Scientific Computing
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math
Teaching & Learning Math & Science with Technology
Graphing Calculators, Numerical Methods, Computer Algebra Systems & Linux Clusters
Why Shadowfax? Our cluster is so fast that we named it after the Lord Of The Rings character!
Website once known as CalcPage.tripod.com (1988 – 2008)
Every Monday we have a MCQ Monday Mock exam and review it during the week. Every Friday we have a FRQ Friday Mock exam and go over it the following week. We've been doing this forever and we're going a little cuckoo! Don't worry, the AP exam will be here before you know it!
Every Monday we have a MCQ Monday Mock exam and review it during the week. Every Friday we have a FRQ Friday Mock exam and go over it the following week. We've been doing this forever and we're going a little cuckoo! Don't worry, the AP exam will be here before you know it!
Just as we started the school year in preCalculus with an 8 week Boot Camp about Trigonometry, we are ending the year with an 8 week Boot Camp on Introductory Calculus! I say 8 weeks because I'm including our last chapter in preCalculus, namely Rational Functions in Chapter 3, as the beginnings of our discussions of Limits at a Point (Removable Discontinuities) and Limits at Infinity (Horizontal Asymptotes). Then I give a brief overview of the important concepts of Calculus: UNIT02 Limits, UNIT03 Derivatives and UNIT05 AntiDerivatives spending 2 weeks on each. We will likely finish all this right before Memorial Day. After Memorial Day we start Final Review!
We're still is a bit of a holding pattern, I'm afraid. We did everything we can do without any new hardware (see below). So, let's see if next month we finally get a delivery from BOCES? If not, our last meeting will be just for handing out binary graduation cords to my Seniors for the National Computer Science Honor Society!
March Post
Before we can continue with our openMPI project, we need a Linux Cluster! We used to have a classroom full of quad-core Linux boxes where we could setup a 100-core 50 GFLOP/s cluster for free! Now we only have Windows boxes, what to do? So, instead of going with Big Iron, maybe we should switch gears and try building our very own Little Fe Linux Cluster out of Raspberry PI 3.0 single board computers? As I type, we are looking into funding for a project similar to the one you see in the YouTube clip above. Maker Space, here we come!
March CIS(theta) Update:
We are still waiting for funding from BOCES for our RPI project. So, this month we just burned 25 Fedora Game Spin 27 DVDs and had a BZFlag Game Day right before Easter Break!
Donorschoose Update:
We got 4 codrones funded in just 27 days! Thanx to all my generous donors! Our latest Donorschoose campaign raised money for 2 codrones in just 7 days! Our first Donorschoose campaign took 20 days. These codrones will be used in our final project in AP CompSci after AP Exams.
March Homework!
In the meantime, you can download the BCCD ISO file and burn your own bootable CD. BCCD stands for Bootable Cluster CD. Don't worry if your first burn doesn't boot. You can use that CD as a "Linux Coaster" for your favorite beverage the next time you play on SteamOS. If you can make this work at home, try to run GalaxSee HPC Module from the BCCD documentation page.
Also, here's our fourth reading assignment. BTW, I was an editor on this book. That's why I recommend it. It's all about setting up and programming a Linux Cluster aka Super Computer with COWS (Commodity Off-the-shelf Work Stations = ordinary PCs). What's unique about this book is that it uses Java for all its coding samples making it an easy read for anyone who has taken AP CompSci!
NEW DECOR (Display Case):
Featuring ChromeCast & Processing!
NEW DECOR (Room 429):
Featuring Tapestry from RedBubble!
So, what's all this good for aside from making Fractal Zoom or Shrek Movies?
SETI Search
Econometrics
Bioinformatics
Protein Folding
Beal Conjecture
Scientific Computing
Computational Physics
Mersenne Prime Search
Computational Chemistry
Computational Astronomy
Computer Aided Design (CAD)
Computer Algebra Systems (CAS)
These are but a few examples of using Computer Science to solve problems in Mathematics and the Sciences (STEAM). In fact, many of these applications fall under the heading of Cluster Programming or Super Computing. These problems typically take too long to process on a single PC, so we need a lot more horse power. Next time, maybe we'll just use Titan!
A few years ago, we started an Ancient Tradition in my AP classes, namely: Filk Friday!
What is Filk Friday? It's the Friday before our first AP Exam week each year. What we do is stop AP review briefly and catch our breath. To accomplish this state of relaxation and euphoria, we watch a few filks!
I do this in all my classes since my preCalulus students are burnt out from AP Review in other classes too!
The first 2 videos you see above are for AP Calculus BC. We also have our Continental Mathematics League Awards ceremony.
Videos 3-5 above are related to AP Computer Science.
The last 3 videos are for preCalculus as we just started doing a bit of Caclulus proper.
Hope you enjoyed letting off some steam before your AP Exams!
