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Mathematica at Ohlone for the Mathematics Department

• What is Mathematica?
• Getting Mathematica
• What is Mathematica used for?
• What faculty have created neat Mathematica examples?
• What are the best steps to start using Mathematica?

What is Mathematica?

Mathematica is the world's most powerful global computing environment. Ideal for use in engineering, mathematics, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, and a wide range of other fields, it makes possible a new level of automation in algorithmic computation, interactive manipulation, and dynamic presentation--as well as a whole new way of interacting with the world of data.

Getting Mathematica…

Mathematica can also be installed on:

• Faculty/staff school-owned machines: Installers are available at your local download site or IT helpdesk
• Faculty/staff personally-owned machines: Download Mathematica for faculty/staff home use
• Students' personally-owned machines: Students can buy discounted licenses through Wolfram's Web store, but if you're teaching with Mathematica or lots of students will be purchasing licenses, please contact Craig Bauling at craigb@wolfram.com for better discounts

Are you interested in putting Mathematica elsewhere? Please let Ohlone College's IT Helpdesk or Wolfram's Craig Bauling at craigb@wolfram.com know.

What is Mathematica used for in a academic/professional setting?

Mathematica has a tremendous amount of uses, including…

…a wonderful tool for lecture presentations, writing journal articles, and student lab reports.

• Documentation for creating lecture slides
• Video screencast that shows how to prepare lecture slides
• Faculty perspective on how lecture slides are used in a calculus course
• Physics or Mathematics journal article

…a great tool for individual student projects, and leads to a much deeper understanding of concepts.

• University of Illinois faculty perspective on assigning student projects for Mathematics
• Roanoke faculty perspective on assigning student projects for Mathematics and Physics
• Successful Mathematics course project for students
• University of California, Berkeley faculty perspective on assigning student projects for Economics

…a fantastic environment for research and writing applications.

• Mechanical Engineering research prototyping process
• Data analysis and research in Physiology

What are the best steps to start using Mathematica?

If you are brand-new to Mathematica, below are some suggestions on the best ways to get started.

Students

1. Watch the "Hands-On Start to Mathematica" tutorial screencast
2. Explore the Learning Center for topics relevant to your interests
3. Launch Mathematica, open the Classroom Assistant, and perform your first few computations
4. You're now ready for the projects that faculty will assign

Teaching faculty

1. Sign up for the "Overview of Mathematica for Education" seminar
2. Explore the Learning Center for topics relevant to your interests
3. Find some prebuilt examples and courseware from the Demonstrations Project, MathWorld, and the Library Archive
4. Assign the above steps in the student section to your classes as homework

Research faculty

1. Sign up for the "Overview of Mathematica for Education" seminar
2. Take other seminars relevant to your work
3. Explore the Learning Center for topics relevant to your interests
4. Go to the Demonstrations Project site to see what's possible
5. Go to the Library Archive for additional resources