Faculty across all levels of chemistry courses are incorporating quantitative thinking as a critical skill for students to learn. In addition to making sure students learn the discipline-specific chemistry concepts and associated mathematics, courses at the undergraduate and higher levels are also teaching computation – such as how to access, visualize, and analyze data, and the skills required to accomplish these tasks. Instructors choose MATLAB because students can get started easily, work in a single platform, and quickly find helpful resources.
Teaching computation and domain knowledge in a single course is challenging, and thus, requires some forethought and a well-organized course framework. Also necessary are problem sets and other resources, such as videos, for students to learn required foundation material and develop necessary programming skills.