Robert Martinez



Pierce College

6201 Winnetka Ave.

Woodland Hills, CA. 91371



Precalculus Demos and Labs



I am currently involved in developing interactive text in two basic 

categories:



1 ) Interactive Mathcad lessons for an entire Precalculus course  These 

"lessons" are written in three basic styles:

	interactive demos

	discovery modeling labs & games

	discovery math topic labs.



2) interactive lessons written in Mathcad, Maple, Mathematica, and 

Geometer's Sketchpad for all subjects ranging from intermediate Algebra 

through Differential Equations & Linear Algebra. These lessons are also 

written in the three basic styles listed above. The three styles I am 

writing "lessons" in are:

a) Interactive Demos: An instructor demos a topic such as Newton's 

method. The computer demo is "worth a thousand chalkboard drawings" and 

the instructor walks the students through it (if the students are 

sitting in front of computers) or demos it on an overhead or both. The 

demo itself is interactive - the students or the instructor can change 

the examples used! Animations or semi-animations are implemented.

b) Discovery modeling labs & games: Modeling labs are written 

around an interesting real world application where the students 

discover the model ( set of equations etc. ) which governs the 

situation and then use them to predict behavior etc. The equations that 

govern the motion of sea waves is such an example.  These labs are 

written with a catchy "big bang" mathematical or graphically visual 

payoff. In a "Game" the student discovers a math concept by "playing" a 

game (changing values for variables etc ). Once again there is an 

entertainment factor and a big visual payoff. (see example below).

c) Discovery math topic lessons: These are not necessarily flashy 

or concerning an application but they do allow the student to discover 

a mathematical concept in a lab format.

.