For the past two years, all incoming freshmen at an eastern university have been required to have unlimited access to a personal computer. This requirement has had major impacts on student responses to their learning experience, on methods of instruction in many subject areas, and students' approaches to problem solution. Without prodding on the part of their instructors, students utilize their personal computers in their everyday work, which usually results in improved quality. This experience is not limitied to the engineering area, but both faculty and students outside that area also discover unexpected applications for the personal computer in their work. Since the computer tends to obliterate the line between "work" and "play" students spend more time in exploring alternate methods of solution to problems. They also discover that computer routines using the spreadsheet approach are well suited to solving a great variety of HVAC problems.

Units: I-P