Giovanna Albano* (albano@diima.unisa.it), Ciro D'Apice (dapice@diima.unisa.it),
Rosanna Manzo* (manzo@diima.unisa.it) (Italy) 

Experimenting Mathematics by Mathematica

Since the first time they were introduced, MathematicaTM and all similar
systems of C.A. (Computer Algebra), have been useful to change both the way
people looked and thought of didactics in mathematics.  Students are no longer
passive watchers of a process which used to be distant and unrelated to them.
Such symbolic software have been used in order to facilitate and to encourage
the experiments, to illustrate new mathematical contents and to bring a more
effective way of teaching abstract mathematical subjects.  The visualisation
through computation and testing are now becoming a fundamental condition for
learning.

MathematicaTM is a software able to do symbolic and numeric computations and
able to manipulate (generate and modify) 2D and 3D images and graphs.  The aim
of the workshop can be summarise in the following points:
Syntax and basic rules for a good conversation
How to use the Help On Line
Some additional notions about the basic objects and functions
Some tricks  for doing efficient symbolic computation with MathematicaTM
The basic 2D-3D graphical functions

A case study: a first year Engineering mathematics course using MathematicaTM