Meaningful CT Tasks in University Math Courses

WHAT

  • Investigation of integration of CT into math curriculum at the tertiary level, by focusing on teaching practice.
  • Developing activities and tasks that require genuine collaboration between CT and mathematics and statistics, especially in the context of mathematics for the life sciences students.
  • Investigation of the way modeling of complex systems can be modified for university classroom instruction, and for student projects.
  • Investigation of ideas of dynamic system modeling approaches as to their applicability in creating life sciences models in university classrooms.
  • This project is informed by the work on the Math and Programming at the Tertiary Level project, as well as by the research about modeling complex systems and system dynamics.

WHO

Collaborator

  • Erin Clements, Ph.D. Candidate, Western University.

WHEN

  • 2017-2018 (and beyond)

MIROSLAV2

OUTCOMES

  • Review about complex systems and system dynamics:
    • Complex systems approaches, in conjunction with rapid advances in computational technologies, enable researchers to study aspects of the real world for which events and actions have multiple causes and consequences, and where order and structure coexist at many different scales of time, space, and organization. Within this complex systems framework, critical behaviors of systems that were systematically ignored or oversimplified by classical science can now be included as basic elements that account for many observed aspects.
    • System dynamics has been used to study global warming and climate change, the spread of epidemics, heroin addiction, improvement in treatment for chronic kidney disease, the causes of urban decay, limits to growth, and many more systems that touch almost every field of study in which dynamic feedback plays a crucial role. Computer simulation (system dynamics modeling) provides a method for identifying high leverage points and testing policy recommendations, further strengthening the use of this analytical approach.

 

DISSEMINATION

  • Erin Clements and Miroslav Lovric will present a poster at Computational Thinking in Mathematics Education Symposium, 13-15 October 2017.

 

NEXT STEPS

  • Study of literature, learning more about complex systems and system dynamics
  • Developing models, classroom testing, and analysis.