www.physics.purdue.edu/~ng/comp_phys.html)

As computers continue to infiltrate the science curriculum, it is important to consider the ways in which they are used. It is natural to employ them to simplify or supplement the topics that are already covered. While there is certainly nothing wrong with this approach, computers can also be used to greatly broaden the scope of what is taught. The use of computational methods makes it possible to treat, in a fairly elementary way, many interesting, and modern, topics which are usually not found in the curriculum. However, several years ago, when I began to teach a course on computational physics, I discovered that the available texts were nearly all centered on numerical methods. There was, I felt, a need, for material on up-to-date topics which concentrates on the science.

This proposal describes the course materials developed to make a wide variety of new topics accessible at the undergraduate level. In many cases, they have been distilled from the recent research literature. This work led to the book "Computational Physics," which was published by Prentice-Hall in 1997. In contrast to most other texts, my course material focuses on the science, as opposed to the numerical methods. This difference is often immediately evident from the table of contents; for my book the listed topics nearly all involve science, while for most other texts the chapters are centered around numerical algorithms.