CS382:Topics Matrix

This is meant to be a rough draft of an idea Charlie and I talked about: that we should have a n-by-n matrix of different ideas that we want to make sure we hit. Since an n-by-n matrix is hard to display (especially on a wiki!) it turned into a list instead. Once this is finished, we should make sure that at least one unit addresses each one of these topics.

Initial "dimensions" of the matrix:

• Scientific disciplines
• Scientific tools
• Skill sets from the attribute guidelines

Scientific Disciplines

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Geology (earthquakes)
• Environmental science
• One of the social sciences

Potentially:

• Astronomy

Scientific Tools

• Equation-based modeling
• Agent-based modeling: Netlogo or AgentSheets
• Systems-based modeling: Vensim
• Visualization/visual modeling
• Mashups and Google Earth

Potentially

• SecondLife or OpenSim

Foundation Skills

• Creating a graph
• Interpreting a graph
• Basic statistics
• Estimation
• Parameter sweep

Potentially

• Building a physical model

Thoughts

Some of these should go somewhere, and some of these should be in every unit.

• What data do I need to collect, how do I collect it accurately, and then how do I build it
  • Perhaps one unit where they have to go out and collect data to see how hard it really is
• Data collection: sensor nets, lasers