Meeting the challenges of discrete mathematics for computer science: the power of symbols

  • Authors:
  • Joan Krone

  • Affiliations:
  • Denison University, Granville, Ohio

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges - Papers of the Fourteenth Annual CCSC Midwestern Conference and Papers of the Sixteenth Annual CCSC Rocky Mountain Conference
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

Motivating students to see the relevance of Discrete Mathemathics to Computer Science has always been challenging. Some textbooks, such as [1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9] have been a great help, since they include material directly associated with various topics in CS, along with programming exercises. The more subtle challenge is to help students see the importance of symbols and how the choice of syntactic representations has and continues to play a major role in how we think and how we reason. Here we examine an approach to the importance of representations choices that not only highlights the power of symbols, but also provides students with an opportunity to improve their oral communication skills.