Mathematical modeling in an undergraduate ODE course
Ordinary differential equations (ODE) constitute a significant portion of any engineering or STEM curriculum. However, students often question the relevance to their professional lives of the mathematics they learn ODE courses. This is largely due to the fact that they rarely see real and credible c...
| Autor Principal: | Miller, Norma Louise |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
| Idioma: | Español |
| Publicado: |
Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá
2021
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| Acceso en línea: |
https://revistas.utp.ac.pa/index.php/prisma/article/view/2875 https://ridda2.utp.ac.pa/handle/123456789/11984 |
| Sumario: |
Ordinary differential equations (ODE) constitute a significant portion of any engineering or STEM curriculum. However, students often question the relevance to their professional lives of the mathematics they learn ODE courses. This is largely due to the fact that they rarely see real and credible connections to real world phenomena and situations in the math classroom.
On the other hand, organizations like the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), the American Mathematical Society (AMS), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) involved with the education of engineering professionals, for decades have regarded modeling as an essential skill to foster in students of engineering and related professions, and have called for including modeling in university mathematics courses.
Founded in 2013 by Brian Winkel, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the United States Military Academy - West Point, SIMIODE is an open community of teachers and learners committed to a modeling first approach to teaching differential equations. This pedagogical innovation is starting to be known and used in several Latin-American universities, though not yet in Panama.
This article informs of a mathematical modeling workshop conducted by Dr. Winkel at the UTP in February 2020. The workshop was directed to UTP professors who regularly teach the ordinary differential equations course, in the hopes of motivating them to incorporate mathematical modeling in their teaching. Mathematics professors from other higher ed institutions, high school teachers, as well as graduate students who needed to hone their mathematical modeling skills to carry out their research, also participated.
Subsequently, several teachers implemented modeling scenarios with their students during the fall semester of the 2020-2021 school year. Student response to this pedagogical innovation is briefly described. |
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