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Fun with Manipulate

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg76745] Fun with Manipulate
• From: Helen Read <read at math.uvm.edu>
• Date: Sat, 26 May 2007 04:49:26 -0400 (EDT)

So I'm retooling some calculus lab assignments for use with Mathematica 
6. And I just *love* Manipulate. For example, have a look at

http://www.uvm.edu/~cems/mathstat/mathematica/math21/math21X_lab4_zzzz.nb

In the old version of this lab, which is assigned before we have talked 
(much) about derivatives in class, I had the students make a plot on 
some relatively large interval, then "zoom in" by changing the domain of 
the plot manually and re-executing, until eventually they had something 
that looked linear. But now with 6.0, this is just way more fun. 
Hopefully this will make them go "Cool!" :-)

[Don't be put off by the wonky filename, BTW. The students are supposed 
to change the "X" to the section of the class that they are in, and the 
"zzzz" to their username when they download the file, for ease of 
sorting the submitted files on the instructor's computer. (It's 
completely paperless, at least in my classes. My students e-mail me 
their notebooks, I insert GraderText -- a custom style in the embedded 
stylesheet -- and mail the files back.)]

I'm not actually teaching right now, but am very much looking forward to 
using Mathematica 6 with my summer class later in the summer.

--
Helen Read
University of Vermont

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Fun with Manipulate
    • From: Murray Eisenberg <murray@math.umass.edu>