Virtual Laboratories as a Strategy for Teaching Improvement in Math Sciences and Engineering in Bolivia

Abstract

STEM education is a strategy based on four disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), integrated in an innovative interdisciplinary approach. Although, the concept of STEM education is more relevant today, the discussion of a teaching model with special attention in the four subjects aforementioned began in the early 2000s. Taking into account this context, the strategy presented in this paper has been disseminated in Bolivia’s main universities for the last five years. A country that has not yet managed to associate basic disciplines such as calculus, matrix algebra, and/or differential equations to solve problems of an applicative nature, that is, to establish the link between theory and practice. To establish the connection, it is necessary to deduce differential equations associated with practical problems; solve these equations with numerical methods, appeal to the simulation concept to later introduce programming languages like Python/VPython to build virtual laboratories. The classical problem addressed for this purpose is the satellite of two degrees of freedom. Index Terms—Numerical methods, Programming languages, Simulation, Satellite control.

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