On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 6:40 PM, michel paul <mpaul...@gmail.com> wrote:
<< SNIP >> A truly excellent write-up Michel. I'm glad you're reminding us about Sage. Your use of "Computational Thinking" (CT) mirrors Maria's suggestion for what a course of this nature might be called. "Computational Analysis" (CA) sounds like another option? FYI, we've continued debating nomenclature (what to call these classes) on math-teach: http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2032769&tstart=0 For those of you wishing to join some on-line digital math discussions this weekend, Maria has this information: http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=6961142&tstart=0 Kirby > > Oh, but first - if this course does happen I'll be using the Litvins' Math > for the Digital Age. I love that book. I told my prinicipal, "You usually > don't say of a text that 'It's beautiful', but this one is. This is a > beautiful text." > > *M A C H Math Analysis Computational Honors* > > *What does “Computational” mean?* > > "It is said that a concept is demonstrated to have been learned the best > when one explains that concept to others. Programming is precisely that - > an expressive language, used to unambiguously describe all the steps > involved in problem solving of a certain type." > > - Tony Targonski > > *Computational Thinking* is a new way of thinking that will become just as > important to a well-educated person in the 21st century as reading and > writing is today. It has resulted in new inter-disciplinary majors such as > Computational Linguistics, Computational Biology, Computational Physics, and > Computational Mathematics, among others. Generally speaking, computational > thinking is the art of reducing complexity to a set of primitive > operations. This way of thinking blends perfectly with the kind of thinking > that Math Analysis is supposed to be about. > > *Students taking this course should not worry if they have never* *programmed > before.* This course will introduce a complete beginner to contemporary > programming in a way that will enable them to efficiently articulate > mathematical concepts. *The point of this course is* *not learning to > program, but programming to learn.* We will be using a very easy to learn > language called *Python*. > > *What is *Python?** > > Python is a general purpose programming language that has developed a large > following over the last ten years or so. It is one of the top languages used > at Google and is also used at NASA, JPL, and YouTube and is continuing to > gain significant attention. It is an extremely easy and fun language to > learn. You can immediately begin to use it just like a calculator. It is > free to everyone and runs on all platforms. It is also an excellent language > for expressing mathematical ideas, and that is why many mathematicians and > scientists gravitate towards it. It is just as easy to learn as high school > Algebra, and learning it will help you better understand Algebra. After you > have learned some Python you will be ready to use Sage. > > *What is *SAGE?** > > SAGE is a set of mathematical libraries built on top of Python creating a > free and open source state of the art CAS, Computer Algebra System, used by > professional mathematicians, university math departments, and even some high > school math departments. SAGE offers Mathematica-like abilities, such as > detailed 3D color graphing. Cutting edge research is being done with it, but > it is also quite usable by high school students. Anyone who knows a little > Python can immediately begin to use SAGE. You can actually use many of the > features in SAGE without knowing any Python, but you will be able to use it > much more effectively if you also know how to think in terms of simple > Python programs. > > What you will learn in this course is how to *computationally analyze* some > fundamental ideas of mathematics. Your ability to computationally analyze > will provide you a good foundation for many important kinds of study and > career. A student working through this class will be well prepared both for > further study of computer science and mathematics. > > > "Computer science is the new mathematics." > -- Dr. Christos Papadimitriou > > >
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