On Tue, Nov 08, 2005 at 08:25:36AM +1100, Alasdair McAndrew wrote:
> Has anybody successfully used (or is currently using) Maxima in their
> undergraduate mathematics teaching? And if so, would you be able to share
> your thoughts and experiences with me, or point me in the direction of any
> suitable web pages?
I've been using it, for the third year in a row, to teach dynamical
systems to 2nd-year undergraduate students majoring in engineering. I
give two lectures each week, where I explain the theory and solve some
examples using Maxima. The students then have a hands-on two-hour
session when they work in groups of two in front of a PC with Maxima.
My experience has been very positive. The student's motivation is much
higher than when I used to teach differential equations with chalk and
blackboard. Being forced to use a new notation, for instance diff(f,x,2),
help them comprehend the underlying concepts. Of course, not everything
works perfectly; the students run across problems very often, but they
have learned to accept the limitations of Maxima.
I've only found one book about that subject and Maxima (Macsyma ODE
Lab Book, D. Redfern, E. Chandler & R. N. Fell, Jones and Bartlett
Publishers International, 1997), but any other book using other tools
is easily adaptable (for instance, Dynamical Systems with Applications
using Maple, S. Lynch, Birkhauser, 2000). For undergrad mathematics
there are lots of references using Maple or Mathematica.
I've written my own lecture notes and I have a nice Moodle site for the
course, but unfortunately it is only in Portuguese
(http://moodle.fe.up.pt/course/view.php?id=12)
Regards,
Jaime Villate
University of Porto, Portugal