Truckee Meadows Community College
"It is essential that students be presented with technology such
as Mathematica in the classroom. The way we do calculations has changed
because of Mathematica, and our Mathematica lab helps the students be
better
prepared and more competitive in the job market of the years to come."
Lars Jensen
Truckee Meadows Community College
In the Mathematics Department at Truckee Meadows Community College,
Lars Jensen is one of several teachers who teach each of the three
calculus courses in weekly lab
sesssions in which students work on selected materials from
Calculus&Mathematica
by Davis, Porta, and Uhl.
When asked how his students have benefited from their exposure to
Mathematica,
Lars replied, "The students benefit from learning a new technology that
is widely available wherever they go. We see them come to the lab and use
Mathematica to produce graphs or calculations for other courses.
Mathematica
has become a tool in the student's toolbox. A second benefit is that the
student learns to work and apply mathematics to more realistic situations
that would be too difficult to solve by hand or include in a textbook."
Lars also notes that the students like and make frequent use of the
Mathematica
help features and also find the palettes easy and self-explanatory.
About his personally favorite Mathematica features, Lars says,
"Naturally, the graphing capabilities are great, and the quick-and-easy calculation
of integrals and solutions to differential equations are great. I personally
have benefited from the support at Wolfram Research, and I regularly
consult The Mathematica Book by Stephen Wolfram."
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