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Computers inPhysicsEducation

ISSN 1354-9987

CTI Centre for Physics,Physics Department, Tel. (01483) 259 329University of Surrey, Fax. (01483) 259 501Guildford,Surrey, GU2 5XH

e-mail: [email protected]: http://www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/cti/

Director Dr. Dick BaconManager Mrs. Margaret MillingtonCo-ordinator Dr. Dave Wonnacott

Published by the CTI Centre for PhysicsNumber 15, February 1998

Contents:Software reviews 2The Interactive Data Language (IDL) and the newupgraded version of Crocodile Clips are reviewed.

Netskills: Web searching 6The first in a short series of articles to help you tohone your Netskills. This edition: finding thatessential resource with the minimum of time andeffort.

SToMP: update 8SToMP developments are proceeding apace!

Calendar 11Forthcoming events, tours, and demonstrations.

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Computers in Physics Education Number 15, February 1998

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IDL—Interactive Data LanguageThe high-powered graphical data manipulation package IDL was originalldeveloped for medical data display, but is now finding many applications in thewider fields of science. IDL is reviewed below by Drs. Mat Page and Jon Mittaz,astrophysicists at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory.

1. Introduction

IDL or “Interactive Data Language” is aprogramming language written with anemphasis on the manipulation andvisualisation of data. It is interactive in thatthe same commands which are used to buildprograms can be entered and immediatelyexecuted at the command line. At the heartof IDL are a suite of graphical routinesdesigned to allow the user to display data asgraphs, images, contour plots, 3-D surfacesor even shaded 3-D solid objects.

animation procedures allow sequences ofimages to be brought to life. IDL alsocontains the facilities for programming‘widgets’—objects on the screen such asimage windows, buttons, or slider bars whichcan perform many different tasks liketoggling error bars or resizing plots.

Another of IDL’s virtues is its vast collectionof ‘ready-made’ procedures covering suchuseful topics as statistical routines (F-test,Student’s t, correlations), transforms(Fourier, wavelet), eigensolvers, in-builtfunctions such as Bessel functions andGamma functions, fitting routines for curvesand surfaces, signal processing (Lomb-Scragle periodograms, pass filters), matrixsolvers, I/O routines for myriad of formats,and so on. Many of the routines areimplemented from the ‘famous’ NumericalRecipes by Press et alii. Furthermore, it ispossible (although not always straight-forward) to call existing Fortran or Croutines from within IDL.

3. What could it be useful for?

IDL’s main (original) use is for visualisingdata. At its simplest, it might be used to plota mathematical function or to display animage, but with a little imagination it couldbe used to illustrate any number of physicalor mathematical situations: perhapsanimations of interfering wavefronts or usingthe 3-D viewing routines to show how theproperties of Solar coronal loops appear tochange with viewing angle. I certainly wouldhave found vector calculus much easier tounderstand if it had been taught using arrowvectors on a 3-D shaded surface rather thanthe lecturer holding a pen in the air andasking us to imagine the surface on which itlay! IDL’s ‘widget’ routines make itrelatively straightforward to producegraphical user interfaces to programs, so thatinteractive demonstrations can be producedand students can be left to control the action.There is even a widget builder, which allowsyou to interactively build a set of widgets andautomatically writes the IDL code needed togenerate them.

2. What makes IDL different?

The philosophy behind IDL is that it shouldbe a practical and versatile means ofmanipulating and displaying data. It differsfrom more conventional plotting or imagedisplay packages in that it can beprogrammed to manipulate data in anymanner just as though it were being runthrough an external executable. However, itis much more convenient than the graphicslibraries of other programming languagessuch as Fortran or C in that it can be usedinteractively from the command prompt. Ithas a relatively terse syntax which isintended to require the minimum ofcommands to perform a task but still remainintuitive. Arrays are manipulated as singleobjects and are easily resized or subdivided.The 3-D matrix transformation routinesallow the visualisation of 3-D data with abare minimum of programming and built-in


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The manipulation of arrays is easy andintuitive in IDL (as it uses them like vectors,without accessing individual elements) andthis makes IDL an ideal tool for teaching: forexample, the basics of astronomical imagereduction and analysis could be explainedand demonstrated with only a few briefcommands. Alternatively, IDL is suitable foruse by students themselves: problem solvingand simple programming can be performedin IDL without spending very long learningthe language itself. Furthermore the built-infunctionality makes it possible for students toperform complicated tasks and see the resultswithout having to worry about the details ofthe coded algorithm.

4. What is IDL like to use?

The basics of IDL are quick and easy to pickup and the animated demo give a good feelfor what is possible. After only a singlesession it is possible to draw graphs, anddisplay arrays as images, contour plots or assurfaces in isometric projection. To speed upthe learning process IDL comes with anumber of widgets which allow themanipulation of colour tables or the rotationof solids or surfaces. These widgets explainhow to get the same output directly from theIDL command line to help the userunderstand the IDL command language.The documentation supplied with IDL isinformative and easy to navigate and an on-line help system (accessible with a “?” on thecommand line) reproduces most of what is inthe manuals and is easy to use. When thebasics of IDL have been mastered, it becomesa versatile tool allowing the display of datain any form or combination of forms that theuser desires. However, as the requirementsof the user become more exacting, IDL startsto require a considerable amount of timeconsuming ‘fiddling’ to produce exactly theright output.

IDL certainly has its fair share of ‘features’:the colour table used in IDL windows tendsto ‘take over’ the colour table of the wholedisplay so that things in other windows canbe illegible,and there is no facility to forceIDL windows to use a private colourmap.Also, the output on different display devicescan be quite different; what appears perfecton the screen can have the labels chopped offwhen a Postscript version is produced.Programming with IDL is at first a pleasure:the syntax is intuitive and leads to programswhich are very easy to understand. Anyonewith some programming knowledge wouldfind it easy to learn, particularly if the user

knows fortran (although the arrays areindexed from zero like in C), and it isparticularly useful for producing small andsimple programs with a minimum of fuss.However, after producing more substantialpieces of code the appeal of IDL forprogramming may fade. Programs that

contain numerical or other CPU-intensivecode seem to take forever to run whencompared with similar code written inFortran or C, especially if the IDL code isnot written to take advantage of IDL’s array-manipulation capabilities. Type conversionsare done automatically by IDL as data arepassed between different proceduressometimes leading to unexpected andconfusing results. For example the ‘plot’command always converts double precisionarguments to single precision before plottingthem, but gives no error message even if acomplete array of data is rounded off to be asingle point on the display. There is alsolittle support for debugging large amounts ofcode in IDL. One also has to remember thatIDL code can only be run on a machine withIDL installed, so there is no point givingnifty IDL programs to colleagues unless theyalso have IDL on their machines.

Overall, IDL is certainly a powerful anduseful tool for displaying any kind of data inan easy-to-understand way. It is far moreversatile than conventional plotting packagesand with a little effort can be made toproduce almost any output that the userwants. It is ideal for demonstrating anyaspect of scientific data or imagemanipulation, and its simple syntax andinteractive nature make it ideal for studentsto solve simple problems. However, IDL canbe rather slow and/or time-consuming for


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Crocodile Clips v3.0The latest version of this electronics package has just been released andincorporates a swathe of new features which significantly improves this already-excellent teaching software. The review is by Dave Wonnacott, CTI PhysicsCo-ordinator.

1. Introduction

As with any software package, there are gooddesigns, bad designs, and mediocre designs.Many electronics packages fall into the thirdcategory simply by virtue of their ‘dryness’.It is hard to enthuse about (or be enthusedby) software that offers nothing but picturesof electrical components to jigsaw togetherand an occasional flashing bulb. A goodpackage, of which there are too few, willcombine an extensive array of componentswith some feel that one is doing electronicsin real-time and in a real sense. CrocodileClips is a ‘good package’.

2. The package: pros and cons

Crocodile Clips v3.0 immediately impresses.This small package, coming in at a fractionover one Megabyte for the demonstrationversion (and between 2 and 3 MB for the fullversion), contains an impressive array offeatures. As well as the ‘trivial’ batteries,switches, resistors, and bulbs, Crocodile

Clips has meters, logic gates, integratedcircuits, audio components, semiconductors,and thermistors, and now version 3.0 addsmechanical components like motors andgears, springs and masses, and solenoids.

tasks which require a considerable amount ofprogramming or a very polished outputdisplay.

5. Other information

IDL builds are available for both Windowsand Macintosh, and under Unix, Linux,Solaris, and VMS (primarily Alphas). Anevaluation CD-ROM is available free fromthe IDL homesite. Alternatively, an copy isdownloadable from ftp.rsinc.com, but bewareit comes in 22 1.44MB parts totalling nearly32MB of download time! A closer site todownload from is www.floatingpoint.co.uk(which actually points to Sunsite at ImperialCollege).

IDL licences cost a substantial amount ofmoney if purchased for individual machines(£945 for PC-based s/w and £1595 for Unixat the time of going to press), but a“departmental licence” covering up to 50machines is a significant (per capita)reduction at £3750. Prices include 12 monthssupport and maintenance.

IDL also supply a student version (IDL–SV)whose only significant omissions are theinability to call external routines and anabsence of support for I/O for scientific dataformas such as HDF. Array sizes are alsolimited to 64KB. The student version costs£74 and is only available for PCs.

The IDL homepage is:http://www.rsinc.com/idl/main.html

The popularity of IDL in the scientificcommunity is reflected in the existence of anumber of websites dedicated to user-contributed procedures for IDL. If thealgoritm you want to use isn’t present in thestandard build, check out the following site.They may have already implemented it.

• NASA IDL Astronmer’s Library:http://www.idlasto.gsfc.nasa.gov/homepage.html

• ICUR spectral anaylsis software:ftp://ftp.astro.psu.edu/pub/nefftp/icur

• IDLmeteo library:ftp://ftp.sma.ch/pub/idlmeteo


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Assembling them is simple too–just clickand drop. Wiring the ends together with themouse click-and-drag can be tricky, but notoverly so, and even that tends to encouragegood circuit layout. Furthermore, entiresections of circuit can be cut-and-pasted torepeat identical sections of layout. The use ofmechanical components (an innovation forCrocodile Clips) has been implemented well,with motors, gears, and crankshafts meshingseamlessly with the electrical components.

Changing component values is simple; asingle-click on the displayed numerical valuebrings up a supply off first, of course!) Thisis a very useful function which saves some ofthe effort of rewiring and means you don’thave to worry about remembering the exactvalue of the destroyed component.

Once the circuit is activated (for example, byturning on a switch), current is seen to flowthrough wires (indicated by arrows),capacitors charge and discharge (with plusesand minuses on each plate), LEDs flash, andgears turn. This is, indeed, a virtualworkbench, and the animation is excellent.

Oscilloscope probes are provided and aseparate trace window is available to plot thevariables against time. Again, this is clearand easy to activate, and reading from thescales provided causes no problems. A right-click of the cursor anywhere along one of thewires in the circuit displays theinstantaneous current and voltage values in asmall pop-up box enabling the student aquick look without having to set up probesand a display. Sine-wave, square-wave andtriangle-wave generators are available toprovide test inputs, and both oscilloscopeoutput and sound output can be written toexternal files.

3. Teaching

Eighty-one example circuits come in thedemonstration package covering circuitry asdiverse as beating between nearbyfrequencies, flip-flop circuits, demonstrationsof Ohm’s Law, and even household circuitslike fridge lights and stair lights. With themechanical options, demonstrations ofinertia and acceleration, and even simpleharmonic motion become possible. CrocodileClips 3 is now considerably more versatilethan just ‘an electronics package’. It is clearthat the ease of use of this package wouldpresent few problems in a lectureenvironment. Circuits can be set upbeforehand and saved to be loaded when

required, mitigating ‘finger trouble’ in frontof a class. As for ‘laboratory’ use, each packcontains activities and example circuitswhich can be used as exercises for classes oras a resource for teaching, and there are anumber of texts and other s/w packages thatuse or are compatible with Crocodile Clips[for details see the resource page of theCrocodile Clips (v2.0) website]. Circuitdiagrams can be printed straight from thescreen or saved as bitmaps, and ‘output data’can be saved to files for subsequent analysis.

4. Other information

Crocodile Clips v3.0 costs £80 for a single-user licence or £175 for a five-user licence.The latter can be extended in blocks of fiveusers at £75 per block.

The Crocodile Clips homepage iswww.crocodile-clips.com/education/v3.htmfor v3.0. Oddly, this has no downloadfacilities, but a copy of the v2.0 demo can behad fromwww.crocodile-clips.com/education/

Crocodile Clips can be contacted atCrocodile Clips Ltd.,11 Randolph Place,Edinburgh,EH3 7TATel: 0131 226 1511Fax: 0131 226 1522.

(This review was performed on a 133MHzPentium with 32MB of RAM under Win95.It has also been tested under Win 3.1 with16 MB RAM at 66MHz and Windows NT.)


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Netskills I: effective searching of the WWWIn the first of a series of articles emphasising a more effective use of the World-Wide Web for teaching and resourcing, Dave Wonnacott, astronomer and CTICo-ordinator, shows you how to find what you want when you want it (nine-times out of ten).

1. Introduction–Search engines:

There is almost no point in using the Web ifyou are not going to exploit its primaryvirtue: access to vast quantities of

information. The problem arisesbecause of the fact that much of theinformation ‘out there’ is of limiteduse (at best) and very dubious quality(at worst). The question is, therefore,“How do I find the information Iwant?” That’s where ‘searchengines’ come in. There are sitesthroughout the world which sendprograms (often called Web-crawlersor search-bots) out onto the Weblooking for and categorising all theWebsites they can find. Thisinformation is then stored in acentral database which can beaccessed free of charge. (Funding forthese sites usually comes fromcompanies who place advertisementsin the page banner.) So, where arethese sites?

2. Different engines:

There are many sites of varying quality onthe Internet. Listed below are some of themajor ones.

• Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/ ) is anexcellent site with probably the largestcollection of adresses (commonly referred toas URLs or Uniform Resource Locators)available and is my first choice of a searchengine. When you connect to it, you willprobably be routed to a more local copy ofthe same site (known as a mirror), e.g.,www.lycos-uk.com;

• Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com/ ) wasoriginally a very American-oriented engine,but has become much more global of late. Itcontains more of interest to the public, butthere are large numbers of software,shareware, and scientific outreach linksavailable;

• AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/ ) andInfoseek (http://www.infoseek.com/ ) arecousins of the more modern Yahoo! and

serve the same markets to a degree, but areperhaps aimed more at the commercialaspects than at the home-user. These may beuseful to use if Lycos or Yahoo! are busy ordown;

• Four-Eleven (http://www.four11.com/ ) isprimarily a directory of names and addresses.If you’re trying to track someone down (acompany or an individual), look here. Ifound an old out-of-touch American friend ofmine first time on Four-Eleven;

• DejaNews (http://www.dejanews.com/ ) isa mine of useful information. This engine isconnected to most of the major (and many ofthe minor) newsgroups on the Internet.Whilst many of these are of passing (or less)interest, many are enormous resourcescovering the sciences (e.g., sci.astro,sci.physics, sci.energy), computing (e.g.,comp.os.linux, comp.lang.perl.misc), and soon. Check here to see if someone knowsabout that report on cold fusion or how toinstall GCC under DOS. Beware though,hearsay is plentiful and a pinch of salt isrecommended.

3. Techniques:

Now that you know about these sites, how doyou find what you want? All of the aboveengines have Web-based front-ends that takeinformation as a ‘form’ which you fill in(and subsequently refine). Years ofexperience in using these engines suggeststwo rules-of-thumb:

1. that you use between two and fourkeywords to specify your search target.(More than that will result in a large numberof ‘hits’ containing only a few of thekeywords, and fewer will result in hundredsof ‘hits’ from a poorly constrained search);and

2. if your desired target hasn’t appeared inthe first 30-or-so ‘hits’, you’ve missed it andshould re-think your keywords.

These are, of course, general but will applyto about 85% of the simple searches you maydo. The use of only a few keywords serves tofocus your target and can do much of the


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searching prior to using an engine—after all,your brain ought to be better at it than apiece of ‘fuzzy logic’!

4. Advanced searching:

If you want to be very specific about how theengine uses your keywords (i.e., how itaccepts or rejects their position relative toother words or how they appear assubstrings), most engines will allow someform of advanced searching. At a triviallevel, this amounts to Boolean constructionssuch as “CTI & Physics” (equivalent to“CTI” and “Physics”) and “chalk | cheese”(“chalk” or “cheese”). Further criteria can beapplied using e.g., “quark+” to imply that“quark” must be present in the target,“teaching NEAR software” to look for‘nearby’ words, “url: yahoo” to search forURLs with “yahoo” in them, and so on. Eachsite usually has a list of syntax which theyuse for advanced searches, much of which issimilar to the ‘regular expressions’ used forstring-handling routines in languages likePerl. Seek these lists out before you start.

5. Archives:

If search engines are the miners of the Weband Internet, archives are the veins ofprecious minerals. Most information on theWeb is sparcely distributed, with perhaps oneor two interesting snippets at each majornode. Archives, by collecting specific items,save your time and effort and are more likely(but not guaranteed) to bring you higherquality ‘goods’ by providing a focus for‘suppliers’ on the Web.

One thing to remember: many archives donot virus-check their contents; always,always, run a virus checker on your latestdownload (before you unzip it if possible).

(You’ll notice that some of the sites listedbelow have pages ending in”.htm” and somein “.html”. These are not typographic errors,but a consequence of the restriction on thenumber of characters in a filetype extensionunder some operating systems; DOS, forexample, only allows three-letter filetypes.)

Software archives:

Many major software houses have their ownwebsites, loaded with information,demonstration packages, reductions onpackages, and the like. These should clearlybe used when you have something specific inmind. However, a number of sites specialisein the supply of shareware or freeware, and

these can be invaluable for small packages ormodules that demonstrate some aspect ofphysics, or for finding that converter to allowyou to run your 32-bit Win95 package on a16-bit Win3.1 machine. As always, quantityis not a promise of quality, so you’ll have toinvestigate each package individually.

• SunSITEs are “Sun Software,Information, and Technology Exchanges”and have a far broader remit than theirnames suggest. Placed across the world, theUK SITE is at Imperial College London, andcontains literally thousands of items ofshareware and freeware (http://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/). The only seriousproblem with SunSITE is an absence of adecent internal search for specific items. Itis, however, worth learning where a few ofthe useful parts of the directory tree arelocated (and perhaps bookmarking them forlater use);

• a vast shareware archive resides at ZD Net(http://www.zdnet.com/) and is well-organised. Most packages are given astar-rating to help you separate the wheatfrom the chaff, and there’s almost alwayssomething of interest on display;

• Mr. Zamboni maintains an extensive listof shareware sites that might just keep yousupplied until the New Millennium (http://www.iglou.com/zamboni/share.html);

• SharePhys (http://www.phys.ksu.edu/perg/sharephys/sharephys.html) has a series oflinks to other sites which maintain softwarefor teaching physics.

6. Teaching archives:

As well as archives of software, there isa substantial (and growing) amount ofinformation on teaching methods andtechniques using Dearing’s C&IT. Evenif you don’t expect to change yourteaching, many of the ideas andconcepts within will demonstrate thedirections teaching is taking, and allowyou to prepare more effectively for thefuture.

• Physics Education Resources (http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~physics/education.html) lists a large number of sitescarrying teaching resources such as TheGlobal Academy and the World Lecture Hall(see below);

“The rule toremember is:bookmark it or

lose it!”


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• The World Lecture Hall (http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/index.html)has a virtual sea of lecture materials fromwhich you can select and freely adapt to yourown needs;

• closer to home, the Enterprise in HigherEducation (http://www.umist.ac.uk/Calweb/index.htm) will supply you with informationon all aspects of teaching with the Web; and

• ScienceNet (http://www.campus.bt.com/CampusWorld/pub/ScienceNet/first.html) hasan archive of science-based questions and

answers, useful either for those trickyquestions from a lecture, or for basing examquestions on.

If you find a good or useful site, do let meknow (on [email protected])!

One final warning: don’t forget to‘bookmark’ those interesting things you find.You can always have a clearout of things youhaven’t looked at in months, but you mayspend hours looking for that elusive articlethat was so good, yet you forgot to notewhere it was. The rule to remember is:bookmark it or lose it!

The state of SToMPDr. Dick Bacon talks about the latest SToMP release and current developments ofthe new Optics, Astronomy, and Electricty and Magnetism modules.

The SToMP project (Software Teaching ofModular Physics) is now approaching theend of its sixth year of funding, and has justreleased a new version that aims at beingfully compatible with Windows NT. Earlierversions of the project materials have ingeneral been well received, having beenobtained by over 70 institutions of HigherEducation in the UK alone, as well as bymany schools and colleges.

The first two modules ever generated for thisstyle of learning environment, created underthe first round of TLTP funding from 1992 to1995, were for first-year undergraduatecourses in Waves and Vibrations and in thetreatment of Measurement Uncertainty. Afurther module in Optics was started duringthe final year of the first phase, with somefunding being provided by QueenslandUniversity of Technology, Brisbane. Abouthalf of this module is now completed, andthe creation of the final units has recentlybeen commissioned. The funding for thiswork is coming partly from the sales ofSToMP CDs. This module is expected to becompleted by the third quarter of 1999.

In the summer of 1996 a group ofAstronomers met at the University of Surreyto define a syllabus for a SToMP module inAstronomy. Some of the units for thisAstronomy module have now been written,with manpower being contributed mainly bythe University of Guelph, Ontario. The samesource is also behind a recent initiative tocreate a module for Electricity andMagnetism. The syllabus for this module iscurrently under discussion, and work hasalready started on a preliminary unit.

If you would like to contribute to any of thisdevelopment work, or would like to find outmore about the project or the teaching andlearning materials being produced, thenplease email the project [email protected], or have a look at ourweb pages at www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/stomp/.


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Netskills WorkshopWednesday April 22nd 1998,

10.00 a.m.–17.00 p.m.

Uncertain of how to use the Web in your teaching? Not sure howto search the Web efficiently and effectively? Or do you want tostart authoring your own Webpages?

This one-day workshop at the University of Surrey’s School of Physical Sciences willbe a primarily hands-on program intended to give attendees training in the aboveskills, complemented by presentations on the use of the Web in teaching, on the useof Web-editors, and on page design and layout. Please return the completed formoverleaf for further information or to register.

Electronics Teaching SoftwareWorkshopWednesday 25th March 1998,10.00 a.m.–17.00 p.m.School of Applied Sciences,University of Surrey.

CTI Physics is holding a practicalworkshop to show how two of today’s

most popular electronics ‘virtual work-benches’, Crocodile Clips and EDEC, can

be used in an effective teaching environment.Please complete the form given overleaf for

further information or to register for this workshop.


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Netskills Workshop,Wednesday 22nd April 1998,10.00–17.00

Completed forms with remittance where appropriate should be returned by 17th April 1998to: CTI Physics, School of Applied Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford,Surrey, GU2 5XH. Registration is reserved only upon receipt of remittance.

Please register me for the Netskills workshop and send mefurther information. I enclose a cheque/postal order for £40payable to “University of Surrey” to reserve my registration.

Please only send me further information.

Name: Position:Address:

Telephone number: e-mail:Dietary requirements/allergies:

Electronic Teaching Software Workshop,Wednesday 25th March 1998,10.00–17.00

Completed forms with remittance where appropriate should be returned by 1st March 1998to: CTI Physics, School of Applied Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford,Surrey, GU2 5XH. Registration is reserved only upon receipt of remittance.

Please register me for the ETS workshop and send me furtherinformation. I enclose a cheque/postal order for £40 payable to“University of Surrey” to reserve my registration.

Please only send me further information.

Name: Position:Address:

Telephone number: e-mail:Dietary requirements/allergies:


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CalendarOur list of forthcoming events and workshops until the end of June 1998

CTI Physics Electronics s/w Workshop.

Guildford, 4th March 1998.This workshop will focus on two electronicspackages which are used extensively inteaching today: Crocodile Clips and EDEC.(A registration form is available on pageten.)e-mail: [email protected]: http://www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/cti/wkshop98.htm

CTI Mathematics Mathwise User Group.

Regional workshops, March–May 1998.Mathwise is a computer-based mathematicslearning package whose User Group has setup a series of regional workshopsto giveattendees hands-on experience of thispackage. Provisional dates are:Southampton — 10th March 1998,Bangor — 25th March 1998,Edinburgh — 23rd April 1998, andQueen’s Belfast — 13th May 1998.

Booking forms and information on the UserGroup can be found one-mail: [email protected]: http://www.bham.ac.uk/ctimath/mwug/w-index.htm

Institute of Physics 1998 Annual Congress.

Brighton, 17th–19th March 1998.The fifth of the IoP’s annual congressescontains conferences covering a wide rangeof topics in physics, plenary sessions, shortcourses and public lectures, and the PhysicsWorld Expo ‘98.e-mail: [email protected]: http://www.iop.org/IOP/Congress

BITE: Integrating C&IT in HE.

Maastricht, 25th–27th March 1998.BITE (Bringing Information Technology toEducation) is holding an internationalconference addressing C&IT. The four topics

“Innovations in HE Teaching”Wednesday 27th May 1998, 10.00 a.m.–16.30 p.m.Austin Pearce Building, University of Surrey.

Our invited speakers will present “The Implications of IT in DistanceLearning”, “Teaching Language in HE using IT”, “How Netskills canenhance HE Teaching”, and “Computerised Assessment”, and over 30commercial and non-commercial organisations will be exhibiting thelatest in C&IT for the Higher Education domain.

Admission is free, and refreshments and a buffet lunch willbe provided. Please contact Margaret Millington,tel: 01483 259 329 or e-mail: [email protected]


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The CTI Centre for Physics is one of 24 CTI Centres funded by the Higher Education FundingCouncil for England, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, the Higher EducationFunding Council for Wales, and the Department of Education for Northern Ireland, and issupported by the University of Surrey.

covered are institutional strategies,educational innovation, new tools andapplications, and organisational issues.Further information can be obtained from:e-mail: [email protected]: http://www.unimaas.nl/~electra/conference

CTI Physics/CTI Engineering NetskillsWorkshops.

Guildford, 22nd April 1998 (Physics) orLondon, 21st April 1998 (Engineering).Based on the excellent Netskills Groupteaching package, this one-day workshopwill provide Web-novices with backgroundon and hands-on experience of searching andsurfing, useful URLs, bookmarking, HTMLand editors, and good Webpage design. (Aregistration form is available on page ten.)e-mail: [email protected]: http://www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/cti/wkshop98.htm ore-mail: [email protected]: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/events/

CTI Workshop & Forum in NorthernIreland

Ulster, 13th–15th May 1998Preceeded by subject-specific workshops ineither Queens University Belfast or UlsterUniversity (13th) and the CTI Colloquium(14th), the CTI Forum is on the last day.URL: http://www.cti.ac.uk/nireland/

CTI & TLSU Open Day“Innovations in HE Teaching”

Guildford, 27th May 1998.Our invited speakers will present “TheImplications of IT in Distance Learning”,“Teaching Language in HE using IT”, “HowNetskills can enhance HE Teaching”, and“Computerised Assessment”, and over 30commercial and non-commercialorganisations will be exhibiting the latest inC&IT for the Higher Education domain.Further information can be obtained from:e-mail: [email protected]: http://www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/cti/tel: 01483 259 329

CALISCE ‘98.

Goteborg, 15th–17th June 1998.The fourth conference on CAL andInstruction in Science and Engineering isdesigned to report the best CAL research,tools, and implementation. Furtherinformation can be obtained from:e-mail: [email protected]: http://www.pedu.chalmers.se/calisce98.html

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