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Yes, +1 for SymPy being the perfect tool for teaching (very little to new learn learn after the initial call to `symbols` to create the symbolic vars). The bes

Yes, +1 for SymPy being the perfect tool for teaching (very little to new learn learn after the initial call to `symbols` to create the symbolic vars). The best part for me is the SymPy API methods have the same names as the concepts I am trying to teach: solve, expand, simplify, factor, integrate, etc. Here is a short tutorial to introduce SymPy for anyone who hasn't seen before: https://minireference.com/static/tutorials/sympy_tutorial.pdf https://minireference.com/static/tutorials/sympy_tutorial.pd... also available as notebooks: https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/minireference/sympytut_notebooks/HEAD?labpath=notebooks%2FIntro.ipynb https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/minireference/sympytut_notebooks/... It's also worth checking out the SymPy Live Shell, where you can try things out without installing anything: https://live.sympy.org/ https://live.sympy.org/

bthallplz 4y ago
Are there any courses in precalculus or calculus that teach using CASs like SymPy or Sage?
- ivansavz 4y ago
  Hm... I don't know of any. For precalculus it wouldn't make sense, since the whole point of precalculus is to make sure learners can do the `solve`, `factor`, `expand`, etc. verbs using pen and paper. These are generally useful skills whenever you're manipulating math expressions. It wouldn't make sense to "skip" this part by using SymPy. For calculus it would make a lot of sense though. You can learn the formulas and general rules so you can do derivative and integrals by hand, but I think we could cut-down significantly on the "integration techniques" topics without any loss. I would love to see a course like that... but I doubt any teacher would be "allowed" to teach it this way, since CALC I and CALC II course curriculum is usually imposed by the university.