---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Stephen Glasby <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 10:29 AM Subject: Re: Details for PNW-MAA 2009 meeting To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dear William, Sorry for the delayed reply. I think Rob Beezer's advice on giving simple applications on common u.g. courses (statistics, calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, differential equations etc) is a good idea. Some advice on installation is necessary and desirable. I found installing a linux version very easy, but there may be difficulties with other platforms. The comment by *kcrisman* about "talking some about what a sysadmin" seemed like it might not be a good idea, but I am sure he knows more sage than me and I guess I am missing some subtleties. You clearly have a lot of good material on your web site. The file tut.pdf is helpful. Joyner's sage version of Granville's book has good features. I know some will find it old fashioned with log tables, but there is useful stuff there. The example on Taylor series with the slide bar drawing higher order approximations will impress. I looked at http://sage.math.washington.edu/home/wdj/teaching/DiffyQ/ but the links seemed not to work. How would you run the minicourse? Do you need Sage installed on each lab computer? I do not know whether the lab computers have enough memory for that. Can one do a lot using some of the nice examples that are on web pages? In summary, I would go for the broad introduction to the advantages of Sage. Once people come on board, they will hopefully develop code and contribute to the project. I would like a free software counterbalance to Mathematica. I think it is best if each proponent showcases "their system" and avoids comparisons. I am very excited to learn more about Sage. You and your colleagues have made great progress! Best wishes, Stephen P.S. By the way I got the error: www.sagenb.org uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate is not trusted because it is self signed. So I have not checked out www.sagenb.org --- >>> William Stein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 10/20/08 8:47 PM >>> Dear Stephen, Before responding with my title/abstract, I asked some other people in the Sage community what they thought I should talk about, and got a couple of good replies, all of which I've included below. If you have a moment, could you glance at this, and see if what is generally suggested below would be appropriate (in your opinion) for an MAA minicourse? Thanks! William Forwarded conversation Subject: Details for PNW-MAA 2009 meeting ------------------------ From: *Stephen Glasby* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 10:40 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear William, I thought I should get back to you regarding the PNW-MAA meeting 2009.04.03-04. Your minicourse is now scheduled for Fri 2:30-5:30. What title would you like for the minicourse? The theme of the conference is "integrating computer software into the undergraduate curriculum." To help us advertise your minicourse could you send a short abstract describing the content and level of the minicourse? Our committee has decided to run three minicourses simultaneously from 2:30 to 5:30 on Friday. I was hoping to attend at least two. Hopefully most attendees want to attend one. A web page http://www.cwu.edu/PNWMAA09 will be up soonish. Attached is a map of the Ellensburg campus of CWU. If you drive, you can park all day south of 5th Avenue (e.g. at our house). On campus parking lots require a $3 parking ticket. Our house is 609 E 3rd Ave (NW corner of Walnut and 3rd Ave), and our phone number is 509 933 1516. Google maps are good. The university road was called 8th Avenue (now University way). The old name may be on the map. Best wishes, Stephen Glasby c.c. Dan Curtis, Chair Local Organizing Committee ---------- From: *William Stein* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 11:23 PM To: [email protected] Hi Guys, Any ideas what I should do at this (see below)? -- William Stein Associate Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org ---------- From: *David Joyner* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 5:15 AM To: [email protected] If it were me, I'd mention the DE and calc notes at http://sage.math.washington.edu/home/wdj/teaching/calc1-sage/ http://sage.math.washington.edu/home/wdj/teaching/calc2-sage/ http://sage.math.washington.edu/home/wdj/teaching/DiffyQ/ That's just me:-) ---------- From: *Rob Beezer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 5:22 PM To: sage-edu <[email protected]> Hi William, Besides the usual overview of how easy it is to install SAGE, how many goodies you get in one package, and the benefits of open-source, I'd demo as many nontrivial capabilities of SAGE as possible. Maybe in proportion to their weight in the undergraduate curriculum. Such as: Introductory statistics: IIRC the R program is included? Calculus: Plotting, symbolic tools, limits Multivariate: 3D plots, JMOL Linear Algebra: Maybe over a finite field to demonstrate SAGE's explicit support for other fields, plus your monster integer determinants Upper-division courses; whatever strikes your fancy Sharing/publishing notebooks, the public server at sagenb.org, and the tools to make interactive demos with sliders and the like, would help people imagine how the interface features would help them with their courses. Should be a good opportunity to get some folks that are very interested in education excited about SAGE. From my experience organizing two of these conferences, you'll have folks from a wide range of institutions represented, including many community colleges. But everybody will be interested in new ways to improve their teaching. Rob > Hopefully most attendees want to attend one. A web pagehttp:// www.cwu.edu/PNWMAA09will be up soonish. > MAPCWU.PDF > 756KViewDownload ---------- From: *William Stein* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 2:05 PM To: [email protected] Thanks. That's a really helpful list of ideas! -- ---------- From: *kcrisman* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 6:03 PM To: sage-edu <[email protected]> William et al., This is a great opportunity for Sage; I've been trying to advocate for one locally as well. Some somewhat random thoughts organized around the idea of showing how Sage is good from the start follow. I think that at these conferences people will also largely be concerned with how much time it will take to get involved with something like this - both for them and for their students. So talking some about what a sysadmin might have to do to get a local one set up, or how likely it is that sagenb.org will be a good option (assuming these are both positive!) would be very helpful; the more that teachers with a big teaching load - and their students - can get right down to using Sage, the better. Additionally, you may want to emphasize that Sage can, as appropriate, grow with the student (one of its big selling points for me). Examples from VERY basic linear algebra i.e. just solving a 3x3 linear system to showing how it could be used in an algebra or graph theory course would be helpful, as then it is a long-term investment for the department (as opposed to a pet project no one will help with). Don't just try to wow them - we know that Mma and Maple can wow us, but how easy is it to use them for practical concerns (like zooming 2-d graphs to show a derivative at a point - how much work is that in Sage)? Probably downplay the Python for lower level things, for the same reason; even many of our more talented students resist using programming structures, even loops, and in a service course this could be a deal-breaker. Not that you have to convince them to use Sage instead of Excel in a business math course, but the whole drag-down concept in a spreadsheet, or static cell references, is often a big stumbling block even there, so this is at least one level of course you should be able to convince the attendees that Sage can be effective at. Finally, I think it is key that everyone attending, if it's in a lab, actually try not just to make a new account, but also to try to actually upload a sample worksheet to their account so that they see how it works. That gives them an idea right away of what the student experience will be; my experience has been that I have often underestimated how long it takes new users to pick up things that are second nature to me now, like looking for the "Upload" button or that it is a good idea to save your work! I don't think you can do all the things suggested in this thread in one workshop, of course. If you can convince them that the learning curve is not too high and that the students can pick things up without too many office hour questions about Sage (as opposed to the math), I think you can look forward to many adopting schools in Washington State, which will lead to more workshops run by many Sage early adopters to address more such issues. Good luck! If we're lucky there will be many more such requests for workshops after the JMM as well. - kcrisman -- William Stein Associate Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org -- William Stein Associate Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
