Teaching mathematics and computer programming together

Abstract

Object-oriented computer programming and mathematical systems have commonality that may be used as a teaching tool: both operate with properties of and operations on abstract objects. A mathematical system is a triple {set of elements, axioms, operations}, while object-oriented programming structure is a triple {class, properties, methods}. It is suggested to use this commonality as a teaching tool with the goal of increasing students' understanding of abstract mathematical categories. Following this approach, students will learn writing mathematical problems as algorithms in pseudocode thus improving mathematical communication skills. In this paper, groups of natural and whole numbers, a ring of integer numbers, fields of rational and real numbers, and a wellknown Nim game are considered as examples. © 2007 Springer.