The department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Calvin College is creating a Macintosh laboratory in which students can use Mathematica and other mathematical software to do mathematics. All sections of first-year calculus are being taught in a lecture/lab format, meeting three hours per week for lecture and for one two-hour period each week in the laboratory. The laboratory component of the course is improving the student experience in calculus. Students are gaining a deeper, more conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas because they are freed from some of their computational limitations and can visualize more easily using the powerful graphical capability of Mathematica and the Macintosh. Students are working in pairs; thus facilitating cooperative learning. The laboratory is equipped with 19 Macintosh IIvx computers.The laboratory are also being used in most upper-level mathematics courses, but in a somewhat different way. Students in those courses are already familiar with the software, so they are working more independently. They are given regular assignments that require them to go to the lab on their own to complete the assignment using Mathematica.
