“An Introduction to Numerical Modeling with Python” by Adam Dempsey

Edited by Kyle Thompson

The goal of this activity is to introduce high school physics students to modeling simple physical systems on their computers. The numerical modeling is done in the Python programming language. Students are given Python code that is mostly complete and are asked to fill in several missing code fragments. The students will then run a simulation. Providing students with mostly working code allows them to focus more on the simulation and the physics instead of the coding; however, classes with more programming experience can sacrifice the physics for more computer science.

This lesson is free to download for use in your classroom.
Click to download the lesson plan as a printable PDF or an editable Word Document.

Grade Level: 11-12
Difficulty Level: Advanced
Skills and Topics: Physics, Computer Science, Python, modeling
Technical Needs: Computer, Python