Special group 4:

Spreadsheets

ICTMT 5, Klagenfurt, 6-9 August 2001

(Schedule, tentative as of 28/06/2001)

Chair:Erich Neuwirth

Tuesday 10:30 - 11:15 Chair: Erich Neuwirth

The spreadsheet paradigm as a new mathematical notation

Erich Neuwirth (Austria, erich.neuwirth@univie.ac.at)

Tuesday 16:15 - 17:00 Chair: Erich Neuwirth

Creative Spreadsheet Graphics in Mathematics Teaching and Modeling

Deane Arganbright (USA, darganbr@utm.edu)

Tuesday 17:00 - 17:45 Chair: Erich Neuwirth

Spreadsheet uses in elementary statistics course

Piotr Bialas (USA, pjb18@columbia.edu)

Wednesday 10:30 - 11:15 Chair: Erich Neuwirth

Using of spreadsheets for developing mathematic skills

Lyudmyla Belousova (Ukraine, belousova@kgpu.sa.net.ua)

Wednesday 9:30 - 10:30 Chair: Erich Neuwirth

Introductory statistics with spreadsheets

Kent Neuerburg (kneuerburg@selu.edu)

Thursday 9:30 - 10:15 Chair: Erich Neuwirth

Why are spreadsheets so unfriendly? Free discussion: How spreadsheets could be improved

Douglas Butler (U.K., debutler@argonet.co.uk), Erich Neuwirth (Austria, erich.neuwirth@univie.ac.at)

Thursday 10:30 - 11:15 Chair: Erich Neuwirth

Teaching Discrete Mathematics With Excel

Steve Sudgen (**, e@address)

Thursday 16:15 - 17:00 Chair: Erich Neuwirth

Spreadsheets across the curriculum

Robert Smith (USA, rssmith@muohio.edu)

Abstracts:

Deane Arganbright, USA:

Creative Spreadsheet Graphics in Mathematics Teaching and Modeling

The spreadsheet is an excellent and readily available tool for teaching and learning mathematics. Mathematical models, algorithms, and visualization techniques can be implemented in spreadsheets in an interactive format in a way that the creation process itself conveys the underlying mathematics. Examples show how mathematical modeling and teaching are enhanced through innovative and animated spreadsheet graphics. Mathematical illustrations include the investigation of functions, geometry constructions, computational algorithms, and mathematical visualization. Examples come from geometry, calculus, numerical methods, linear algebra, and operations research, as well as such applied fields as population modeling, heat flow, epidemics, genetics, business, and cultural and computer graphics.

Lyudmyla Belousova, Ukraine:

Using of spreadsheets for developing mathematic skills

The article is devoted to the questions of using spreadsheets with the aim of forming the educational curriculum. The main purpose is to developed mathematics skills and habit. The results of the research were probated while teaching several chapters from the mathematics course. The set of tasks showing aims and outcomes of the work with the students are given in the article. At the end of the research interdisciplinary connection were revealed.

Piotr Bialas, USA:

Spreadsheet uses in elementary statistics course

Many important statistical concepts that seem too obscure for the beginning student can be readily understood through visualization and the ability to perform complex computations rapidly. Available commercially various spreadsheet files computer application programs allow the instructor/student to perform complicated calculations, draw graphs and animate these in real time. The presenter will share the results of his investigation about the effects of the spreadsheet on achievement in selected statistical topics of undergraduate students in an elementary statistics course.

Douglas Butler, U.K.:

Why spreadsheets are so unfriendly?

The words MICROSOFT and EDUCATION usually appear together on exhibition stands. So why is it that their spreadsheet excel is so unfriendly to school children? Excel is used in schools extensively throughout the world, and yet its authors appear to give little heed to the needs of the youngsters who are using it. This presentation will list some of the features that give the spreadsheet such a poor feel in the classroom and invite the conference to make appropriate representations to Microsoft.

Kent Neuerburg, USA:

Introductory statistics with spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are ideally suited for use in an introductory statistics course. These programs have the ability to handle large amounts of data and are easy to use. As an added benefit, a working knowledge of spreadsheets is a marketable skill for many students. We will focus on our experience in using spreadsheets to teach an introductory statistics course. In section one, we consider the pedagogical strengths and weaknesses of using spreadsheets in statistics. In section two, we discuss the computational strengths and limitations of spreadsheets. Finally, in section three, we provide some resources for real data and offer suggestions as to how to integrate these data into the course by demonstrating a few applications of spreadsheets to descriptive and inferential statistics.

Erich Neuwirth, Austria:

The spreadsheet paradigm as a new mathematical notation

One of the fundamental properties of spreadsheets is creating formulas by relative an absolute references. These references represent spatial relationships, and therefore mathematical structures are represented visually and geometrically. Some exaples (e.g. from combinatorics and difference equations) will demonstrate how using these representations as conceptual tool can help in not only performing calculations in a very user friendly way, but also in gaining mathematical and structural insights.

Erich Neuwirth, Austria:

Free discussion: How spreadsheets could be improved

Robert Smith, USA:

Spreadsheets across the curriculum

Excel and other such electronic spreadsheet programs have found their way in to a variety of undergraduate mathematics courses. In this presentation we will demonstrate some spreadsheet uses in a variety of undergraduate courses from precalculus to abstract algebra.

Steve Sudgen, :

Teaching Discrete Mathematics With Excel

The modern spreadsheet as exemplified by Microsoft Excel offers almost unlimited opportunities for the illustration of fundamental mathematical concepts. Further, the same software allows the teacher to encourage an investigative or experimental approach to mathematics learning. This talk will present some examples of these ideas plus an overall framework for the use of Excel for the enhancement of laboratory work. It is claimed that the approach outlined is especially useful for tertiary IT students with a relatively modest background in mathematics. The discussion will focus on topics from fairly traditional courses in discrete mathematics.