Theme Session Free Software
The Themed Session Subcommittee is organizing a session on Free Software at the National Conference in Cincinnati on Saturday, November 4, 2006. The schedule of talks during this session is below.
Overall Title: Free Software in Mathematics Education
Overall Description: For almost every commercial software product we use in education, there are free alternatives available. Some of these alternatives are of excellent quality, even if they are relatively unknown. This themed session will bring attention to some of the quality free software available in mathematics education.
Presentation 1 SS, TT 10:45 am – 11:00 am
Presenter: John C Miller The City College of CUNY
Title: Using xyAlgebra as an Intelligent Homework Tutor
Description: This presentation demonstrates the use of xyAlgebra as an omnipresent, intelligent tutor for students practicing their basic algebra skills. Like a skilled human tutor, xyAlgebra provides intelligent help at every intermediate step, regardless of the student's preferred solution method, and reviews the appropriate prerequisite skill whenever a mistake is made.
Website: http://xyalgebra.org/
Software:http://xyalgebra.org/Downloading/installxyAlg52.exe and http://xyalgebra.org/Downloading/installxySol52.exe
Presentation 2 TT 11:05 am – 11:20 am
Presenter: David Graser Yavapai College
Title: Winplot - A 2D and 3D General Purpose Plotting Utility
Description: This presentation will focus on the graphing freeware Winplot created by Richard Parris at Phillips Exeter Academy. This freeware allows students to graph 2D and 3D equations defined explicitly and implicitly. The presenter will demonstrate some features of Winplot and how it can be used in the classroom.
Website: http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/
Software: http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/peanut/wp32z.exe
Presentation 3 ST, TT 11:25 am – 11:40 am
Presenter: Fred Feldon Coastline College
Title: Curve Fitting and Regression Analysis for "Peanuts"
Description: Richard Parris at Phillips Exeter Academy has several programs that can be downloaded from the Peanut Software homepage and freely distributed. Winstats is great for enabling students to do mathematical modeling on their computer.
Website: http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/
Software: http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/peanut/ws32z.exe
Presentation 4 GE, TT 11:45 am – 12:00 pm
Presenter: Marcia A. Vergo Metropolitan Community College
Title: Convert
Description: This presentation will focus on the classroom use of Convert, a freeware created by Josh Madison. Convert is an easy to use unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others.
Website: http://joshmadison.net/software/convert/
Software: http://joshmadison.net/software/convert/download.php
Presentation 5 TT 12:05 pm – 12:20 pm
Presenter: Lori S. Holdren Manatee Community College
Title: Using FNGraph to Create Handouts, Quizzes and Tests
Description: FNGraph is a free download that enables the user to create graphs of functions and then copy and paste them into other documents. This session will show examples of graphs that can be created and how easily they are transferred into MS Word to create useful student documents.
Website: http://old.ournet.md/~fngraph/
Software: http://old.ournet.md/~fngraph/download/fngraph2_61.exe
