A Wolf in Lamb's Clothing: Computer Science in a Mathematics Course

If computer science programs face a challenge of convincing students that programming is fun and achievable, they have nothing on mathematics departments who face societal beliefs that math is hard and scary. Several movements in computer science education have focused on broadening participation within computer science and across disciplines. The "CS + X" efforts have focused on helping computer science integrate into other disciplines. The "CS For All" movement has highlighted the importance of providing high quality computing education for all students. Simultaneously, there is increasing attention to the need to provide general education alternatives to college algebra. This paper describes a course designed to combine these goals: a course that uses programming to introduce students to functions, patterns, and spatial and computational thinking in order to meet quantitative reasoning goals set by the university. The course initially used Bricklayer as the programming environment, then transitioned to Processing. Students were successful in writing programs that created art, demonstrated mastery of quantitative literacy, and had improved attitudes following the course. This project suggests that in addition to the creation of introductory computer science classes, courses which embed computer science into disciplinary requirements can be a successful pathway to expand opportunities for students to learn computing.