Hello all again--- I did a Sagemath activity for college students that involve solving simultaneous equations. These come up in electricity and magnetism when using Kirchoff's Law and the junction rule to analyze simple DC circuits. Here's the activity..I hope others might find it useful:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mgo8DiVlYWtlJNisCzevGCMsfY6kFMkSGgZUp-BRuZ8/edit This activity was done in a high-tech classroom with 12 internet connected computers...3 students per computer. A few anecdotal observations.... * Most college (science-major) freshman that I see have a really, really hard time solving 2 equations and 2 unknowns. It's complete mayhem if 3 equations and 3 unknowns come up. I think part of it is that they just don't *want* to solve the equations, but the mathematical skills needed to do this are lacking as well. * Most (90%+) do not know how to get their TI-xxx calculators to solve equations either. One student has a whole library of games on his TI calculator, and regularly plays Tetris on it (in class), but does not know how to use the solve() function built into it. * I find the computer such a welcome relief for getting solutions, so we can resume discussing physics. * A bit of student reaction though: in my office hours later a student was using his laptop to solve equations, but kept blurting out "I hate sagemath!" This was because he was trying to solve 3 equations in 3 unknowns, but kept using individual solve() commands for each of the 3 equations. He also forgot to do a var('i1 i2 i3') (to declare the currents as variables). * After doing the above activity, when equations come up, the students still just refuse to solve them, or go to pencil and paper, doing the Gauss-Jordan technique, taking page after page of writing. I just graded an exam, and when 3 equations came up to be solve the student wrote "No solution methods available." and boxed it in, right under the equations. Ug. Regards, Tom B. On Wednesday, October 2, 2013 9:36:26 AM UTC-7, tbensky wrote: > > Dear All- > This is a continuation of a thread in the cloud-sage group (but this is a > more appropriate group): > > I am using cloud.sage in an undergraduate physics course on electricity > and magnetism. There is > a lot of mathematical manipulation and calculus in this course, so I am > attempting to introduce students > to the use of the computer to do the math. I am in a "high tech" > classroom with 12 computers (3 students/computer) > that we can break off into to use cloud.sagemath.com. I also tell > students to bring their laptop to connect if they wish. > I am trying to wean them off of their TIxx calculators (which they love so > much) and introduce them to the computational > abilities of computers. > > I thought I would post some of my curriculum materials here, in case any > of you might be interested. I'll keep updating > this post with more materials. > > Quick reference (evolving): > > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SxdiFzopt17AetvSvrQS9ktbvIvKr88HDKXXaaHfy6s/edit?usp=sharing > > Introduction to Sagemath for undergraduates in this class: > > https://docs.google.com/document/d/17f3FUBgb_-Ju2EctyS5P5XQXKAIIwXt6Wl-7q2kwa50/edit?usp=sharing > > Doing integrals and limits that come up in this course: > > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X8DnVlUj4vAsXuCcGq-fF4OVPP5pJV6UFjym4F5_Xhw/edit?usp=sharing > > Regards, > Tom B. > > > Professor of Physics > California Polytechnic State University > San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 > [email protected] > http://www.calpoly.edu/~tbensky > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
