When our year 1 Life Sciences students heard that their math course will involve programming (Python labs), the most common reaction was panic: “We have no programming experience, how are we going to do this?” was a question that many of them asked. The good news is that, as the semester progressed and with initial hurdles successfully cleared, students felt more comfortable, and definitely more willing to engage with their programming tasks.

Nevertheless, we have been thinking about easing the transition from no-coding to coding experience. One idea we have in mind is to try to assist high school teachers who are interested in Python programming by providing information, relevant references and a sequence of learning modules that can be used as self-introduction to Python. The key idea is that it does not take much to learn enough Python to do amazing things. In this presentation, we will talk about the web page “CT at Mac,” which hosts these learning modules, their organization, and demonstrate (hopefully technology will work) what some of them do. The content of the modules has been informed by the 2008 Ontario Computer Studies Curriculum for grades 10-12.

Bio:

Katie Chiasson is a Level IV Honours Mathematics and Statistics student at McMaster University. Her interests include math education and computational thinking which she has explored alongside Dr. Miroslav Lovric. She loves soaking up any information she can regarding teaching and other knowledge. She is beginning her Bachelor of Education program in the fall and is excited to pursue her career as a Secondary School Mathematics teacher.

Bio:

Olivia Epelbaum is a Level IV Honours Mathematics and Statistics student minoring in Psychology at McMaster University. She has been a volunteer at Math @ Mac events organized by Dr. Miroslav Lovric, and attended the First Year University Mathematics Across Canada: Facts, Community and Vision conference (April 2018). Her research areas of interest include computational thinking and math education. She will be starting her Bachelor of Education to teach Junior/Intermediate Mathematics in September, 2019.

Bio:

Miroslav Lovric teaches courses at McMaster University which he really likes, but his colleagues don’t (and thus stay away from), such as advanced problem solving and history of mathematical ideas. As well, in his numeracy course, in a small class with 615 students, he discusses everything from inflation and wealth distribution, to the amount of traffic on a porn site, to human population growth and climate change, to regression, contingency tables and p values. The remaining part of his life he dedicates to integration of computational thinking into his courses.