The Role of Projects in (Computational) Physics Education

Projects are an essential part of any Computational Physics class. They are important for the student who carries them out and, if the project topic is carefully selected by instructor and student, can also assist in the education of other students. In a few cases they can be sufficiently original to make a useful contribution to a research area. Some general ideas and two specific examples are given in this paper. A short discussion of project preparation by undergraduate students in service teaching classes is also given.