Introduction

This blog will be used to maintain a record of the progress of the author's third year project. The project is the design and implementation of a logic tutor, primarily with the Computer Science module CS205: Logic For Computer Scientists in mind.

The project supervisor for this module is Dr. Ranko Lazic who is the current lecturer for Logic.

If you have any questions about the project or would like to volunteer to test it, please use the contact link above.

Why 'Logic Teaching Tool' as a title?

The alternative question is 'why not a logic proof editor or a theorem prover'. Writing a proof editor on it's own would be duplicating the work of others such as the aptly named Just Another Theorem Prover (aka JAPE) written by the comlab at Oxford, so duplicating the existing work of academics seems pointless and unrewarding. Secondly, there is little scope for improvement on existing theroem provers. Therefore, the aim of this project is to produce a useful and useable teaching tool aimed at undergraduate students who are starting out in studying this core computer science topic studied in most computer science courses.

Why a teaching tool in the first place?

Studying the proof aspect of Logic For Computer Scientists has a steep learning curve. Knowing which rules to use and when to use them is often confusing. At first, making seemingly baseless or random assumptions to draw conclusions from is counter-intuitive. By providing an intelligent tool that a user can perform proofs with will reduce the learning curve whilst encouraging exploratory learning. An additional aim is to graphically replicate the box like proof structure familiar to students.

How will the success of the project be measured?

This tool is intended to be used as a teaching aid. Therefore it seems logical (please excuse the pun) that it is tested and evaluated by current second year students who have studied CS205. If you are interested in volunteering to test this project towards the end of term 2, please contact the author using the contact link above.

: 05 Oct 2005 14:37 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem