Creating a Well-Crafted Notebook

Eric Schulz, Mathematics

Walla Walla Community College
Walla Walla, Washington, US
eric@wwcc.edu
http://math.wwcc.edu/eric

Abstract

How do you learn, and then teach, the art of creating a well-crafted Mathematica notebook? The same principles an educator would use to create an interactive Mathematica "curriculum" document are very similar to those we would like students to use when they write papers, homework assignments, visualizations, etc. using Mathematica. Participants will learn how to develop and deepen their notebook craftsmenship skills. The presentor will share two custom designed tools, a Student palette and a Writing palette, which have proven themselves to be invaluable in helping students and fellow educators learn to write well-crafted documents, interactive curriculum, and presentations that are effective communication instruments. 

Both the Student and Writing palettes support the use of Mathematica as a real-time, dynamic whiteboard and notetaking tool with one button color changes and font modifications and properly formatted and aligned equation solving and expression simplifications appropriate for use in the classroom with students.

This presentation emphasizes techniques for creating high-quality notebooks and will not stress Mathematica commands nor code.