A Wolf in Lamb’s Clothing: Computer Science in a Mathematics CourseIn-Person
If computer science programs face a challenge of convincing students that programming is fun and achievable, they have nothing on mathematics departments, who face societal beliefs that math is hard and scary. Several movements in computer science education have focused on broadening participation within computer science and across disciplines. The CS + X'' efforts have focused on helping computer science integrate into other disciplines. The
CS For All'' movement has highlighted the importance of providing high quality computing education for all students. Simultaneously, there is increasing attention to the need to provide general education alternatives to college algebra. This paper describes a course designed to meet these goals: a course that uses programming to introduce students to functions; patterns; and spatial and computational thinking in order to meet quantitative reasoning goals set by the university. The course was designed to use Bricklayer, a set of apps, online tutorials, curriculum, and documentation that teaches mathematical thinking, computational thinking, and coding in an engaging manner using visual art as the medium. Students were successful in writing programs that created art, demonstrated mastery of quantitative literacy, and had improved attitudes following the course. This project suggests that in addition to the creation of introductory computer science classes, courses which embed computer science into disciplinary requirements can be a successful pathway to expand opportunities for students to learn computing.
Thu 16 MarDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
13:45 - 15:00 | Computer Science and MathematicsPapers at 713 Chair(s): Christopher Hundhausen Oregon State University, USA | ||
13:45 25mPaper | A Wolf in Lamb’s Clothing: Computer Science in a Mathematics CourseIn-Person Papers Michelle Friend University of Nebraska Omaha, Andrew Swift University of Nebraska at Omaha, Betty Love University of Nebraska at Omaha, Victor Winter University of Nebraska at Omaha DOI | ||
14:10 25mPaper | Leveraging Computational Science Students' Coding Strengths for Mathematics LearningIn-Person Papers Sarah Castle Michigan State University DOI | ||
14:35 25mPaper | Theoretical Computer Science Education from Impossibility and Undecidability Problems in PhysicsIn-PersonGlobal Papers Rafael del Vado Vírseda Universidad Complutense de Madrid DOI |