Teaching Mathematics and Computer Science
Pig often serves as a simple, fun example for teaching probability concepts from the middle school level upwards. For example, the Interactive Mathematics Program uses The Game of Pig as the core example for its Year 1 probability curriculum, and offers a downloadable Pig simulation tool to test simple strategies for long term scoring. Similar curricular materials are available on the NZMaths Statistics Web-site. A more comprehensive list of online Pig teaching resources is also available.
Pig also provides many valuable exercises for teaching Computer Science in areas ranging from introductory courses to advanced machine learning material. See Computer Science Resources for the Game Pig and/or the following journal publication:
- Todd W. Neller, Clifton G.M. Presser, Ingrid Russell, Zdravko Markov. Pedagogical Possibilities for the Dice Game Pig. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 149–161, June 2006.
A guide to computing optimal play for Pig and similar games is freely available as the NSF-sponsored project Solving the Dice Game Pig: an introduction to dynamic programming and value iteration.
Recently, the CS 61A class at Berkeley using Python has decided to use Pig to explore function abstraction.
Read more about this topic: Pig (dice)
Famous quotes containing the words teaching, mathematics, computer and/or science:
“Like a prophet, you are possibly teaching us about the workings of the divine mind, but in the process you are ruining the human mind, dear friend.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“Why does man freeze to death trying to reach the North Pole? Why does man drive himself to suffer the steam and heat of the Amazon? Why does he stagger his mind with the mathematics of the sky? Once the question mark has arisen in the human brain the answer must be found, if it takes a hundred years. A thousand years.”
—Walter Reisch (1903–1963)
“What, then, is the basic difference between today’s computer and an intelligent being? It is that the computer can be made to see but not to perceive. What matters here is not that the computer is without consciousness but that thus far it is incapable of the spontaneous grasp of pattern—a capacity essential to perception and intelligence.”
—Rudolf Arnheim (b. 1904)
“The puritanical potentialities of science have never been forecast. If it evolves a body of organized rites, and is established as a religion, hierarchically organized, things more than anything else will be done in the name of “decency.” The coarse fumes of tobacco and liquors, the consequent tainting of the breath and staining of white fingers and teeth, which is so offensive to many women, will be the first things attended to.”
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)