Interactive Computer-based Models and the Internet

Over the past dozen years Davidson College physics faculty have produced some of the most widely used and most widely distributed interactive computer-based curricular materials for the teaching of introductory and advanced physics. These materials are based on Java applets called Physlets and new Open Source Physics (OSP) programs. This talk outlines the pedagogical and technical features of Physlet- and OSP-based materials that have lead to their success and briefly describes current efforts to create and distribute material using the ComPADRE national digital library. The Open Source Physics collection of source code, programs and curricular materials is freely available at: $<$http://www.compadre.org/osp/$>$.