[Edu-sig] explaining functions [Possibly OT]

[Kent Johnson]

Michael Dawson's "Python Programming for the absolute beginner" has a cute analogy. He say, a 
function is like a pizza joint. You call it and give it your parameters (what kind of pizza you 
want) and it returns a pizza.

:-)
Kent

Brian van den Broek wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> This might be a bit tangential to the topic; if so, my apologies. (I've 
> been reading this list for a while, but have never posted before.)
> 
> I'm a Python hobbyist, and am not involved in CS education, except 
> peripherally. I am also a grad student in Philosophy who has, for a few 
> years now, been teaching Introduction to Formal Logic to audiences 
> largely composed of Philosophy and Linguistics undergrads with a small 
> contingent of Computer Science undergraduates, too.
> 
> I have found it difficult to get some of the humanities undergraduates 
> to see the understand the general mathematical concept of a function. 
> Occasionally, even some of the CS students (who, when I see them, have 
> just begun) stumble with the concept, too.
> 
> The best I have managed to come up with is to tell them that a function 
> is like a 'black box' to which you feed some ordered input of the 
> appropriate sort, and it gives you an output determined entirely by that 
> input.
> 
> I have found that, at least for the humanities students, getting them to 
> understand some of the material is largely a matter of finding a useful 
> metaphor (and, convincing them that the metaphor is an aid, not the 
> thing in itself). That's been the only way to get the ones bothered by 
> the mathematician's use of "if ... then ..." to accept it. (They don't 
> like that "If 2 + 2 = 97 then I am King of the moon" and "If grass is 
> green then sky is blue" are taken to be true.)
> 
> So, I am wondering if others on the list have had difficulty getting 
> students (particularly students not primarily studying Math or CS) to 
> get the idea of a function? If so, I'd be very interested in what 
> techniques were of use.
> 
> Thanks, and I do apologize if this query is received as too peripherally 
> related to the topic of the list. Best to all,
> 
> Brian vdB
> 
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