Mathematical Computing Courses and an Inflatable Laboratory

该项目为数学专业和中等教育专业的数学系开发了两门新课程：数学计算I和数学计算II。这些课程通过使用Maple作为编程语言来教授计算机编程的原理和技术。Maple的使用为学习编程艺术提供了一个简单、有效和丰富的环境，没有输入、输出和格式方面的麻烦。这些课程的内容侧重于编程任务，旨在加强在以前的课程(微积分、微分方程I、离散数学和线性代数I)中学到的数学概念，而这些概念不是高级课程(如数值分析、微分方程II、偏微分方程组和高等工程数学)编程工作的一部分。为了使课程开发成功，该项目在现有计算环境的基础上增加了一个新的充气实验室，该实验室由25台笔记本电脑组成。这个实验室的实际位置昼夜不同。白天，实验室可以安排和设置在任何传统的教室，通过无线红外线技术连接到内部网，并服务于建立一个计算机教室，用于授课、演示或测试。在夜间，该实验室可以设置为所有学生使用的传统计算机实验室。此外，在周末和特殊学期期间，本实验室的一些笔记本电脑可以借出，供我们的通勤学生和拟议中的新课程的学生使用。*

The project develops two new courses: Mathematical Computing I & II, within the Mathematics Department for mathematics majors and secondary education majors. These courses teach the principles and techniques of computer programming by using MAPLE as a programming language. The use of MAPLE affords an easy, effective, and rich environment for learning the art of programming without the hassle of input, output, and formatting concerns. The content of these courses focuses on programming tasks designed to reinforce mathematical concepts learned in previous courses (calculus, differential equations I, discrete math, and linear algebra I) which are not part of the programming work in senior-level courses (such as numerical analysis, differential equations II, PDE, and advanced engineering mathematics). To make this curriculum development successful, the project augments existing computing environment with a new Inflatable Lab, consisting of 25 laptop computers. The physical location of this laboratory varies throughout the day and night. During the day, the laboratory can be scheduled and set up in any traditional classroom, connecting to the Intranet by wireless infrared technology and serving to establish a computer classroom for lecture, demonstration, or testing. At night, the laboratory can be set up to function as a traditional computer laboratory used by all students. In addition, over the weekend and during special semesters, some of the laptops from this laboratory can be checked out for use by our commuting students and students in the proposed new courses. *