The teacher attended the annual LIMACON mathematics conference where he observed three sessions. The first session showed how to use recursion and the TI-84 calculator to model and solve diverse problems. The second session demonstrated using Geometer's Sketchpad software across the mathematics curriculum. The teacher's own session presented using the open-source SAGE software as an alternative to graphing calculators for teaching precalculus. He recommends reordering the precalculus curriculum to introduce Python programming and using SAGE, which works on various devices and requires no installation.

1. To: James T. Scannell, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction
From: A. Jorge García, Teacher of Calculus and Computer Science
Date: March 22, 2013
RE: Limaçon 2013 Conference Report
CC: BSHS Mathematics Department
Background:
Every year in March, the Long Island MAth CONference (LI-MA-CON) is held at
SUNY Old Westbury. LIMACON 2013 attracted presenters and teachers from all over
the globe. The conference covers topics in teaching mathematics and computer science
from K-College using technology. I have been attending every even year since 1989 and
presenting every other year since 2001.
Observations:
My first session was “An Excursion into Recursion with Side Trips to
Applications (9-12)” by Laurie Bass from The Fieldston School. Starting with a review of
recursion, we took a tour of how to employ TI-84 SEQ mode to model and solve problems
that involve recursion in many diverse areas including medicine, finance and puzzles
such as the Tower of Hanoi. I used some of these applications in my class the very next
day!
The second session was “Making Indelible Images with Geometer’s Sketchpad (9-
12)” by Gene Eyshinskiy from Flushing High School. Applications of the Geometer’s
Sketchpad across the curriculum in the mathematics classroom or computer lab from
fractions to calculus were discussed. Many Sketchpad templates are available for
Geometry classes.
The last session was presented by me. The title of my talk was “SAGE Advice:
preCalculus” I gave a workshop on using a Computer Algebra System such as
http://www.sagemath.org to teach and learn preCalculus instead of a Graphing
Calculator and the movement toward teaching programming in Math class.
Recommendations:
The Python programming language is to SAGE as BASIC is the TI-83. Python is
different from other programming languages as it uses the List data structure just as
MATLAB uses Matrices. The List data structure can be used to store a sequence of data.
Therefore, I recommend reordering the preCalculus curriculum to start with Chapter 12:
“Sequences and Series.” This chapter is ideally suited to introduce coding with Python in
math class.
The mathematics classroom should be remodeled in such a way as to enable the
student’s use of this new technology. SAGE works well on Macs, PCs, iPods, iPhones,
iPads, Android Smart Phones and Android Tablets. A class set of PCs or Tablets would be
ideal for using SAGE in any Math class. SAGE is free and does not have to be installed
as several SAGE servers already exist online. Finally, SAGE is very user friendly as it
uses the “Online Notebook Paradigm” very much like Mathematica!
a:limacon2013.mem.doc