Lessons from computational physics Jupyter notebook design
We report on a JupyterLab-based course-design for Computational Physics, part of a third-year university undergraduate physics degree. One of the challenges in teaching scientific, applied computational-physics is student engagement beyond superficial code inspection. JupyterLab is used as a teaching platform to develop physically insightful code with fewer than 100 executable lines. Particular attention is paid to the accessibility of the physics that is coded in order to enhance the student’s understanding, and encourage the use of the Jupyter platform extramurally. Here, we discuss the educational design choices, highlighting technological hurdles encountered and their educational implications. The discussion is showcased using specific examples from our course.