PIERCE COLLEGE : 17 Computers, Software Donated

Seventeen computers with instructional software have been donated to Pierce College by IBM and the Mathematical Assn. of America.

The donation is part of a three-year project to train high school and college instructors in the use of modern technology in teaching subjects such as calculus and algebra.

Peter Schleppenbach, computer science instructor at Pierce, said the idea behind the project is “to use computers to teach instead of teaching straight from the textbooks.

“For example, a student can enter a formula into the computer and the computer will graph it,” Schleppenbach said. “What if the exponent is changed? How will that affect the graph? The student will find out new ways to solve problems.”

The PS/2 Model 90 computers from IBM have been installed in the campus learning center. They are available for academic use to anyone enrolled at Pierce College.

Additional software, including Mathematica, Mathcad, Derive and Maple, was also donated to Pierce by the creators of those programs.

One of the grant’s stipulations is that Pierce host six week-long workshops to train college professors and high school teachers in how to use the new interactive computer programs, Schleppenbach said.

Two of the workshops took place this summer, and others will take place the next two years.

Thomas McCutcheon, mathematics instructor and project manager, said students in mathematics and science courses this semester will use the new computer programs during class and possibly for homework assignments.

“The students’ benefit is that they can change the problems presented and get an answer on the computer,” McCutcheon said. “Students can discover connections themselves instead of being told.”

He said the connections are ideas and concepts that will continue from one algebra or calculus course to the next, or from one chapter in a textbook to the next.

“There have to be connections if a student is to know what is going on. We hope that students will see these courses as a continuous thread instead of isolated units,” McCutcheon said.