Monthly Archives: April 2010
The case of the curious boxplots
I just graded my second hour-long assessment for the Calculus class (yes, I do teach other courses besides MATLAB). I break these assessments up into three sections: Concept Knowledge, where students have to reason from verbal, graphical, or numerical information … Continue reading
Filed under Calculus, Clickers, Critical thinking, Inverted classroom, Math, Teaching, Technology
Active learning is essential, not optional, for STEM students
This article (1.2 MB, PDF) by three computer science professors at Miami University (Ohio) is an excellent overview of the concept of the inverted classroom and why it could be the future of all classrooms given the techno-centric nature of Millenials. … Continue reading
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Filed under Critical thinking, Education, Engineering, Higher ed, Liberal arts, Teaching
MATLAB as a handout creator
One of the fringe benefits of having immersed myself in MATLAB for the last year (in preparation for teaching the Computer Tools for Problem Solving course) is that I’ve learned that MATLAB is an excellent all-purpose tool for preparing materials … Continue reading
Filed under Calculus, Math, MATLAB, Problem Solving, Teaching, Technology
Analyze, hack, create
One of these days I’ll get back to blogging about the mathematics courses I teach, which make up the vast majority of my work, but the MATLAB course continues to be the place where I am working the hardest, struggling … Continue reading
Filed under Education, MATLAB, Problem Solving, Teaching, Technology
The MATLAB class at midterm: Comfort level
To end the first half of the semester in the MATLAB course, I gave students a lengthier-than-usual survey about the course — a sort of mid-semester course evaluation. I have a load of interesting data to sift through and analyze, … Continue reading
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Filed under MATLAB, Teaching, Technology
Turning questions into learning
Image by CarbonNYC via Flickr The hardest thing about teaching the MATLAB course — or any course — is responding to student questions. Notice I do not say “answering” student questions. Answers are not the issue; I’m no MATLAB genius, … Continue reading
Filed under Critical thinking, Education, Higher ed, Liberal arts, MATLAB, Teaching, Technology
Is the iPad really what students need?
Dave Caolo believes that students are one of the four groups of people who will make the iPad huge, because: Students are on a fixed budget, and e-books are typically cheaper than their paper-based counterparts. Also, consider all of the … Continue reading
Filed under Apple, Education, Educational technology, Higher ed, Technology, Textbook-free, Textbooks
