The project develops two new courses: Mathematical Computing I & II, within the Mathematics Department for mathematics majors and secondary education majors. These courses teach the principles and techniques of computer programming by using MAPLE as a programming language. The use of MAPLE affords an easy, effective, and rich environment for learning the art of programming without the hassle of input, output, and formatting concerns. The content of these courses focuses on programming tasks designed to reinforce mathematical concepts learned in previous courses (calculus, differential equations I, discrete math, and linear algebra I) which are not part of the programming work in senior-level courses (such as numerical analysis, differential equations II, PDE, and advanced engineering mathematics). To make this curriculum development successful, the project augments existing computing environment with a new Inflatable Lab, consisting of 25 laptop computers. The physical location of this laboratory varies throughout the day and night. During the day, the laboratory can be scheduled and set up in any traditional classroom, connecting to the Intranet by wireless infrared technology and serving to establish a computer classroom for lecture, demonstration, or testing. At night, the laboratory can be set up to function as a traditional computer laboratory used by all students. In addition, over the weekend and during special semesters, some of the laptops from this laboratory can be checked out for use by our commuting students and students in the proposed new courses. *
