Is programming the new math?
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Is programming the new math?
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Re: Is programming the new math?
#2I had a rather bruising experience last fall "teaching" precalculus to a lecture of 180 students. Although I'd try to engage the students and explain how the stuff is useful, the students would have none of it. I got scathing reviews about how I was teaching stuff that wouldn't be useful until calculus 2 (which is, of course, a feature and not a bug).
We're fundamentally talking about 18-year-olds with bad attitudes here. If we can engage them with programming as opposed to further disengage them with math, I'm all for it. Anything that hastens the realization that learning is your own responsibility would pay great dividends to the students.
Re: Is programming the new math?
#3I had a rather bruising experience last fall "teaching" precalculus to a lecture of 180 students. Although I'd try to engage the students and explain how the stuff is useful, the students would have none of it. I got scathing reviews about how I was teaching stuff that wouldn't be useful until calculus 2 (which is, of course, a feature and not a bug). We're fundamentally talking about 18-year-olds with bad attitudes…
Teaching 180 18 year olds math in the same room, at the same time?
How much does that cost?
Re: Is programming the new math?
#4I had a rather bruising experience last fall "teaching" precalculus to a lecture of 180 students. Although I'd try to engage the students and explain how the stuff is useful, the students would have none of it. I got scathing reviews about how I was teaching stuff that wouldn't be useful until calculus 2 (which is, of course, a feature and not a bug). We're fundamentally talking about 18-year-olds with bad attitudes…
Perhaps an apprenticeship-system might be worth a try? Let them work together with adults---that might put some sense into them.
Re: Is programming the new math?
#5I had a rather bruising experience last fall "teaching" precalculus to a lecture of 180 students. Although I'd try to engage the students and explain how the stuff is useful, the students would have none of it. I got scathing reviews about how I was teaching stuff that wouldn't be useful until calculus 2 (which is, of course, a feature and not a bug). We're fundamentally talking about 18-year-olds with bad attitudes…
Teaching 180 18 year olds math in the same room, at the same time? How much does that cost?
Let's see... in tuition, the students paid collectively over $300,000. Between me and the two TAs who were grading and doing discussion sessions under me, about $60,000 was spent on teaching for the class (the $60,000 figure includes the graduate student tuition waivers and our health benefits).
Re: Is programming the new math?
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Teaching 180 18 year olds math in the same room, at the same time? How much does that cost?
Let's see... in tuition, the students paid collectively over $300,000. Between me and the two TAs who were grading and doing discussion sessions under me, about $60,000 was spent on teaching for the class (the $60,000 figure includes the graduate student tuition waivers and our health benefits).
Is that $300K their collective annual tuition or the amount paid for the credit hours for the course?
Re: Is programming the new math?
#7A common gripe from young students when learning math is "I'm never going to use this!"
With programming, it's much easier to motivate the subject matter - students want to learn the math so they can improve their projects.
Similarly, I found linear algebra and linear programming much more interesting when I was studying economics, and classical physics much more fun when writing little javascript animations.
So maybe applied math is a better approach at the intro levels. I'm just not sure how we get there from existing math-centric teachers and curricula.
Re: Is programming the new math?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's see... in tuition, the students paid collectively over $300,000. Between me and the two TAs who were grading and doing discussion sessions under me, about $60,000 was spent on teaching for the class (the $60,000 figure includes the graduate student tuition waivers and our health benefits).
Is that $300K their collective annual tuition or the amount paid for the credit hours for the course?
Just for the precalculus course.
Re: Is programming the new math?
#9I had a rather bruising experience last fall "teaching" precalculus to a lecture of 180 students. Although I'd try to engage the students and explain how the stuff is useful, the students would have none of it. I got scathing reviews about how I was teaching stuff that wouldn't be useful until calculus 2 (which is, of course, a feature and not a bug). We're fundamentally talking about 18-year-olds with bad attitudes…
Perhaps an apprenticeship-system might be worth a try? Let them work together with adults---that might put some sense into them.
I've long believed the master-apprentice system to be the most effective type of teaching system. Unfortunately, it doesn't scale.
Re: Is programming the new math?
#10A common gripe from young students when learning math is "I'm never going to use this!" With programming, it's much easier to motivate the subject matter - students want to learn the math so they can improve their projects. Similarly, I found linear algebra and linear programming much more interesting when I was studying economics, and classical physics much more fun when writing little javascript animations. So mayb…
Spot on, "I'm never going to use this!" can be dismissed straight away as student use and see the results in their programs.
My own maths ability increased dramatically when I got interested in astronomy, likewise trying to write games in basic.