Monday, May 19

4:00 PM-6:00 PM Ballroom III - Level B

MS24
Teaching Differential Equations Dynamically

The advent in the early 80s of widely accessible computer graphics revolutionized differential equations, and therefore their teaching. Now we easily see many solutions simultaneously, even for equations that do not have solutions in closed form. Visual perspective and geometric content extend our capabilities; we can handle more complicated equations and more general dynamical systems. Bifurcation and chaos are no longer relegated to graduate school; these topics are commonplace in introductory courses. Far beyond our classrooms, the new approach helps scientists in numerous programs not traditionally mathematical (e.g., FDA, NIH, U.S. Geological Survey) to make models with dynamical systems and experiment with parameters. This minisymposium will be of interest to nonacademic scientists who want to know what is going on in the classroom, and how they or their colleagues might access it, as well as our university colleagues.

Organizer: Beverly H. West
Harvey Mudd College and Cornell University

4:00 ODE Architect: CODEE'S Multimedia Package

Robert L. Borrelli, Harvey Mudd College

4:30 How to Make a Pendulum Do Anything You Want

John H. Hubbard, Cornell University

5:00 Teaching ODE's with the WWW and A Calculator-Based Laboratory

Frank Wattenberg, Carroll College and Montana State University

5:30 Visualization and Verification, with Mathematica, of Solutions to Differential Equations

Stan Wagon, Macalester College