Students Prepare Computer Courses For Core Program

Undergraduate teaching assistants are currently offering computer mini-courses aimed at developing classes students can take to fulfill part of their Core Curriculum mathematics requirement.

Students in the Class of '34 will have to write and run a simple computer program and display an elementary knowledge of functions and statistics to satisfy the requirement.

Clones

John R. Scylla '81, supervisor of the mini-course, said this week the three non-credit mini-courses given thus far have introduced 27 students who are not "computer people" to computer basics.

Lisa B. Bernstein '81, a mini-course teacher in training for next year, said yesterday the students in her course told her they "got what they expected to get."

The aim of the course is to show that "you can't hurt computers" and if you're not afraid "you can do exciting things," Michelle J. Arden '81, another mini-course teacher, said yesterday.

Lewis A. Law, associate director of the Science Center, said yesterday because of the new requirement any undergraduate can now get a limited amount of computer time.

Law said the Science Center purchased a $180,000 PDP 1120 computer in September, anticipating an increase in computer use when the Core mathematics requirement goes into effect.