Educational add-ons to Mathematica: Joy of Mathematica, Calculus Wiz and MATeacher

Mathematica is a complex piece of software, and coming to terms with this complexity can impose a steep learning curve upon a student whose primary interest is in learning some mathematics. In my experience of teaching with Mathematica, it seems to be a product which can too easily divide students very quickly into lovers and haters (not least, I’m sure, because of its rich but very strict syntax), and any way of putting off this division is worth investigation. This review considers three pieces of software, each of which is predicated on the idea of providing a more direct and educationally-enhanced interface to the basic Mathematica system….