In this article, we seek to understand how university students learn to use programming as an instrument for 'authentic' mathematical investigations. We use the instrumental approach as a framework, focusing on how the transformation of the programming language into an instrument requires that the user develops or mobilizes multiple schemes at…

For undergraduate students to be prepared for graduate school and industry, it is imperative that they understand how to merge the theoretical insights gleaned through their undergraduate education with the raw data sets acquired through materials analysis. Thus, the ability to implement data analysis is a vital skill that students should develop.…

Computation is intertwined with essentially all aspects of physics research and is invaluable for physicists' careers. Despite its disciplinary importance, integration of computation into physics education remains a challenge and, moreover, has tended to be constructed narrowly as a route to solving physics problems. Here, we broaden Physics…

Epidemiological models have enhanced relevance because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this note, we emphasize visual tools that can be part of a learning module geared to teaching the SIR epidemiological model, suitable for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students in disciplines where the level of prior mathematical knowledge of…

The instrumental approach is a useful theoretical lens for understanding students' learning processes with a main focus on the transformation of an artefact (a human design for a goal-directed activity) into a meaningful instrument (i.e. an artefact and schemes developed by the student). In this paper, we articulate the instrumental approach for…

Bitcoin is the first major decentralized cryptocurrency with wide acceptance. A core technological innovation of Bitcoin is blockchain, a secure and pseudonymous general ledger that stores every Bitcoin transaction. Blockchain has received enormous attention from both the commercial and academic worlds, and it is generally recognized as the…

Teaching an introductory programming course to an average of 40 students while monitoring their performance can be a challenge for instructors. Preparing coding exercises with test cases and checking students' programs can prove to be time consuming at times. Moreover, programming has been known to be quite difficult for students to learn. To…

Information Technology professionals and other knowledge workers rely on their ability to extract data from organizational databases to respond to business questions and support decision making. Structured query language (SQL) is the standard programming language for querying data in relational databases, and SQL skills are in high demand and are…

This article evaluates online mathematical content used for teaching mathematics in engineering classes and in distance education for teacher training students. In the EU projects Xmath and dMath online computer algebra modules (Steplets) for undergraduate students assembled in the Xmath eBook have been designed. Two questionnaires, a compulsory…