ploymath(有超链接扩展)化工应用.pptVIP

* Combining Engineering Problem Solving with Programming In One Course to Enhance Learning Effectiveness Mordechai Shacham Department of Chemical Engineering Ben Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva, Israel Most engineering students find it very difficult to learn programming. In practice very few of them do any programming after finishing the basic course on the subject. Learning programming is similar to learning to speak a new language. The student has to memorize commands (new words) and must learn syntax (grammar) rules It is more difficult to start programming than to start speaking a new language because the computer has zero tolerance to programming errors. There is usually a scheduling conflict. Programming is learned before the student encounters any problems that really require programming. Consequently, most students loose motivation and interest. Objectives of the New Course Replace the traditional Programming and Introduction to Personal Computer courses Enable the students to formulate engineering problems as mathematical models belonging to one of the following categories: complex consecutive calculations, linear and nonlinear algebraic equations, ordinary differential equations and multiple linear and polynomial regressions. Enable the students to solve the resultant mathematical models using POLYMATH, Excel and MATLAB. Main Features of the New Course ? ? Based on real life problems – the study of each subject starts by presenting a real life problem, which requires preparation of a mathematical model followed by its solution using the appropriate numerical technique. ? Multi-stage problems - the problems require computer solution in several stages. Preliminary stages are solvable by software that does not require programming? (POLYMATH, Excel) while advanced stages require MATLAB programming. The progress from stage to stage is done by modification and extension of the existing material.? ? Main Features of the New Course Pr