Sage documentation and the tutorial are written for and by research mathematicians, and can present tremendous barriers to non- mathematicians. In particular, there is great interest in making Sage accessible to undergraduates and high school math teachers. At the recent Sage Days 13, Aly Deines, Sourav Senguptaa, and I sat down to tackle this problem and decided on Sage Primers, interactive Sage Notebook worksheets subject to the design principles listed below.
The design principles, a template primer, and many example primers (including Ron Beezer's precocious primer for Group Theory), are posted on the Sage Days 13 Wiki http://wiki.sagemath.org/days13/projects/sagenewbie In a later release of Sage, the Primers will be available directly from the Notebook interface (probably under Help in some high-profile way). Any feedback is much appreciated, and collaboration highly encouraged. A list of to-do primers has been posted on the wiki. Primers currently under development are marked by the [name] of the lead. If you would like to contribute, please follow the design principles (including formatting guidelines) and post your primer to the wiki or email it to myself, Aly, or Sourav. We are all on gmail and our addresses (just add "@gmail.com") are listed on the wiki-page. Regards, Erik Jacobson FYI: Sage Primer Design Principles "accessibility with low overhead" 1. Primers give new or inexperienced users an interactive, subject- specific introduction to sage functionality (functions, objects, object methods, useful representations, etc.) organized around specific topics and implemented in Sage Notebook worksheets. 2. Primer worksheets should be substantive but not encyclopedic. Limit worksheets to between 20 and 50 cells. If a worksheet gets too large, consider organizing the material into two separate primers. 3. Primers should contain well-chosen, meaning-rich examples, illustrate common pitfalls, and provide insightful-yet-terse commentary. 4. Primers should bring together several Sage constructs within a coherent, accessible conceptual package. They should do more than mimic docstrings. 5. Python and Sage programming techniques should be introduced as necessary in a natural way, avoiding excessive technicality. 6. Primers are not intended for research mathematicians and should be aimed at a specific user chosen from: - high school students - undergraduates (underclass / upperclass) - graduate students - instructors using sage in secondary or undergraduate courses 7. If possible, primers should provide links or references to more extensive resources (courses, books, tutorials, etc.). --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
