Mechanics reform: a report from the trenches

A new project for the enhancement of undergraduate engineering courses via the use of interactive learning and computers in the classroom is being developed at Penn State University, USA. This project involves the introduction of teamwork, projects, simulation, visualization and experiment in a course traditionally containing none of these. This paper describes the Interactive Mechanics/Dynamics concept, the authors´ efforts to implement it, and some of the issues they have had to overcome during its implementation.