Which Mathematica To Get

Mathematica Player

Anyone can get the free Mathematica Player to use existing demonstrations and notebooks. This is an easy and cheap way to get started. To create demonstrations or notebooks you need to have Mathematica.

Mathematica Player Pro

Mathematica Player Pro costs $195 and has more features than Mathematica Player but is not as flexible as Mathematica.

Mathematica

STEMSchool recommends looking at the free Mathematica Player and getting Mathematica if you want something more flexible.

Mathematica allows one to create their own demonstrations and notebooks. Your students can create documents that contain text, mathematical formulas, tables, figures, interactive programs that demonstrate concepts, etc. It's a great way to integrate writing into your curriculum. See Why Mathematica 6 Is Ideal for Precollege Education for more information.

Your students can publish their work on the web for others to look at. Science fairs can happen more than one day a year and be available internationally. Your students can collaborate with others not at your school. When applying to college, your students can mention their online portfolios in their college application essays.

Some colleges have students use Mathematica for classes. Your students may be competing with others that already know it after they graduate.

Anyone can request a 15-day, save-disabled free trial.

Students can buy Mathematica for Students for $44.95/semester, $69.95/year, or $139.95 for as long as they are a student. STEMschool suggests considering taking advantage of discounts to get future versions of Mathematica using Premier Service or upgrades---see the web page for more info.

Teachers and schools can buy Mathematica for the Classroom for $270 per computer, quantity discounts are available. STEMschool suggests considering taking advantage of discounts to get future versions of Mathematica using Premier Service or upgrades---see the web page for more info.

Schools can use a variety of licensing programs to get Mathematica. STEMschool suggests considering getting future versions of Mathematica as they come out---see the web page for more info.

webMathematica

webMathematica is used to run Mathematica over the web. It is not as interactive or flexible as Mathematica---because of this STEMschool does not recommend it.

Mathematica-related Resources

Application Packages

Application packages are Mathematica add-ons for specific applications. For example, Analog Insydes is used to model, analyze, and design of analog electronic circuits. Digital Image Processing does fast image processing and analysis.

Demonstrations

The Wolfram Demonstrations Project has over 3900 free demonstrations.

Moodle

STEMschool is working on integrating the Moodle Course Management System with Mathematica. This software will be available for free.

Notebooks

This bird.nb notebook contains the code for

This birthday.nb notebook shows that in a group of 23 people there is a 50.8% probability that two or more people will have their birthday on the same day of the year. This notebook will be updated to use new features in Mathematica 6 to make it suitable for grades K-12. Now it is only appropriate for upper grades.

This sc.nb notebook contains a one hour Mathematica short course.

This SlideShow.nb notebook contains a very a simple comparison of the symbolic math capabilities in Maple, MATLAB, and Mathematica.

Screencasts

These screencasts show how to use Mathematica for instruction.

Videos

These videos show people talking about, and sometimes how they use, Mathematica.

Wolfram Education Portal

The Wolfram Education Portal provides advanced resources for the modern classroom. Demonstrations are grouped by grade and subject. Some related links are listed.

Wolfram MathWorld

Wolfram MathWorld is the web's most extensive mathematical resource, provided as a free service to the world's mathematics and internet communities as part of a commitment to education and educational outreach by Wolfram Research, makers of Mathematica. It is a mathematical encyclopedia with over 12,000 entries.