Hello,

The Phoenix project aims to bring low cost PC based experimental Physics education to the classroom - read about it here:

http://linuxgazette.net/111/pramode.html

Regards, Pramode

Yeah for the Phoenix project. There is actual evidence that this kind of approach to science education works well. Of course the extent to which actual evidence means much is problematic - as we are in the realm of education, and technology, after all. Low cost certainly sounds like a nice idea. And real scientists are themselves always working within budgetary constraints. And the history of science is all about the rigging up of apparatus from available materials to test hypotheses. And like just about everything else in life, one learns science best by doing it. Not virtually, but actually. I like the fact it grows out of efforts of someone doing work at a Nuclear Science Center. One, because it is the effort of a working scientist. Secondly, because the state of the art of scientific apparatus - particularly in this kind of field - is so advanced (and expensive) that it would be easy to despair that this kind of approach could give students a shot at doing science. A working scientist is concluding otherwise here, and doing something about it. The virtual 3d laboratory with avatars scurrying about in white smocks is another approach, of course. I guess until the evidence is in - I'm being kind, because the evidence is in and its just a matter of who wants to look at it - its just a matter of taste. Art