Re: [seul-edu] Math teachers...

[lp <prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us>]

> The project is now coming under fire from the Mathematics department -

I teach math at the community college level, but I know that
mathematics, science and computer science departments at major 
universities evidently use Linux quite a lot. I suspect
that cost and performance are the major reasons.

Students Will Very Likely be Using Unix/Linux When They Go to College
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There is a 'trickle down' effect at work in the mathematics curriculum.
What happens is that math curriculums at universities take directions
(like emphasizing 'applications' over 'proofs' in calculus classes or,
in this case, using Unix/Linux for computing resources) and over time
community colleges and high schools are expected to somehow prepare
students for these changes. Most responsible teachers are sensitive to
this issue and want to keep up with the times. On the other hand,
teachers are horrendously over-worked, under paid, and are constantly
harrassed by, oh just about everybody! Since Linux is relatively
new, the math teachers may not be aware of its pervasiveness at
universities.

One of the purposes of a high school and a community college is
to prepare students to go to college. Be sure that your math 
instructors are aware that students who attend universities as 
math, science, or computer science majors are very likely to 
run into Unix/Linux. As I mentioned, the influence is already 
pervasive.

You can see this at the following links for computing resources in
math departments:

http://www.math.arizona.edu/computing/start.html
http://math.la.asu.edu/compmath.html
http://www.math.unm.edu/general/computing.html
http://www.math.unc.edu/Computing/
http://www.ma.utexas.edu/
http://www.math.utsa.edu/comp.html
http://www.math.utk.edu/Computing/
http://www.sci.wsu.edu/math/helpdesk/welcome.html

This is not a rigged list! You can check out other math departments
and their computing resources at the Penn State site:

http://www.math.psu.edu/MathLists/DeptUSA.html

This is a really large list. Just click on any of them at random
and follow the links for computing resources. You'll be pleasantly
surprised at how many sites are using Linux.

You might compose a list of math computing resources for
universities in California that are nearby your high school.

It really helps high school students to have had some experience
with some version of Unix before encountering it in college. So
even if the math department wants to use Windows software for
some applications, they ought to have some way for their students
to have some activities and experience with Linux. 
For your peace of mind, even if they are using Windows, you 
can still use XWin-32 or VNC to access your Linux server 
applications as needed. Whatever happens, don't give up your 
Linux servers! That's your beachhead.


L. Prevett
Mathematics Instructor
Cochise College, Sieera Vista, AZ
prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us