Outcomes and results of the labs were generally good and about like previous semesters. My qualitative impression is that the class seemed to be about the same as in previous semesters. Here is a numeric comparison of the scores from Fall 98 and Spring 99. The lab questions were the same from each semester so the scores are directly comparable. I don't have any explanation for the lower scores in Spring 99 compared to Fall 98, except that possibly I graded harder in Spring 99.
Students still have problems with the notion of precision, round-off, and floating point numbers.
This topic is covered in Lab 1, Problem 2. In Spring 99, I find that only 3 of 15 got the lab graded as perfect indicating complete understanding. This evidence is consistent with the lower averages noted above. Differential equations seemed to be better understood by this class. I am not sure why this should be so, although possible causes may be that the class was more mature, my explanations were better, or possibly the change this year to a more classic book made the examples of solutions with Maple more understandable.