The Use of Mathematica in Tutoring Physics Students

George E. Hrabovsky
University of Wisconsin at Madison

For the last 16 years I have been tutoring students of physics to help them out of the common difficulties that such courses present. During that time I have identified several factors which contribute to poor performance on the part of the student and on the part of the courses themselves. For the past eight years I have been incorporating Mathematica into my tutoring, with a corresponding increase in both the comprehension of the students and their enjoyment of the course. This talk discusses the "worry points" for students and courses, and how a combined student-tutor-computer relationship can be used to address all of these points.