This site provides access to a rapidly growing range of good mathematical software for both Macintosh and MSDOS/Windows platforms.

Many sites are now available which offer good quality mathematics software for a range of platforms (but particularly for Macintosh and MS-DOS/Windows). Most offer links to other sites. The Mathematics Archive at the University of Tennessee, Kentucky and the Technology and Mathematics Education (TAME) site in Melbourne provide excellent starting points.

To these might be added the CTIMath site at Birmingham, England, as well as more specialised sites such as the Experiments in Mathematics using Maple and Mathematica, the Texas Instruments Home Page and the Mathematica Home Page.

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Software for Peanuts

For Windows users, you MUST visit the Peanut Software site. This collection of programs is written by Richard Parris. All are free for educational use. The first set are designed for WINDOWS, the second for DOS and should run on ANY IBM compatible computer. The Windows versions are more recent and more powerful. All are excellent.

The programs may be freely distributed, and the author welcomes suggestions for improvements and repairs. Current versions are always available at the Peanut Software home site.

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MathWorlds: Calculus for All

Wonderful development work is going on at the University of Massachusets under the directorship of Jim Kaput, an educator who has been one of the true prophets of technology and mathematics education over the past decade and more. His new MathWorlds must be seen to be believed - and the beta test version is available FREE for downloading from the MathWorlds Home Page. This collection of scenarios threatens to turn the teaching of calculus on its head, as students are empowered to create a variety of motion situations and their graphs - and then to alter these by actively manipulating the position, velocity and acceleration graphs that go with them. (Available at present only for Power Macintosh).

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Animation and mathematics...

As mathematics teachers, we have only just begun to explore the possibilities of video. Animations provide a means by which mathematical ideas may become dynamic rather than static concepts for our students.

Consider, for example, the power of the image when thinking about adding a constant outside a function

when compared with adding a constant inside a function.

These QuickTime animations were created using Theorist Student Edition, but similar animations are possible using free software, such as xFunctions.

Of course, you could go to town altogether!

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OnLine Mathematics

One of the most exciting developments in mathematics technology promises to be the OnLine Revolution, and leading the charge is the wonderful computer algebra and graphing package, Theorist. Hot off the presses is the new Theorist Plug-In for Netscape. Yes - download the plug-in, add it to either Mac or Windows versions and Netscape becomes a Theorist demo! Wonderful for graphing in 2 and 3 dimensions, as well as calculus and other possibilities. Once you have added the plug-in, feel free to browse the Theorist OnLine Trial Pages and see what you think!

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Last updated: 1st May, 1996
Stephen Arnold
crsma@cc.newcastle.edu.au
© 1996 The University of Newcastle

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Courses | Software | Readings | Links | Comments?

© 1996: The University of Newcastle: Faculty of Education

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