Educational Materials for Undergraduate Computational Studies

This collection of Educational Materials for Undergraduate Computational Science was made possible by grants from the National Science Foundation, the W. M. Keck Foundation, and Battelle. Module descriptions, complete module information, and module author contact information is available by clicking on the disciplinary headings.

Biology Modules

Modeling Populations and Habitats for Kirtland’s Warbler
Classification of Hybrids Using Genetic Markers and Maximum-Likelihood Estimates
Tumor Dynamics
Gene Identification
Protein Identification
Diffusion in Biology: A Mathematical Modeling Approach
Modeling the Cardiovascular System using STELLA®
Modeling Mushroom Fairy Rings
Modeling Malaria
Spread of SARS
Pharmacokinetics: Mathematical Analysis of Drug Distribution in Living Organisms
Biological Curve Fitting
Sequence Alignment
Modeling Neurophysiology Using STELLA®
Phylogeny Project
Sequence Analysis
Protein Sequence Comparisons

Chemistry Modules

Molecular Structure and Interaction
Chemical Kinetics
Quantum Chemistry in the Environment
Molecular Mechanics
Introduction to Computational Chemistry
Kinetics of Reaction Systems

Computational Science Modules

Diffusion Limited Aggregation
The 1-D Hydrogen Atom
Ablation, Aerobraking and Airbursting of a Hypersonic Projectile in Earth's Atmosphere
Heat Flow on the Jovian Satellite Europa
Computational Analysis of the Orbital Motion in General Relativity and Newtonian Physics
Electric Potential Due to Continuous Charge Distribution
Enzyme Kinetics
Cost of Financial Portfolio
Spread of Infectious Disease
Satellite Surveillance

Computer Science Modules

Computable Performance Metrics: Module 0: Floating Point Precision
Computable Performance Metrics: Module 1: Floating Point Precision: MACHAR – Test for IEEE 754
Computable Performance Metrics: Module 2: Computing Error and Work Estimators
Traveling Salesperson Problem: A Parallel Approach
The Edit Distance Problem: A Parallel Approach for Distributed Memory Machines
N-Body Problem: A Parallel Programming Approach
Mandelbrot Set: A parallel Programming Approach

Environmental Science Modules

Modeling the Performance of a Solar Heated Sunroom: Heat Gain, Storage, and Loss
Well Hydraulics and Capture Zone
A Tale of Two Lakes: Environmental Mass Balance Modeling
How Far Will It Go? Predicting the Extent of Groundwater Plumes
Global Climate Modeling
Groundwater Flow Modeling
Phosphorus Cycling Model

Finance Modules

Option Pricing
Cash Flow Analysis and Capital Asset Pricing Model
Anatomy of a Large Company Acquiring a Small Privately-Owned Company

Geology Modules

Exploring and Visualizing Strain
Stresses and Faulting
Spherical Magma Reservoir Failure: Exploring Some Geological Implications of Stress Concentration Around a Pressurized Cavity
Thermal Conduction: A Tool for Exploring Geological Processes
Landslides and Slope Stability Analysis Module
Numerical Analysis for Heat Transfer-Another Tool for Exploring Geological Processes

Mathematics Modules

First Order Difference Equations
First Order Differential Equations
Higher Order Differential Equations
Higher Order Linear Difference Equations
Laplace Transformations
Systems of Differential Equations
Systems of Difference Equations
Fourier Transforms, Fourier Series and the FFT
Did he do it? Evaluating Evidence Using Bayesian Networks
Pharmacokinetics: Mathematical Analysis of Drug Distribution in Living Organisms
Vector Spaces and Linear Transformations
Systems of Linear Equations
Street Lighting
An Introduction to Coding Theory via Hamming Codes
The FFT and Functions
Modeling Seashell Form

Neuroscience Modules

Image Reconstruction in Emission Tomography I: Non-iterative Methods
Image Reconstruction in Emission Tomography II: Iterative Methods

Physics Modules

Spontaneous Magnetization
Computational Analysis of the Orbital Motion in General Relativity and Newtonian Physics
Projectile Motion
The Quantum Mechanics of Two and Three Dimensional Nano Structures

Psychology Modules