Scientific Computation for Interdisciplinary Data Analysis and Technological Application

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The faculty of Green River Community College are creating a new program requiring realistic computerized data analysis in all courses in geology, physics, and chemistry. The program requires all students to participate in scientific computing using data from industry and their own labs, to be done in a new central computer laboratory and in laboratories electronically connected to the center. The confinement of data analysis and computation to lab period will be eliminated, making entire courses into active science courses. Most science students develop problem solving skills for a limited range of problems modeled by homework assignments from traditional texts, but when presented with problems in real data analysis even talented students are often at a loss. Vocational students and non-science majors are even less likely to gain exposure to the real world of scientific data or to use a computer as anything other than a word processor. Businesses have identified the need for computer skills as one of the greatest problems in the workplace and education research has identified a need for direct exposure to investigative science with real data and applications. A coordinated program of computerized data analysis meets both needs. This project involves all physical science students in the daily analysis of scientific data. Computers are used as natural components of scientific exploration. Less able students utilize peer tutors to boost their computer skills. All students collect data from experiments or industrial collaborators and analyze data cooperatively in the central computer laboratory. Interdisciplinary courses blend computers, physics, and chemistry, geology and the environment, and other sciences with subjects outside of the sciences as well. Students in this program can strengthen their computer skills, their scientific literacy, their cooperative study skills, and their appreciation for the relevance and interconnectedness of science. Vocational students and non-science majors benefit along with future scientists and engineers. Gains in our understanding of science education could have benefits well beyond the boundaries of this college.