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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Imagine Math Day: Encouraging Secondary School Students And Teachers To Engage In Authentic Mathematical Discovery, Darryl H. Yong, Michael E. Orrison Jr.
Imagine Math Day: Encouraging Secondary School Students And Teachers To Engage In Authentic Mathematical Discovery, Darryl H. Yong, Michael E. Orrison Jr.
All HMC Faculty Publications and Research
Research mathematicians and school children experience mathematics in profoundly different ways. Ask a group of mathematicians what it means to “do mathematics” and you are likely to get a myriad of responses: mathematics involves analyzing and organizing patterns and relationships, reasoning and drawing conclusions about the world, or creating languages and tools to describe and solve important problems. Students of mathematics often report “doing mathematics” as performing calculations or following rules. It’s natural that they see mathematics as monolithic rather than an evolving, growing, socially constructed body of knowledge, because most mathematical training in primary and secondary schools consists of …
A Survey Of Evidence For Test-Driven Development In Academia, Chetan Desai, David S. Janzen, Kyle Savage
A Survey Of Evidence For Test-Driven Development In Academia, Chetan Desai, David S. Janzen, Kyle Savage
Computer Science and Software Engineering
University professors traditionally struggle to incorporate software testing into their course curriculum. Worries include double-grading for correctness of both source and test code and finding time to teach testing as a topic. Test-driven development (TDD) has been suggested as a possible solution to improve student software testing skills and to realize the benefits of testing. According to most existing studies, TDD improves software quality and student productivity. This paper surveys the current state of TDD experiments conducted exclusively at universities. Similar surveys compare experiments in both the classroom and industry, but none have focused strictly on academia.
Improving The Computer Science In Bioinformatics Through Open Source Pedagogy, John David N. Dionisio, Kam D. Dahlquist
Improving The Computer Science In Bioinformatics Through Open Source Pedagogy, John David N. Dionisio, Kam D. Dahlquist
Biology Faculty Works
Bioinformatics relies more than ever on information technologies. This pressures scientists to keep up with software development best practices. However, traditional computer science curricula do not necessarily expose students to collaborative and long-lived software development. Using open source principles, practices, and tools forms an effective pedagogy for software development best practices. This paper reports on a bioinformatics teaching framework implemented through courses introducing computer science students to the field. The courses led to an initial product release consisting of software and an Escherichia coli K12 GenMAPP Gene Database, within a total "incubation time" of six months.
Bridging The Gender Gap In Quantum Physics, Gordon Stecklein
Bridging The Gender Gap In Quantum Physics, Gordon Stecklein
Pomona Senior Theses
Why is it important to study the gender gap in physics? Despite entering the workforce in increasing numbers over the last fifty years, women remain severely underrepresented in science and technology-related careers, particularly in positions of authority. Simultaneously, numerous studies verify that women have the ability to perform as well as – or better than – males in physics, and, when presented in certain lights, as many women as men show an interest in physics. Changes must be made in order to strive for equality and, given the changing demographic of the workforce, increase our country’s diminishing scientific prowess.
Test-Driven Learning In Early Programming Courses, David S. Janzen, Hossein Saiedian
Test-Driven Learning In Early Programming Courses, David S. Janzen, Hossein Saiedian
Computer Science and Software Engineering
Coercing new programmers to adopt disciplined development practices such as thorough unit testing is a challenging endeavor. Test-driven development (TDD) has been proposed as a solution to improve both software design and testing. Test-driven learning (TDL) has been proposed as a pedagogical approach for teaching TDD without imposing significant additional instruction time. This research evaluates the effects of students using a test-first (TDD) versus test-last approach in early programming courses, and considers the use of TDL on a limited basis in CS1 and CS2. Software testing, programmer productivity, programmer performance, and programmer opinions are compared between test-first and test-last programming …
The Art Of Teaching Mathematics, Garikai Campbell, Jon T. Jacobsen, Aimee S A Johnson, Michael E. Orrison Jr.
The Art Of Teaching Mathematics, Garikai Campbell, Jon T. Jacobsen, Aimee S A Johnson, Michael E. Orrison Jr.
All HMC Faculty Publications and Research
On June 10–12, 2007, Harvey Mudd College hosted A Conference on the Art of Teaching Mathematics. The conference brought together approximately thirty mathematicians from the Claremont Colleges, Denison, DePauw, Furman, Middlebury, Penn State, Swarthmore, and Vassar to explore the topic of teaching as an art. Assuming there is an element of artistic creativity in teaching mathematics, in what ways does it surface and what should we be doing to develop this creativity?