Multimedia Tools for Communicating Mathematics - MuPAD Tutorial for Mathematics Teachers

Abstract

MuPAD is an open computer algebra system developed at the Paderborn University by the group of students and staff of the Department of Mathematics. As a tool created by mathematicians MuPAD has a number of features that make it especially valuable for teaching mathematics.

In this tutorial we will briefly explore some basic features of MuPAD and in details its graphics. We will show how one can create different types of plots using Cartesian, polar, spherical and cylindrical coordinates. We will explore some properties of turtle graphics. We will investigate a number of examples of Lindenmayer systems and examine their usefulness in teaching mathematics. Finally, we will learn how one can create his own mathematical video and interactive JavaView model for online display.