interactive mathematica

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Using Mathematica as an interactive F2F and online teaching

environment

Robert R. GotwalsNorth Carolina School of Science and Math

gotwals@ncssm.edu

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Teaching Environment

• Specialized high school for science/math students

• Computationally-based courses– Computational chemistry– Computational Medicinal

Chemistry– Research in Computational

Science• Core Courses

– Chemistry by Inquiry• Two modes

– Residential (F2F) courses– Online courses (NCSSM

Online, http://online.ncssm.edu)

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Teaching Needs

• Electronic notebooks– Text, data,

graphics, hyperlinks, other media

• Computational engine– Data analysis

(statistics)– Data visualization

• Specialized resources– Bioinformatics,

other “omics” capabilities

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Strategies

• Electronic Notebooks– Microsoft Word– Various wiki tools

(Moodle, Wikispaces, etc.)

• Computational engines– Excel – general data

analysis tool– Gnuplot (data

visualization)– “R” – statistics

package• Specialized Resources

– Jmol, LigandExplorer

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Challenges

• Multiple tools, multiple platforms

• Lack of seamless integration

• Multiple learning curves

• No one tool adequate for our needs

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Current Solution

• Mathematica– “Mathematica is

a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing”

Mathematical function librarySpecial mathematical function library2D and 3D data and function visualization and animation toolsSolvers for systems of equationsNumeric and symbolic tools for calculusMultivariate statistics librariesToolkit for adding user interfaces to calculationsTools for image processingTools for visualizing and analyzing graphsTools for combinatorics problemsData mining tools such as cluster analysis, sequence alignment and pattern matchingImport and export filters for data, images, video, sound, CAD, GIS, document and biomedical formatsDatabase collection for mathematical, scientific, and socio-economic informationSupport for complex number, arbitrary precision, interval arithmetic and symbolic computationNotebook interface for review and re-use of previous inputs and outputs including graphics and text annotationsTechnical word processing including formula editing and automated report generatingTools for connecting to SQL, Java, .NET, C++, FORTRAN and http based systemsTools for parallel programming

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Palette Support

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Sample Research Notebook

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Sample Classroom Product

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Sample Student Lab

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Computational Engine

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Specialized Computations

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Mathematica Pros and Cons

• Pros– Cross platform– Exceptionally robust– Huge user community– Exceptional documentation / help

capabilities– Reasonable learning curve

• Cons– Expensive

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Questions?