Transcript The Multi-Disciplinary Nature of Technology

Report on Faculty Exchange
and Sabbatical during the
2006-07 Academic Year
Gerald Kruse, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Computer Science
and Mathematics
[email protected]
http://faculty.juniata.edu/kruse
2006-07
Faculty Exchange at Fachhochschule (FH) Muenster, in
Burgsteinfurt, Germany, during the fall 2006 semester.
Burgsteinfurt is 30 miles outside Muenster, and it is the
location of the FH-Muenster Engineering and Technology
campus.
Algorithmen und Data Strukturen
Graphical Programming
Sabbatical in Huntingdon, PA, during the spring 2007
semester
We hope to encourage Juniata
students to study at FH-Muenster by
having a faculty exchange first
Faculty
Gerald Kruse
Juniata Students
Tim Auman
Mike Link
Thomas Weik
FH-Muenster Students
Robin Segglemann
Frank Volkmer
Sascha Hlusiak
Morin Ostkamp
Departing Huntingdon on the Train
“Our” House in the Village of Leer
Riding Bikes into the Village of Leer
First Day of “Grundschule”
Foxhunt!
St. Nicholas
Outside “my” office
Juniata Students For Dinner
The Computer Lab
What is Quantitative Literacy?
“The ability to use numbers and data analysis in
everyday life.” Bernard Madison, Univ. of Arkansas
“..knowing how to reason and think, and it is all but
absent from our curricula today.” Gina Kolata, NY Times
“Having comfort with arithmetic, data analysis,
computing, modeling, statistics, chance/probability, and
reasoning.” Excerpt from Mathematics in Democracy.
While a course in quantitative literacy might focus on
practical, real-world problems, it still provides the students
with a strong mathematical foundation.
Quantitative Literacy at Juniata
College
Juniata has had “Quant-Math” and “Quant-Stat”
skill requirement for graduation since the mid1990’s.
MA 103, Quantitative Methods, was developed
by Sue Esch to serve students who do not have
courses with quantitative components in their
POE’s.
MA 103 is one of the few courses which satisfies
both the “QM” and “QS” skills.
A large percentage of students at Juniata satisfy
their “Q” graduation requirement by taking MA
103, Quantitative Methods (5 sections per year).
Time for a change…
From 1996 to 2007, the text used in MA 103 was
Quantitative Methods, notes written and
maintained by Sue Esch (Bukowski and Kruse
added as co-authors later), and produced on
campus.
Students used two full-feature software
packages: Minitab for statistics, and Maple for
mathematics.
MA 103 was one of my favorite courses to teach,
but I realized that after 10 years it was due for
an update.
The Search Begins…
Published texts preferred
Excel-based technology preferred
Many texts considered, three seriously
Frequent consultation with Math
department colleagues
Chosen Text: Quantitative Reasoning, by
Sevilla and Somers (from Moravian).
Highlights
Pre- and post-assessments of student skills and
attitudes
Active learning approach
Technology informs and enhances the math
Open-ended projects
Paper-reduced (assignments posted online, deliverables
uploaded)
Provided my Math department colleagues with:
daily schedule
daily notes
suggested homework problems
solutions to all Activities
Additional Accomplishments
MAA PREP Workshop on Quantitative Literacy
FH-Muenster Kolloquium: “Google’s Billion Dollar
Eigenvector”
SIGCSE Poster: “A Useful Case-Study in Algorithm
Experimentation: Unexpected Timing Results with
Heapsort”
SIGCSE Special Session: “A Status Report from the
Committee to Evaluate Models of Faculty Scholarship”
MAA (Allegheny Mountain Section) Talk: “Are Quicksort
and Heapsort Really O(n*lg n)?”