(Posted 9-21-99)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Service Contact: Steve Gilliam, 336-334-5371

UNCG RECEIVES $1.8 MILLION U.S. D.O.E. GRANT
TO ESTABLISH WEB-BASED PHYSICS LAB
 
        GREENSBORO--Physics is not known as a user-friendly subject, but with the help of the Internet and a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, two University of North Carolina at Greensboro faculty hope to make it user-friendly and interactive on a national level.
        Dr. Gerald W. Meisner, an associate professor of physics, and Dr. Harol Hoffman, an educational anthropologist, have received funding to establish an online, interactive introductory physics course. The course will take place entirely within a virtual laboratory and will be marketed nationwide through commercial arrangements and academic university distance learning channels.
        The project is part of the  "Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships" program. It is one of 29 peer-reviewed awards, selected from over 650 proposals, announced in August by Vice President Al Gore.
        "The LAAP proposal was submitted by a talented team whose members possess many and diverse talents: physics content and teaching expertise, technology applications, marketing analysis and evaluation skills," Hoffman said.
        UNCG's $1.8 million grant was one of the largest funded and the largest of three awarded to North Carolina universities. The proposal covers five years and  was part of $10 million in new federal grants awarded to expand access to high quality education for adults.
        "All Americans deserve access to educational opportunities that will help them get ahead," Gore said. "We must make it possible for adults to learn at a time, pace and location that works around the constraints of their daily lives."
        Called "Learn Anytime Anywhere Physics," Meisner and Hoffman will use the Java programming language and database technology to build an online laboratory learning environment where students will conduct interactive physics experiments in a virtual lab.
        The LAAP virtual lab will be a close copy of the real lab students use in Meisner's Workshop Physics course, which is modeled after the successful laboratory-based Workshop Physics course developed at Dickinson College. "The LAAP virtual lab will provide a distance learning experience in the sciences for those unable to obtain such experiences in traditional college laboratory settings," Meisner said.
        Unlike in a real physics lab, students will be able to vary parameters and experiment with some situations that are too dangerous, expensive, difficult to achieve or physically impossible, such as zero or negative gravity and frictionless motion.
        "Expanding the opportunities for all those interested in pursuing scientific, mathematical, engineering and technical careers at various stages in their lives is critical to the long-term welfare of the nation as well as to the aspirations of countless citizens, particularly those who have been traditionally under represented in the sciences," Meisner said.
        The LAAP course also will feature a "virtual tutor" to assess students' progress in conducting online experiments. Dr. Aaron Titus, an assistant professor of physics at N.C. A&T State University and co-developer of an online physics testing program called WebAssign, will design and implement the virtual tutor.
        LAAP grants are awarded to partnerships involving two or more institutions of higher education, community organizations, businesses and other public and private agencies. The UNCG grant was awarded to a partnership of UNCG, North Carolina A&T State University, Davidson College, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction and webslingerZ Inc. of Carrboro.
        Meisner will serve as lead project director and Hoffman will serve as project manager and co-project director. The two have worked closely together on other projects, including Technology Tools for Science and Mathematics Learning for North Carolina schools. Meisner also designed and authored AstroWeb, an online astronomy course currently being offered at UNCG. Hoffman is lead author of four online courses developed by the Technology Tools project team.

Back to the Latest News Releases
Return to the University News Service Home Page