Abstract:

Mathematics play a key role in the curriculum of any engineer as they give the theoretical basis of the physical sciences, and mathematical thinking is a desired competence in science and technology careers.

However, the idea that Mathematics are just an academic hurdle is widely spread among students. The fact that most of the mathematical courses are taught in the first years of the degrees, before a more focused overview of their importance can be noted, does not help to combat this perception.

Moreover, in the more advanced courses of numerical calculus, the knowledge of how mathematics are and behave on a computer (that is, scientific computing) can be very uneven among students

We consider essential to tackle these two issues by teaching students the way Mathematics are applied in Engineering and, in particular, how they are translated to a computer. Optimally the implementation of scientific computing would be done throughout all Mathematics courses. In the process, technological skills of the students are reinforced.

With a flipped classroom strategy, we have developed several tools and methodologies to carry out practical sessions in high volume courses of mathematics (five hundred students) in which the students become comfortable with scientific computing. In particular, we have designed a tool in LaTeX to create interactive documents for self-learning and developed a method for their evaluation through the virtual platform Moodle. As software we selected Matlab due to easiness of learning and future versatility to be used in more advanced courses.

This experience was carried out in a Linear Algebra course, and was well received among students, that could be seen working with interest in the practical sessions. The idea is to extend it progressively to other courses of mathematics.

Keywords:

Flipped classroom, scientific computing, mathematics, engineering.