"Look Ma, No Calculator" went well I think...

Wow, I hope I didn't try to ram too much into an hour and a half....  Sorry if I went a bit fast, but I had a lot to share with you!  Believe it or not, I only just scratched the surface of Scientific Computing.  Many colleges are starting departments in this new field which is a merging of Applied Math and Computer Science used in real-world math and science applications on super computers.  BTW a super computer can be a single PC with multiple cores setup to use all cores on one problem.  Also, a super computer can be Linux Cluster with several PCs linked together to solve one problem.  Or, a super computer can be like Shadowfax (avatar below), a mix of both (25 compute nodes, each dual-core) known as a hybrid cluster!

 

If this is all too new to you, don't feel bad.  I've been teaching programming since 1975, I've been perfecting Room 429 (aka Shadowfax) since 1985, I've been using Graphing Calculators since 1990, I've been using Linux since 1995, and I've been trying to get a Scientific Computing Lab course in place at BSHS since 2005.  You guys just have to play catch up!

 

If you are interested in any of this, you should google Scientific Computing, Computing Sciences or Computer Algebra Systems in general as well as the Mathematica, Maple, MATLAB or S-plus programing environments in specific.  Also, you can get tutorials on SAGE at http://www.sagemath.org and work online with SAGE at http://www.sagenb.org where you can create your very own free account in seconds or just use your SAGE liveCD!

 

BTW, remember FLOSS (Free Linux Open Source Software)?  SAGE, Octave and R are FLOSS equivalents to Mathematica, MATLAB and S-plus respectively.

 

Teaching with Technology, 
calcpage@aol.com

Look Ma, No Calculator!

Welcome to SDD 2009.1103:  

This will be a "Show & Tell" session where I show you how I teach math using technology without ever touching a calculator!  In Part I, I'll show you the old fashioned way using a TI-83 Graphing Calculator.  If you have a TI-83, please use it to follow along!  But that's SO last century...  So, in Part II, I'll show you how we do things in my classroom now-a-days using a Computer Algebra System!  I'll leave it up to you to pick and choose any techniques you think you may use in your classroom.


PART I: I will record a math lesson on something simple like quadratic equations in Windows using Smart Recorder + Smart Notebook + VTI as a Windows Media File for uploading to my FTP site (30 min).  


PART II: Then we'll reboot all the PCs in Linux with the SAGE CD and show how the same lesson can be done with a Computer Algebra System.  You can follow along using your own PC!  I will record this part of the session with http://screencast-o-matic.com and upload it to youtube (30 min).  


PART III: In summation, I'll share my website,  blog, youtube channel and zazzle digital art.  I will also show everyone how to use http://www.sagenb.org with any Mozilla clone so they won't need a SAGE CD (15 min).  
PARTY FAVORS: Everyone goes home with my URLs and their very own copy of the SAGE CD!



Teaching with Technology, 
calcpage@aol.com

Meeting IV

Today's Aim: Burn Fest II

Tonight's Reading: Building Parallel Programs, Chapter 4

This Week's Research: openMOSIX & openMOSIX distros

Attending: JeremyA, SteveB, DevinB, ArthurD 

We burned 30 Fedora 11 64bit and 30 SAGE 4.1.1 liveCDs.  Surf on over to http://www.sagemath.org to download your own copy of the SAGE CD.  We tested all the CDs and found the SAGE CD very responsive for use in my demonstration at Staff Development Day this Tuesday!

BTW, my Computing Independent Study class is nicknamed CIS(theta) - see avatar below.

Happy Clustering,

calcpage@aol.com
http://mathforum.org/kb/profile.jspa?userID=32552

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Meeting IV

Today's Aim: Burn Fest II

Tonight's Reading: Building Parallel Programs, Chapter 4

This Week's Research: openMOSIX & openMOSIX distros

Attending: JeremyA, SteveB, DevinB, ArthurD 

We burned 30 Fedora 11 64bit and 30 SAGE 4.1.1 liveCDs.  Surf on over to http://www.sagemath.org to download your own copy of the SAGE CD.  We tested all the CDs and found the SAGE CD very responsive for use in my demonstration at Staff Development Day this Tuesday!

BTW, my Computing Independent Study class is nicknamed CIS(theta) - see avatar below.

Happy Clustering,

calcpage@aol.com
http://mathforum.org/kb/profile.jspa?userID=32552

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... and the beat goes on!

Wow, I just found out where they plan to move my pcLab/classRoom.  We are moving from room 429 to room 622 in order to be closer to the science department so as to improve collaboration!  BTW, we already collaborate plenty.

This move is a huge mistake, however.  I've been in room 429 since 1984 and I've been perfecting it all that time.  Room 429 is great the way it is.  If The-Powers-That-Be decide to move my existing hardware, software, firmware, linux LAN, linux cluster, windows LAN, ftp server, ssh server and apache server you know there's going to be a ton of debugging to do after the move.  Nothing will work right for months adversely affecting the amount of instruction time available.
On the other hand, if we build a new lab from scratch, we are still looking at a lot of manhours before, during and after the move.  I didn't even mention the expense of all new hardware...
A bigger problem still, is the fact that room 429 is about 22 ft x 32 ft.  The new room, 622, is only 22ft by 25ft or so.  How will we fit all 24 student stations in the new room?  If we move to the smaller room, we would have to sacrifice upwards of 6 student stations!


BTW, please realize that room 429 is not just a resource lab used once in a while for its PCs.  Room 429 is used everyday as a classroom too.  As such, every one of the 24 students has a "PC desktop" and an old-fashioned "Wooden desktop."  The wooden desktop is necessary for taking notes, writing drafts, taking tests, etc.  The PC desktop is necessary when the students are programming. 


My AP Computer Science students have always used both desktops every period, every day.  My AP Calculus students traditionally only used the wooden desktops, but they are starting to use the PC desktop more and more as we discover more scientific computing and computer algebra system applications!  Origianlly, I moved my AP Calculus students into this pcLab/classRoom some years ago as it was the only room where I could use the Smart Airliner Slate (Wacom PC Tablet that works with Smart Notebook like a Smartboard) to present and record all my lessons.


Current Room 429:
SS_SS_SS_SS_         _SS_SS_SS_SS
SS_SS_SS_SS_    x    _SS_SS_SS_SS
SS_SS_SS_SS_         _SS_SS_SS_SS
                        TS
Propsed Room 622:
SS_SS_SS_         _SS_SS_SS
SS_SS_SS_    x   _SS_SS_SS
SS_SS_SS_         _SS_SS_SS
             TS1     TS2
SS = Student Station/PC desktop
_ = wooden desktop
x = ceiling mounted projector
TS = Teacher Station/PC desktop


BTW, the new room has 2 teacher stations proposed.  One will run Linux all day and the other will run Windows all day.  This way, we don't have to reboot the teacher station every period when teachers need to switch from Linux to Windows and back again!




Learning with Technology,
calcpage@aol.com

Don't drink the Kool Aid!

I'm going crazy trying to get ready for a conference day I'm presenting at the High School on election day.  My problem is that I'd like to end the session with a little hands-on activity whereby the participants can each login to a PC and try out http://www.sagenb.org for themselves.  However, this online version of Sage is optimized for use with a Mozilla like browser.  Now, I have Mozilla in my LInux partition, but the Linux Lab has no internet access!  Further, Mozilla is not installed in the Windows lab as the kids can use it to bypass some of the school's content filters.

To paraphrase the Great Lobachevsky, "What I am going to do?"  So, I'm trying some Linux liveCDs such as Fedora 11 or even the Sage 4.1.1 CD.  The Fedora CD has Mozilla on it and when it boots it defaults to the "windows lan" so I get internet access so that's an option.  The Sage CD has a full working version installed on the CD, but its hard to save or print your work. 
BTW, the presentation is entitled "Look Ma, No Calculator" as its a show-and-tell session where I will discuss how I use technology in the classroom.  So, I subtitle the talk "Don't drink the Kool Aid" as I will show how to use Smartboard technology differently than the Smattech trainers would have you do it!  Also, part of the discussion will feature VTI (the Virtual TI graphing calculator), Mathematica Player and Sage - thus no physical calculators...
Note, this is a practice run for LIMACON 2009.0416 where I asked for a room with a PC podium so I can hook up my laptop.  In this venue, I don't think I'm getting a full blown PC lab where the partitipants can do any hands-on work.
Decisions, decisions, ....



Teaching with Technology,
calcpage@aol.com

ICON is back at SUNY Stony Brook!

Yes, you heard it right!  ICON 29 will be hosted by SUNY Stony Brook in March 2010!  That's great news for my Computer Independent Study class (CIStheta) as we hope to display our digital art work in the Art Show at ICON.  We have produced a lot of digital art work on our cluster (Shadowfax) including ray tracings and fractals:

http://www.zazzle.com/cistheta2008

http://cistheta2007.deviantart.com

ICON 1 - ICON 27 were held at SUNY Stony Brook.  Last year, SUNY Stony Brook underwent a huge remodeling/construction project involving nearly the whole campus.  ICON uses a lot of buildings all over campus, so ICON 28 was moved to Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) and it didn't work out too well.  They really didn't have enough space there either, so many events were moved to nearby Hotels and the Art Show was summarily cancelled!

Anyway, take a look at http://www.iconsf.org if you're interesed.  I've gone every year since ICON 9 as I'm a huge Star Trek fan.  CIStheta displayed art work at ICON 26 and ICON 27 so we hope to be back for ICON 29.  BTW, ICON is a huge convention devoted to Science Fact and Science Fiction.  So you can meet scientists discussing their latest work in the field as well as your favorite novelists and actors!  ICON has science and technology panels, authors' panels, amateur rocketry, an observatory for astronomy buffs, movies, documentaries, anime, filk, jousting, board gaming and pc gaming if you are interested in those sorts of things....

Happy Clustering,

calcpage@aol.com
http://mathforum.org/kb/profile.jspa?userID=32552

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