Teaching Computational Thinking Skills with MATLAB

Dear Colleague,

Are you looking to increase the amount of computation in your courses and improve your computational thinking teaching skills? Teaching Computational Thinking Skills with MATLAB is designed to do just that. This 3-day workshop will be held October 20-22, 2019 on the Carleton College campus in Northfield, MN. The workshop application deadline is fast-approaching: Apply by Friday, June 14, 2019.

The MATLAB workshop, now in year five with more than 100 attendees, will host faculty from the sciences and math, including Geoscience, Biology/Health, Physics, Chemistry, and multiple engineering disciplines.

Here's what your peers had to say about last year's MATLAB workshop:
  • "I was first surprised at how interested my students were in learning how to use MATLAB. I have also convinced some faculty that using MATLAB would be a great addition to their course and make our students more competitive in the workplace."
  • "We are going to actually design a new course on Data Visualization!"

The MATLAB workshop is for educators of undergraduate STEM courses who want to incorporate more quantitative thinking and programming while focusing primarily on the science, math, or engineering content. During the workshop, participants will develop course modules while learning from experienced colleagues. Faculty mentors will hold a peer-review of submitted teaching activities; SERC publishes submissions in the online teaching activity collection, for future sharing and citation.

Workshop highlights include:

  • Talks by experienced faculty on teaching computational skills and quantitative thinking
  • Group and individual working sessions to develop course content
  • Panel discussions for sharing best practices on key topics and challenges in science education
  • Presentations of MATLAB features and on-line resources for teaching and learning MATLAB
  • Technical share fairs to review each other's teaching approaches, tools, and modules
  • Teaching activity peer-review of submitted teaching activities, published in the collection
  • Networking with the community of MATLAB STEM educators live and for future collaborations

This year's workshop includes a new offering; participants may sign up for special individualized mentor sessions on Sunday afternoon for developing course modules. See the application for more information.

Workshop Details:

Date: October 20-22, 2019 (Sunday afternoon/evening through Tuesday mid afternoon).
Location: Carleton College, Northfield, MN.
Audience: Educators teaching undergraduate science, math, and related disciplines who want to develop curricula and integrate computation into their courses.
Cost: The workshop is free. Travel stipends are available: request via the application process.
Overview: MathWorks MATLAB experts and faculty leaders will facilitate sessions and share teaching and MATLAB expertise. The workshop is co-hosted by MathWorks and SERC.

Learn more or apply here. The workshop hosts will review applications and send acceptances status by late June.

We hope to see you in Northfield this Fall!

Warm regards,
Lisa Kempler, MathWorks
MATLAB Community Strategist
lisak@mathworks.com

Cathy Manduca, Science Education Resource Center (SERC), Carleton College
SERC Director

P.S. Feel free to forward this invitation to other colleagues at your school and elsewhere who could attend and contribute. The more variety of experiences and disciplines, the better the exchange of ideas will be!

P.P.S. To view the program from the 2018 workshop and see the resulting teaching resources, visit: