Using Information in Mathematics and Science

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For years courses have been offered to introduce the liberal arts and business students to the use of computers as a tool to aid them in their education and professions. Unfortunately this has not been done for students in science. It has been assumed that they will learn by osmosis or just pick up skills as needed. We believe that science students should be introduced to the capabilities of computers in their freshman year as a tool to assist them in their learning and in their life's work. Topics to be covered in such a course include not only the usual usage of word processing, spreadsheets, and simple data bases, but more importantly, will concentrate on how to use the computer to search, analyze, evaluate and display scientific data. In addition these students need instruction in downloading and analyzing large masses of data, automating the collection of data, using statistical packages to analyze data, graphing the results of data, using modeling and simulation techniques, and preparing materials for presentation. We propose to develop a course for beginning science and mathematics students to provide them with the necessary skills in computing to use a wide variety of computing tools to assist them in their education and prepare them to use computers as an effective tool in their career in a scientific setting.