Collaborative Learning to teach set theory to engineering students

Abstract

We design a new method for teach set theory for engineer students and computer science engineer, this method is based in collaborative education where the student make a team and each member have a different role. Each team is divided in three students called the“checker”, the“modeler”and the“builder”. The first step is to build equivalence between the basic concepts of the set theory like union, intersection and complement with the digital logic basic concepts like disyunction, conjunction and negation. Later, the students analyze a set theory problem making the digital logic equivalent(made for all “checkers”); the “modelers” design the truth table with all the possibilities, in this table they have the combination of true or false values. Finally, the “builders” build the equivalent circuit using logic TTL gates and on the breadboard make the result using all information obtained by a team (checker, modeler and builder); the team can model problems of the set theory using digital logic. This method was used to teach set theory to computer system engineering and biotechnology engineering students, they have a better knowledge ofthis area ofthe mathematics.