Tech Tips for the Week of November 23 - Free Graphing Software

This Week's Tips - Free Graphing Software

Having cast a few nuggets in the direction of the social studies and ELA teachers in the past couple of weeks, I thought it time to make some suggestions for Math and Science teachers.

There are a number of free applets which math and science teachers may find useful, particularly when it comes to teaching graphing.



I won't pretend to be an all-out expert on the advantages and disadvantages of each of these applets; I'll leave the full-blown evaluation to those who are most in the know.  Suffice to say that each of these small programs provides the ability to enter mathematical expressions (functions, relations, ...) and represent those expressions in graphical format.

These programs appear on the standard installation/image used on many of the computers in the division (Start > All Programs > Math and Science Applets) .  However, even if they don't, most of them do not require installation and can, therefore, be run from USB thumb drives, the savespace of the local computer, or a shared network folder (Handouts).  They are all Windows applications, and all are either freeware or open source.

• MathGV - does not require installation. It will run from a USB thumb drive, local hard drive or network share (eg. Handouts folder).  While the web site looks like it hasn't been updated in a decade or so, the author of the program continues to make small updates.  The program is freeware (copyrighted, but free).
  
• SpeQ Mathematics - does not require installation.  While more powerful than MathGV, SpeQ's interface and syntax add a level of complexity which, in my quick perusal, make it less appropriate for student use.  On the upside, it has a number of built-in functions which make assembling complex expressions easier.  This program is freeware.
  
• WZGrapher - WZGrapher is a freeware application which does not require any installation.  WZGrapher can handle multiple expressions, so, for example, students can examine how the graph of one expression intersects with the graph of another.  The program colour-codes expressions and graphs, so the user can easily match each expression to the corresponding graph.  Walter Zorn, the creator of WZGrapher, also provides an online graphing tool on his web site.
  
• Graph 4.3 - This is the only program which performs a true installation.  However, in my experimentation, once the installation was performed, I was able to move the folder containing the program to any computer and run it without issue.  Graph is an open source program (free and free to modify, ...)
  

Some might ask: Why bother with a computer program when the students have graphing calculators?  The major limitation of the calculator is that it is difficult to transfer information from the calculator to any other medium. 

As the new math curricula are introduced at the middle years and high school level, students will be expected to reflect on their learning and the processes involved.  With these applets, students can explore what happens when they change values within an expression, take "snapshots" of the graphs created during this exploration, insert those in a Word document, and then add their own comments, observations, and reflections.  So, for example, a grade nine or ten student might examine what happens to the graph when the value of b changes in a linear equation (f(x)=mx+b), while a senior student might examine what happens as they change the value of k (the vertex) in the graph of a parabola (f(x)=x^2+k).  (Sorry for the limits of notation in email.)

And, another plug for Excel ...

Finally, for the science and social studies teachers in the crowd, I would remind everyone of the value of using MS Excel when graphing data collected in experiments, observations, research, or surveys.  While Excel isn't free, it is ubiquitous with our division.  If anyone is interested in learning more about graphing in Excel, you can contact me or your local catalyst teacher.

Until next week ...