Natural Blogarithms

During Linear Algebra on Monday, I began class by answering homework questions. … Somehow the discussion of a applications of techniques we are learning came up. Thus far, we have basically covered how to use Gauss-Jordan elimination to solve linear systems. I pointed to examples from engineering (such as structural analysis of trusses) and computational fluid dynamics (discretization procedures to solve PDEs). I understand that these are a little outside the scope of this class but I chose them because of the individuals asking the question and based on their particular interests in mechanical engineering and aeronautics. [..]

During Faith and Science on Monday, the students were allowed to continue collaborating in their groups (2 groups of 4) to decide on their final working definitions of faith and science. After 30 minutes or so, the groups went to the board and recorded their definitions for faith and for science. They then made the effort to assimilate their definitions. [..]

To begin class on Friday, I went over a few interesting entries that have been made on the class blogs. As part of this course, the students are required to maintain a personal blog over the topics of this course. Up to this point, they have each been asked to post entries on a series of questions, such as encountering conflicts between science and religion, their perspective on miracles, their firm or nor-so-firm opinion on the origin of the universe, etc. [..]

One of my students in Linear Algebra reminded me of quote I had heard some time back concerning the pecking order of the sciences. The version he quoted was what he had heard from a colleague of mine here at Wayland: [..]