Education

Many new features of Maple 18 were built with the classroom in mind. There are many new Clickable Math tools to support exploration, including new Math Apps, tutors, context menus, and a new Calculus palette. Maple 18 also provides new functionality designed specifically for education, including a full statistics package for introductory statistics courses. In addition, Maple 18 includes new tools for the creation of gradeable math apps and assignment questions, for use both in Maple and in Maple T.A.

New in Maple 18: 

• Math Apps and The Möbius Project
• Improved tools for creating interactive Math Apps
• A new package for Grading questions
• New Student Statistics package
• New Student Basics package
• New Calculus palette
• Updates to Student Multivariate Calculus
• Simplified, more comprehensive context menus
• Maple T.A. integration

Math Apps and The Möbius Project

Ionic Bonds	Cell Mutations	Resistors	Vignere Cipher	Relativistic Doppler Effect

Maple 18 includes 76 new Math Apps that can be used in the classroom to engage students. Maple 18 also introduces several new categories of Math Apps, including new apps in Biological & Chemical Sciences, Engineering, Logic and more. 

The Möbius Project is a new way to interact with Maple technology in the classroom. Sharing Maple content is easy using the MapleCloud as well as online, where many of the new Math Apps and apps created by the user community can be explored.

Improved Tools for Creating Interactive Math Apps

Embedded components are the key building blocks for MathApps and any interactive application in Maple. Maple 18 features updates to many of the embedded components used to create interactive applications such as new embedded components, border control for plot, text area and math container components, and much more. For details on the numerous enhancements see Embedded Component Enhancements.

In addition to the changes for embedded components, creating interactive applications is easier with updates to the Explore command. The Explore command is a versatile way to create interactive applications. It can create a display component, as well as controllers such as sliders, dials, and drop-down boxes that can be used to explore mathematical expressions, plots, or images that depend on parameters. For more information, see What's New in the Explore Command in Maple 18.

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Grading Package

The new Grading package provides tools for grading. The Grading package includes commands for grading plots, generating interactive quizzes, and much more. The Grading package also makes it easy to create gradeable Math Apps, effectively integrating with embedded components to create grading applications.

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Is 1 + 1 = 2?

 

Is prime?

For more information, see the Grading package in Maple 18 overview page. 

Student Statistics Package

A new package for Student Statistics is designed to help teachers present and students understand the basic material of a standard course in statistics. The package features over 50 commands subdivided into three main components: quantities (including visualization and formulas), hypothesis testing, and interactive exploration.

>   >   Random Variables: Parameters:  Statistical Properties:  Mean    Support    Median    Variance    Mode    Moment Generating Function    Probability Distribution Function           Cumulative Distribution Function         For details, see Statistics for Students.

Student Basics Package

The new Student Basics package helps to explore the foundations of higher math, making it possible to provide step-by-step breakdowns for expanding and simplifying mathematical expressions, such as simplifying fractions, expanding products of polynomials, or solving linear equations. All the steps to the solution are shown and documented, so that a student can easily understand what is happening at each stage of the solution. Students can use this package to understand where results are coming from and learn how to solve these problems on their own.

Example

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See Student Basics for more examples. 

Calculus Palette

A new Calculus Palette contains buttons for constructing expressions such as double and triple integrals and dot derivatives.  Each entry is a template. To fill in the content, navigate through the placeholders using the Tab key.  By default, the Calculus palette will be visible on start-up in the left pane of the Maple window.

Calculus Palette

Updates to Student Multivariate Calculus

Three new commands have been added to the Student[MultivariateCalculus] Package.

• Angle - determine the angle between lines, vectors, and planes
• AreOrthogonal - test for orthogonality
• Projection - obtain the projection of a point, line, or vector on a line, vector, or plane

Simplified, More Comprehensive Context Menus

Using the context-sensitive menus with the Student Packages just got easier. In Maple 18, the context menu entries for Student Package commands have been consolidated under the package name, making them easy to find.  All of the commands from the new Student Statistics Package are accessible from the context menu, and there have been many enhancements and additions for existing Student Packages.  To use the context menus, first load the relevant Student Package. Then, look for that package name in the context menu.

Student Context Menus

Maple T.A. Integration

The new MapleTA package gives Maple users access to many of the built-in commands available for learning and assessment previously only available in Maple T.A., meaning that a broader range of questions can now be authored directly in Maple. Also, Maple-graded questions in Maple T.A. can now be imported into Maple, and in addition, questions authored in Maple can be exported to Maple T.A.

For more details, see the Maple T.A. updates page.