Tuesday, November 20, 2012| TechNews

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UTSAV GANDHI

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First IITMUG meeting meant to share knowlege, code

By Pranava Teja Surukuchi
IT MANAGER & LAYOUT EDITOR

The first HT Mathematica User Group
(IITMUG) meeting successfully took place
on Thursday. You might already know that
Dr.Grant Bunker conceived the group with the
help of Dr.]ohn Erickson and the main purpose
of the group is to form a group of Mathematica
enthusiasts to discuss and share coding in
Mathematica.

Dr. Grant Bunker talked about the
objective of the group and he also laid out the
format of the meetings.

He said that the meetings are a way to share
knowledge of the code among the group, which
composes of Mathematica users with all levels
of proficiency and from a starter to an expert.
This means not only do people who are using
Mathematica in their research can come and
discuss how they use the language, but people
who are just interested in Mathematica but are
not quite familiar with the way it works can
also go to the meetings and discuss it with their
peers.The meetings are tentatively scheduled on
Thursday every other week.

As a way to show the power of coding in
Mathematica he showed a few examples, one of
which showed dynamically rotating cube onto
which live video feed from the laptop camera
was projected onto it in just a couple of lines
of code.

Finally, Bill Molchan, an undergraduate
student then came up and talked about the idea
of introducing a 400 level course next semester
in Mathematica. The exact format of the course
is still under discussion, and anybody with an
idea of how they want to see the course format
to be can send an email to Dr.]ohn Erickson at
john.erickson@iit.edu.

Photos by Pranava Teja Surukuchi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SGA hosts Teaching Methods Forum

By Utsav Gandhi
CAMPUS EDITOR

The Student Government
Association organized a very productive
and interactive session about instituting
fundamental academic change which can be
completely student driven. The tagline for the
“Teaching Methods Forum” Facebook event
itself asked a very fundamental question — “Do
you like how your classes are taught? What have
you seen in one class that you would like to see
in others? What motivates you to learn?”

It was an incredibly productive
conversation with a lot of very constructive
ideas brought to the table. SGA will be using
suggestions and thoughts from this forum as
a framework for future proposals to be put
forward to administration. It’s important for
students to take part in conversations like this
because teaching and learning are topics we
are all affected by. If SGA is going to make

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proposals concerning these things, they need
student opinions to be able to do that in an
effective and representative way.

Some of the preliminary suggestions
brought forward were applicable to a variety
of majors. Regarding higher—level classes,
especially Math and Physics, students felt
enough examples weren’t being used to
supplement instruction. They also suggested
more discussion—based classes, especially
Humanities and Social Sciences — more so
like the Shimer College style. They wanted to
see more of an exploration of the subject and
the field when taking the Intro to Profession
classes. In Business classes, they wanted to see
more real world examples and perspective—
based discussions rather than theory and its
applications. For computer science classes,
they wish to see more web apps incorporated
to supplement instruction.

Students also want to see more
problem solving during class time with

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constructive feedback rather than wait for TA’s
to grade homework sessions. They recommend
that professors actively take the effort to suggest
supplemental resources such as relevant Khan
Academy videos, reference periodicals and
textbo ok choices; along with best practices like
group study. Other topics discussed were the
use of PowerPoint slides for lectures and how
well they were utilized. Students want more
freedom to prove learning rather than just the
traditional exams — suggesting revolutionary
ideas like a 30—minute discussion with the
professor about topics covered throughout
the semester instead of a final to gauge how
much the students had really grasped. They
also suggested that professors use only relevant
notes in class — so that students don’t need to
cram everything from the textbooks and then
not have more than half the material show up
on the exam.

The discussion then shifted to what
motivates us as students to learn and how

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that can be tied up to academic performance.
Peers, the level of preparedness of professors,
their openness, how caring and empathetic
they are, the stress on real world applications,
the prospect of changing life status, doing
something challenging, and meeting life goals.
Some of the deliverables decided on at the
forum were to come up with a scheme about
real world applications, more detailed syllabi,
to clarify expectations right at the beginning,
more of a hands on approach to learning, to
encourage discussion and communication,
awareness of external resources, generalize TA
standards, have more regular quizzes, varied
options for examination, and similar standards
for two professors teaching the same class.

If you would like to contribute to the
discussion, be updated about more events like
this, like SGA’s Facebook page athttp://www.
facebook.com/iitsga and visit their website at
sga.iit.edu

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Photo by Lynne Meyer, Director Ojfice ofSpI'rI'tuaI Llfe