Development of a MATLABbased course for marine science

Development of a MATLAB-based course for marine science majors Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert Stockton University

Motivation for a new computational course Department goal of improving quantitative skills of graduates • Comfort with software beyond MS Office • Marketable skills Learning goals: Students can… • load data • compute descriptive statistics • make well-designed figures

Course content Data visualization theory & technique Assignments & class discussions Mastery of Matlab basics Self-paced modules Project Poster presentation

Topics covered in Matlab • Vectors, matrices, indexing • Using functions • File i/o and basic plotting • Conditional statements • For loops • Strings, structures, cell arrays • Datetime arrays Sequential modules: • Reference material • Practice problems • Problem set

Grading scheme Excellent Complete Incomplete Completeness No incorrect or incomplete answers Correctness Script runs with no errors, Script produces an error, all output matches >90% matches specs <90% matches specifications Documentation Script has a header, thorough annotation, formatted for readability Script has a header and sufficient comments to document procedure Lacks a header or insufficient comments Learning reflection Reflection paragraph on what was learned and how it can be applied in other contexts Paragraph summarizes skills covered No reflection paragraph Minor incorrect or incomplete answers One or more questions omitted or wrong

Things that did not work well Revised plan Fully self-paced modules with open deadlines Mid-semester deadline and weekly suggested deadlines No lecture Mini-lecture on topic of the week Student progress reports to class Weekly written progress reports & questions Motivation and retention Examples of prior student success, added familiar data Spring 2017: 16 registered, 69% retention Spring 2018: 11 registered, 91% retention Fall 2019: 20 registered

Ongoing challenges • Balance of lecture and individual work time • Use of textbook and practice problems (vs. Google) • Access to Matlab outside of class Email: Anna. Pfeiffer-Herbert@stockton. edu

Student project examples