A theoretical framework for an academic discipline is a set of interrelated concepts that allow new facts and ideas to be viewed and integrated into a specific context. In his book What the Best Teachers Do, Ken Bain observes that "Students bring paradigms to the class that shape how they construct meaning. Even if they know nothing about our subjects, they still can use an existing mental model of something to build their knowledge of what we tell them."
This presentation will explore the steps to build a framework for Applied and Computational Math, which allows a variety of applied math concepts to be organized into a meaningful whole, and can be leveraged in the design of a course in Discrete Mathematics. The framework can help students grasp new mathematical applications by comparing them to a common reference model, and better explains how abstract mathematical models and algorithms are tied to real world applications and computer implementations. Student performance and engagement in visual-based programming assignments compared to text-based assignments in introductory CS1 classes will also reveal the beginning CS studentŐs initial conceptualizations of software development.
Dr Brian Rague is Professor and Chair of the School of Computing at Weber State University. Over 20 years of his professional career has been devoted to education and corporate training. He has also performed research on earth-observing missions at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr Rague has earned degrees from MIT and the University of Utah. His research interests involve parallel computing, programming languages, and opportunities for creative software engineering in the fields of education, biomedicine and physics.
Last modified: Tuesday, 03-Jul-2018 13:42:29 NZST
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