Computing is ubiquitous and perhaps the most common element of our shared experience. Wagner College, like many liberal arts colleges, requires a semester of a Computer Science affiliated course to provide students with an exposure to “technological skills”. However, such courses typically do not delve into computer programming or high-level computational skills and generally provide instruction in using Microsoft Office® products and rudimentary internet concepts. Such courses appear outdated now and do not provide relevant skills to the modern undergraduate student. To remedy this situation and to provide our students with state-of-the-art technological tools we have created a course called, “Introduction to Scientific Computing” at Wagner College. The course provides students with hands-on training on typical work-flows in scientific data analysis and data visualization. Students are trained in the symbolic computing platform, Wolfram Mathematica®, to apply functional programming to analyze data. The course presents examples from various scientific disciplines to instill computational thinking. The students are also trained to perform molecular visualization using open source software packages like, Avogadro and Visual Molecular Dynamics, to understand secondary and tertiary protein structures, construct molecular animations, and to analyze computer simulation data. These experiences stimulate students to apply these skills across multiple courses and their research endeavors. Student self-assessment data at the end of the semester for the last 2 years of the course suggests that the course satisfies the learning objectives of the course and the College learning objectives of a Computer Science credit toward general education. Student self-assessment data suggests that the course satisfies a unique niche in undergraduate education and can serve as a recruitment device for Chemistry programs nationwide.

Scientific computing to enrich the freshman chemistry curriculum

254th National Meeting (2017)

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