A project in algorithms based on a primary historical source about catalan numbers

Subscribe (Full Service)


	Search: The ACM Digital Library The Guide

	Feedback

A project in algorithms based on a primary historical source about catalan numbers

Full text

Pdf (113 KB)

Source

Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education archive
Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education table of contents

Houston, Texas, USA

SESSION: Discrete mathematics table of contents

Pages: 318 - 322

Year of Publication: 2006

ISBN:1-59593-259-3

Also published in ...

Authors

David Pengelley	New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
Inna Pivkina	New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
Desh Ranjan	New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
Karen Villaverde	New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM

Sponsors

SIGCSE: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education
ACM: Association for Computing Machinery

Publisher

ACM New York, NY, USA

Bibliometrics

Downloads (6 Weeks): 2, Downloads (12 Months): 25, Citation Count: 0

Additional Information:

abstract references index terms collaborative colleagues

Tools and Actions:	Review this Article Save this Article to a Binder Display Formats: BibTex EndNote ACM Ref

DOI Bookmark:	Use this link to bookmark this Article: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1121341.1121439 What is a DOI?

ABSTRACT

We discuss a project based on an original source from 1838 by Gabriel Lamé, which was used to teach dynamic programming in an Algorithms and Data Structures course for junior level computer science students. The project was developed as part of a group effort at New Mexico State University on using original historical sources in teaching. The project is based on an excerpt from a letter of Monsieur Lamé to Monsieur Liouville on the question: Given a convex polygon, in how many ways can one partition it into triangles by means of diagonals? A variety of tasks in the project, which includes reading, writing, proving statements by mathematical induction, deriving formulas, writing computer programs and analyzing and comparing them for efficiency, help students to develop verbal, analytical and discrete mathematics skills necessary for computer science. We also discuss student reactions to the project and to learning from historical sources.

REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

	1	J.-L. Chabert (ed.). A history of algorithms: from the pebble to the microchip. Springer, New York, 1999.
	2	J. Fauvel and J. Van Maanen. History in Mathematics Education. Kluwer, Boston, 2000.
	3	V. Katz. Using History to Teach Mathematics. Mathematical Association of America, Washington D.C., 2000.
	4	J. Lodder, et al. Teaching Discrete Mathematics via Primary Historical Sources. math.nmsu.edu/hist_projects/, 2003--.
	5	R. Laubenbacher and D. Pengelley. Mathematical Expeditions: Chronicles by the Explorers. Springer-Verlag, New York, 2000.
	6	R. Laubenbacher and D. Pengelley. Teaching with Original Historical Sources in Mathematics. math.nmsu.edu/symbol126history, 1999--.
	7	F. Rickey. The Necessity of History in Teaching Mathematics. In R. Calinger (ed.), Vita Mathematica: Historical Research and Integration with Teaching, pages 251--256. Mathematical Association of America, Washington D.C., 1996.