FLIP — Flexible learning in physics and mechanics

Abstract

FLIP — Flexible Learning in Physics and Mechanics is a three year joint project between the Department of Physics at Stockholm University, the Department of Physics at Kungl. Tekniska Högskolan — KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm and the Department of Mechanics at the same institute. Also the University of Plymouth in UK has a consulting role in the project. It is financed by the Swedish Council for the Renewal of Undergraduate Education.

The aim of the project is to increase the flexibility and efficiency of physics and mechanics teaching and to introduce international character and cooperation into the educational program. This is an important part of making Swedish students internationally competitive and to make our teaching more attractive to foreign students. We intend to achieve this by introducing different modes of computer use in the learning process in several physics and mechanics courses and to set up Teaching Development Laboratories where computers and servers with relevant software and experimental equipment will be accessible to teachers and students. We have focused our interest on computer programs developed by the Consortium for Upper Level Physics Software (CUPS), Software Teaching of Modular Physics (SToMP), Interactive Physics^TMfrom Knowledge Revolution, MATLAB^® from The Math Works Inc., and information and exercise material on WWW.