Educational Software

David Lovelock
Department of Mathematics
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona 85721

We are in the process of converting some of the DOS educational software to Windows.

 
 Software Philosophy
 

For many years we have been creating commercial level educational software for use in and out of the mathematics classroom. These programs can be used by instructors for classroom demonstrations as well as by students for exploration and solving problems.

Rather than create one massive comprehensive package that would take weeks of class time to learn, we decided to write many small packages. Each of these packages is designed to do one thing very well, and be used effectively with no, or minimal, training.

In view of the fact that we teach about 10,000 students each semester, it is impossible for us to have a computer lab large enough to accommodate them all. However, there are many departmental and public labs on campus, and many of our students have access to computers at home or through friends. To make use of these untapped resources, we decided that all the software we created could be copied freely without fear of legal reprisals. We encourage everyyone to take copies of our software. All our packages contain the following statment:

This program may be freely distributed by any means, including bulletin boards, provided that there is no fee or charge or consideration of any kind which is in excess of $8. However, we retain all rights to this program.

Our software has been designed to have a specific educational impact. It is designed for students learning mathematics, not for faculty doing research. Consequently, wherever possible it is not a blackbox, but is designed to take the gruntwork out of the calculations.

At present, these programs have received limited field testing. Please send any bug-reports, or suggestions, to David Lovelock at dsl@math.arizona.edu. Thank you.

They should run on Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP, if Windows has been updated by installing Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1. To check that Windows XP has been updated, go here.

These programs do not make any system changes while installing, and they uninstall cleanly. They can be run from a CD, a Thumbdrive, a ZIP drive, etc.

If you wish to be informed when other DOS programs are converted to Windows, please email David Lovelock at dsl@math.arizona.edu requesting addition to my mailing list.

 
 Find Poly
 

Find Poly will answer most questions about a polynomial, except what it is. You must find the polynomial. The degree of the polynomial is less than eight, the coefficients are integers, and most of the "action" occurs between -5 and 5. Briefly, you load a polynomial from a file, obtain information about the polynomial graphically, numerically, and algebraically, and then, when you think you know the polynomial, you guess it.

 
 Implicit
 

Implicit tries to plot implicit functions of the form f(x,y) = c. Thus it can be used to plot implicit functions, defined by f(x,y) = 0, together with contour lines (level surfaces) of the function z = f(x,y).

 
 Quadratic Bingo
 

Quadratic Bingo is a two person game, similar to tic-tac-toe, played between player X and player O. The first player (X) selects two factors from the list of linear factors, and then chooses the quadratic containing their product. From then on play alternates between player O and player X. The next player must keep exactly one of the previous player's factors, and then must select another factor. That player then chooses the square containing their product. Play continues until one player has THREE squares in a row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally).


Last modified on 04/22/2005 at 08:23 am MST