Teaching mathematical modeling: Art or science?

Abstract

Modeling and simulation skills are two core competencies of computational science and thus should be a central part of any curriculum. While there is a well-founded theory of simulation algorithms today the teaching of modeling skills bears some intrinsic problems. The reason is that modeling is still partly an art and partly a science. As an important consequence for university education the didactic concepts for teaching modeling must be quite different from those for teaching simulation algorithms. Some experiences made with a two term course on 'Modeling and Simulation' at the University of Siegen are summarized. © Springer-Verlag 2002.