Enhancing STEM Curriculum with MATLAB and Online Resources

Enhancing STEM Curriculum with MATLAB and Online ResourcesDr. David TorresNorthern New Mexico College2011 NSF Robert Noyce ConferenceJuly 7, 2011

Northern New Mexico CollegeTwo-year and four-year college in Espanola, New MexicoEnrollment is approximately 2300 studentsHispanic Serving Institution 70% Hispanic8% Native AmericanRuralBachelors DegreesMechanical, Software EngineeringMathematics, Biology, Environmental ScienceEducation

Friday AcademyStudents from Carlos Vigil Middle School in Espanola explore fun activities in mathematics, chemistry, biology and writing at Northern New Mexico College on Fridays.This presentation is based on the challenge of making the mathematics component of that curriculum engaging to middle school students.

Motivation for using Computer SoftwareAllow students to model complex physical phenomena inexpensivelyWater and sound wavesPlanetary motion and gravityAllow students to explore mathematical concepts in an exploratory waySequences and fractalsAreaMATLABSoftware language distributed by MathWorksProgramming and Visualization capabilitiesInteraction with MATLAB can be superficial or extensiveEasy to create 2D and 3D plotsSolve equations governing fluid flowSciLab is a free version (http://www.scilab.org)Relevance to Noyce FellowsCould use these codes or resources in their own classrooms to engage and motivate their own students.Resources require very little training.MATLABSweet Home 3DWavesWaterSoundTsunamis

http://thewashingtonnote.comSpeed of Shallow Water Waves(Tsunamis)

CreditsCleve Moler, MathWorksRandy LeVeque and colleagues, University of Washington

Sound Waves

Sound Waves

Gravity and ForceGravitational Attraction

Newtons Law of Gravitation

Newtons Second Law

Acceleration and VelocityVelocity is change in distance over time.Acceleration is the change in velocity over time.

http://davidteacherzambia.blogspot.comPlanetary Motion

SequencesSequences1,3,5,7,9,11,13, 1,4,9,16,25,36, 1/2 ,2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 6/7, 7/8, 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,

Complex NumbersRealImaginary1 + 2i

Sequence of Complex NumbersRepeatColor points by distance from origin in the complex planeBeautiful shapes called fractals can be formed based on this simple procedure.

Sequence of Complex NumbersRealImaginary1234Mandelbrot Fractal

MagnifyMandelbrot Fractal Magnified

MagnifyMandelbrot Magnified Again

Whats Really Cool about FractalsWhen a portion of the fractal is magnified, the magnified portion bears a resemblance to the original fractal (self-similarity).YouTube videos magnify Mandelbrot fractals billions of times and during the course of the magnification, one sees variations of the original fractal over and over again. AreaArea of Rectangle = Area = b*hhb

Area of Parallelogram =bh

Area of Triangle = hb

Sweet Home 3D (http://www.sweethome3d/com)

Sweet Home 3DWeb site published by Emmanuel PuybareteTeks (company created in 1999)

ConclusionsSoftware can be used to simulate physical phenomena in an interactive way.Free online resources can be used to reinforce and apply mathematics concepts.Such resources can be used to depthen the extent of learning and show its application.