Senior Seminar: A Capstone Course in the Computer and Mathematical Sciences

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal, Dec 2000

This paper describes the evolution of a course developed to tie together many strands of activity encountered by students in the computer and mathematical sciences (CMS). The senior level course is required of all majors in our computer science, applied mathematics and statistics undergraduate degree programs. One of the primary purposes of the course is to refine writing and presentation skills needed for those who will later pursue individual research projects. Writing projects are organized around the theme of “Ethical Decision Making in the Computer and Mathematical Sciences”. Numerous case studies are investigated. Additional topics in the course include designing resumes, starting a placement file, and a general introduction to the CMS culture. A course outline is given and various projects are discussed.

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Senior Seminar: A Capstone Course in the Computer and Mathematical Sciences

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal Senior Seminar: A Capstone Course in the Computer and Mathematical Sciences Ken Oberhof 0 1 Ron Barnes 0 1 Mathematics Education Commons 0 1 0 University of Houston , Downtown 1 Ken Oberhoff and Ron Barnes University of Houston-Downtown 1 Main Street Houston, Texas 77002 , USA Recommended Citation Follow this and additional works at; http; //scholarship; claremont; edu/hmnj - Senior Seminar: A Capstone Course in the Computer and Mathematical Sciences SUMMARY This paper describes the evolution of a course developed to tie together many strands of activity encountered by students in the computer and mathematical sciences (CMS). The senior level course is required of all majors in our computer science, applied mathematics and statistics undergraduate degree programs. One of the primary purposes of the course is to refine writing and presentation skills needed for those who will later pursue individual research projects. Writing projects are organized around the theme of “Ethical Decision Making in the Computer and Mathematical Sciences”. Numerous case studies are investigated. Additional topics in the course include designing resumes, starting a placement file, and a general introduction to the CMS culture. A course outline is given and various projects are discussed. required to successfully complete a speech course (SPCH 1304) and a technical writing course (ENG 3302), offered outside the department. These are prerequisites for our senior seminar course (CS/MATH 4294). Based on student performance in the seminar and other factors, the student follows up with either an individual research project (CS/MATH 4395), directed by a faculty member and/or an outside mentor, or the student selects one of our senior level writing courses (W) in the department to fulfill his/her writing requirement. W-courses, cross-listed, include Math Modeling and Computer Simulation (CS/ MATH 4306), History of Mathematics and Computer Science (CS/MATH 4312), Parallel Programming (CS/ MATH 4328), and Advanced Numerical Methods (CS/MATH 4301). INTRODUCTION Since 1984, all students at UH/D, regardless of major, must fulfill writing and speech requirements to graduate. These include at least one writing course given in their major department. In addition, since 1995, the university has required all graduating seniors to successfully complete some course material on ethics as it relates to their major. SENIOR SEMINAR—AN EVOLVING COURSE This paper is based on a talk given by the authors at While the original purpose of the SS course was to the joint national meetings of MAA/AMS in San An- refine the writing and presentation skills needed to tonio on January 14, 1999. successfully complete later senior research projects, the course has now evolved to address the changing needs and college requirements. To address the college-wide ethics requirement (noted earlier), the SS has developed a focus on ethical issues in some of the written and oral projects assigned. Because of the large number of required courses in our degree programs, we did not have the luxury of offering an entire course in ethics, in our department, as some other colleges have done [ 7 ]. The CMS department has developed a general approach to meet these requirements, utilizing its pre- EARLIEST VERSIONS OF SENIOR SEMINAR COURSE existing Senior Seminar (SS) course, which had been Originally this course consisted of a number of readintroduced in 1987. Originally the ethics requirement ings from somewhat “popular” books oriented towas satisfied by a separate course, but the material wards the computer and mathematical sciences, and was added to the seminar in 1997 by increasing the then the assignment of short written and oral reports credit hours from one to two. on the results of those readings. Among the books assigned were Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden In addition to the usual CMS courses, each major is Braid [ 3 ], Mathematics—The Loss of Certainty [ 5 ], The Dream of Reason [ 6 ] and A Brief History of Time [ 2 ]. In addition, each student prepared a one page vita/ resume. Students discussed each others resumes and we discussed how to tailor different forms of a vita to different audiences. Students also critiqued each others’ oral presentations and quickly learned to be more diplomatic in their criticisms as they discovered the truth of the adage that “What goes round, comes round.” The final written and oral projects in this SS course were the individual student Senior Project Research proposals. In the earlier years of our CMS programs, all our majors were required to follow the SS course with individual Senior Projects. However, as the number of majors increased dramatically, it became clear that other alternatives to individual Senior Projects were needed. Also, as noted earlier, in 1995, the college instituted an ethics component for all degree programs. PRESENT FORM OF SENIOR SEMINAR COURSE (...truncated)


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Ken Oberhoff, Ron Barnes. Senior Seminar: A Capstone Course in the Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal, 2000, Volume 1, Issue 23,