"Richard Fateman" <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> writes:
> I think the case should be made to students who are in college, at least
> those who might subsequently use computers for scientific calculations, that
> there are such things as computer algebra systems, that do "symbols" rather
> than "just numbers". Thus the "sales pitch" should be at students who know
> some algebra and are probably learning calculus.
That sounds like the right level to me, too, particulary since the
calculus sequence is where the students first have to use computer
algebra programs (at least where I teach, and I think that's fairly
standard).
> Convincing 5th grade students that they should use Maxima rather than some
> competing program on the basis of how they each do arithmetic seems odd.
Well, when I talked about 5th grade math, I just meant standard
arithmetic; even beginning calc students would expect 2.0+2.0 to be
4.0. The fact that Maxima doesn't work with the numbers the students
type in should be made very clear very early (I think).
> 5th grade students will either be doing whatever their teachers tell them to
> do (or, the US, refusing to do it)
No need to limit that to 5th grade...
"van Nek" <van.nek at arcor.de> writes:
> I don't know the US school system. How old are 5th grade students?
> Volker
Usually 10 or 11 years old.
Jay