Erhard Zorn

Pre-Freshmen Students Gearing up with Early Bird

We are offering a freshmen course called “Early Bird” where students have the opportunity to take the mathematics courses of the first semester (Calculus I for Engineers and Linear Algebra for Engineers) before they are enrolled at our university. Participants accomplishing sufficiently many homework assignments are qualified to take the final written examinations even if they are (still) not enrolled. The grades of these examinations may be accepted if the students will be enrolled afterwards. In this 9 weeks course the regular calculus I and linear algebra lectures are taught in the same lecture/tutorials together. Though the workload in this course is very high for students, 99% are recommending this course to other prospective engineering students.

Natural Sciences in the Information Society: First experiences

The goal of the GALILEA project is to design and implement innovative programs and curricula, providing solutions to the changed job specifications for engineers and natural scientists and are capable of attracting more female students to these programs. In this article we outline the design, implementation and the first evaluation results of our pilot program, the bachelor course of “Natural Sciences in the Information Society” that started in the winter term of 2007/08.

Collaborative learning in teaching information management

In this paper, we present the course called ‘New Media in Education and Research’, which employs a blended learning approach. This course is a part of a new bachelors programme ‘Natural Sciences in the Information Society’ that is in place in TU Berlin. The main goal of this course is to provide the students with the appropriate information technology literacy that they will need during their studies and beyond. A more specific goal of the course is to train the students to collaborate in small groups. Tablet PCs with OneNote installed on it act as agents to communicate some of the technological aspects as well as soft skills in a blended learning scenario. We discuss the pedagogical and technological backgrounds of the course and we present the implementation of the course. We conclude with a review of our results and an outlook to future work.

Early Bird: Preparing engineering freshmen for engineering challenges

Mathematical knowledge and abilities are among the most important tools of engineers and are often needed in introductory classes before the relevant topics can be offered in the mathematics classes. The most common compromise consisting of a quick introduction to the relevant mathematics in the non-mathematical classes themselves is neither very satisfying for students and teachers nor is it particularly successful. We introduce the ldquoEarly Birdrdquo project allowing interested freshmen to utilize the often unused period between ldquoAbiturrdquo (German high-school graduation) and beginning of studies in the winter term by attending the mathematics modules of Linear Algebra and Calculus I, before the official start of the first semester. As a result students of engineering have the necessary in-depth mathematical knowledge at their disposal considerably earlier. They can reduce the duration of their education in mathematics by one semester by moving forward the advanced courses of higher semesters correspondingly. Teaching both Calculus I and Linear Algebra within one course allows for a better coordination of the content. Compared to the standard courses taught to freshmen, the curriculum of the course is modified to better address the applications of mathematics in the field of engineering. Additionally, the course covers ordinary linear differential equation as well as an introduction to numeric software.

Introductory mathematics computer course

The majority of freshmen is overcharged in the transition from high school to academic education at the beginning of their studies. The biggest continual problems appear in mathematics. This is based on the high degree of abstraction and on the fact that the mathematical education for non-mathematicians, mainly engineering students, takes place at the beginning of the studies. Thus, deficiencies become apparent at an early stage. In order to facilitate freshmens transition from high school to the university the Department of Mathematics offers a four-week introductory course to mathematics before the begin of each semester. The course is addressed particularly to freshmen of the engineering and natural sciences and mathematics. Additionally, a so-called mathematics computer course is offered for a part of the participants of the introductory mathematics course. In this two-week course the participants learn how to handle the Linux operating system, the employment of a computer algebra system (Maple) and obtain an introduction to the scientific text processing system LATEX.

An optimized algorithm for distributing large numbers of students to small exercise groups

The number of students in major classes for freshmen courses easily exceeds 2.000 students. In this paper, the MOSESKONTO-environment is presented - which helps computing an optimal assignment into exercise groups and provides means for tracking and managing exam registration. Based on the data from summer term 2005, already 50% of all bachelor exams were managed through the MOSESKONTO at TU Berlin.

An Introductory Mathematics Computer Course as a Supplement to a Mathematical Bridge Course

At the beginning of their studies the majority of freshmen are overcharged in the transition from high school to academic education. The biggest continual problems appear in mathematics for engineering students or natural scientists. This is based on the high degree of abstraction and on the fact that the mathematical education takes place at the beginning of their studies. Thus, deficiencies become apparent at an early stage. In order to facilitate freshmen’s transition from high school to the university the Department of Mathematics of Technische Universitat Berlin offers a four-week introductory course to mathematics before the beginning of each semester. The course is addressed particularly to freshmen of engineering, natural sciences and mathematics. Additionally, a so-called mathematics computer course is offered with capacity for a part of the participants of the introductory mathematics course. In this two-week course the participants learn how to handle the Linux operating system, how to employ a computer algebra system (Maple) and they obtain an introduction to the scientific text processing system LaTeX. We investigated if the mathematics bridge course and the mathematics computer course lead to a better academic performance by the students in their later courses.

Introductory Mathematics Computer Course - A Supplementary Course for a Mathematical Bridge Course

The majority of freshmen is overcharged in the transition from high school to academic education at the beginning of their studies. The biggest continual problems appear in mathematics. This is based on the high degree of abstraction and on the fact that the mathematical education for non-mathematicians, mainly engineering students, takes place at the beginning of the studies. Thus, deficiencies become apparent at an early stage. In order to facilitate freshmens transition from high school to the university the Department of Mathematics offers a four-week introductory course to mathematics before the begin of each semester. The course is addressed particularly to freshmen of the engineering and natural sciences and mathematics. Additionally, a so-called mathematics computer course is offered for a part of the participants of the introductory mathematics course. In this two-week course the participants learn how to handle the Linux operating system, the employment of a computer algebra system (Maple) and obtain an introduction to the scientific text processing system LaTeX.

Experiences from an international student and staff exchange program

We describe an ongoing exchange program between 11 universities from the European Union and candidate countries and 9 universities form Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, implementing a bilateral mobility flow between the European and the neighbouring countries. Experiences are reviewed, including the not exclusively academic obstacles that we had to overcome in teaching and learning within these different educational systems.

Bachelor+: A year abroad with Nidi-International

Goal of the NIDI-INTERNATIONAL project is to redesign and implement an existing program in order to integrate one year of study abroad for students. In this article we outline the design, implementation the BSc course of “Natural Sciences in the Information Society” that started in the winter term of 2007/08. We also describe a prototypic student project in the framework of the LiLa project that has to be implemented in the second semester abroad.