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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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Volume XI, Number 1 |
September
2005 |
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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Volume XI, Number 1 |
September
2005 |
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Simulation and Symbolic Computation to Teach Probability
Dean E. Nelson, Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, will use his Innovation in Education award to imp Teaching Probability Theory as a Lab with Simulation and Symbolic Computation . As Nelson notes, the project has three goals. Primarily, he intends to improve student learning in Introduction to Probability Theory , a cornerstone course for applied math students interested in studying statistics and actuarial science. Next, Nelson hopes to provide a model for computer integration into other courses. As the final goal of the project, Nelson believes that it will better prepare students to conduct their senior research projects. The project itself involves two steps or components. The first is to purchase and install on each of the laptop computers in the existing mobile lab individual, licensed copies of Maple, a software package that enables students to perform simulations and symbolic computation. With the mobile laptop lab, they will have virtually unlimited classroom access to the laptop, thereby creating a comfort level with computers that has been missing. Furthermore, the mobile laptop lab provides the flexibility absent in the traditional computer lab—students are no longer restricted to a workstation but, instead, are able to “spread out,” using not only their computers but also their textbooks, analysis output, and various other reference material. In addition, the availability of Maple on the mobile laptop lab computers will influence the decisions by other faculty on whether or not to further integrate the use of Maple into their courses. It is likely that many of them will take advantage of this resource for use in their classes. The second step of the project is to redevelop the curriculum for his course. However, Nelson is quick to point out that the purpose is not to change the course content but rather to seamlessly integrate the use of the computer into the curriculum and, as a result, “change the way students approach learning the material.” Nelson, an applied statistician who has relied heavily on use of the computer for data analysis, implementation of new methodology, and simulation studies, explains, “The interactive process of trying to explain to a computer how to compute forces students to understand what it is they want done. The debugging process of puzzling over results, revising, rerunning, and reviewing the new results is a useful analog of the way learning takes place.”
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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