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Waner & Costenoble (7e): Using the Website

To view sample excerpts from the texts, click on the thumbnail pictures on the right.

Like a large city, a large Web site often has newly developed areas, renovated older areas, and sometimes quaint historic areas that have not been touched for ages. As you explore this site, you will be struck by this analogy: Parts of the site are brand new, other parts as revised and enhanced older pages, and, here and there, you will stumble upon truly ancient pages dating back to the earliest incarnations of this Web site. However, the infrastructure of the entire site is constantly being maintained and improved as the site grows to include newer features (like the "game tutorials"—see below) and new Web utilities and the whole site should have a unified feel. — Stefan Waner, Webmaster

Each thumbnail picture and link below will open up a page of the student Web site in a new window or tab. You can return here by simply closing that window or tab.


Using the Website for Computer Classroom Instruction
Sample Tutorial
The online section-by-section tutorials cover a large and expanding number of topics in the books, and provide a convenient medium for in-class instruction. Through the numerous interactive features built in to the tutorials, along with the online utilities, students can participate actively in the classroom rather than passively as note-takers. The tutorials are designed to outline the main ideas within each section, preparing the student for a more in-depth reading of the textbook.

The interactive features in the tutorials include simulations, multiple choice items with meaningful responses to common errors, and items in which the student is required enter a formula or an answer. Our formula-checker permits all valid variants of the correct formula and sometimes directs the student to simplify the answer.

In addition to the tutorials, the online text material (see below) covers numerous topics not in the textbook and are also suitable for classroom instruction.

Click on the picture on the right to bring up one of the many tutorials in a new window. (You can then simply close that window to return to this page.)

Using the Website for Distance Learning
Sample Teaching Video
The section-by-section teaching videos (there are links to the videos in the "Everything" pages) and online section-by-section tutorials can be used together as complete online pedagogy content in a distance learning class. Instructors could simply point the student to the growing collection of videos and tutorials without the need to create an extensive collection of online pedagogy typcially demanded in such courses.

The on-line utilities provide the distance learning student with a variety of tools for task completion without the need to use a graphing calculator.

For asessment of distance learning students, the online testing and homework resources provided by WebAssign are available for these books, enhanced through additional videos and links to the tutorials. Further assessment of student performance can be done through the use of the "game tutorials" (tutorials with randomized questions that that work as games and give assessments of the student's performance at the end of the game) and a growing collection of online chapter review exercise sets that can be set to "test mode" to randomize questions and assess performance.

Using the Online Utilities to Enhance your Presentations
Sample Online Utility
The large collection of powerful online utilities have been designed with intuitive ease of use in mind, so that little or no instruction is necessary for the instructor or the student.

The utilities on this site range from curve and surface graphers to matrix algebra and Gauss-Jordan tools, through utilities that automatically solve linear programming problems graphically and using the simplex method to special-purpose utilities like the diet problem solver.

The utilities are constantly being maintained, updated and enhanced, and new utilities are added as they are developed.

Click on the picture on the right to bring up one of the many utilities in a new window. (You can then simply close that window to return to this page.)


Using the Web site for Study and Review
Sample Chapter Summary
In addition to the tutorials, the student can use the more challenging game tutorials which give different data each time they are loaded, and also the detailed chapter summaries which serve to reinforce the material in the book and online tutorials, and to study for tests. The summaries are "live" in that they contain links to related pages, additional examples, online utilities, and interactive elements.

For additional practice, the student can try the randomized chapter true-false quizzes to test conceptual understanding of the material, or the chapter review exercises for more in-depth exercises, many of which contain detailed solutions and interactive elements. As with classroom use, the online utilities (see below) make using technology to solve problems a snap.

Click on the picture on the right to bring up one of the chapter summaries in a new window. (You can then simply close that window to return to this page.)


Using the Game Tutorials for In-Class Quizzes
Sample Game Tutorial
The game tutorials -- more challenging tutorials with randomized questions that that work as games -- are ideal for occasional in-class quizzes. Although the student can, in effect, "practice" the quiz by playing the game at home, the questions are completely randomized in such a way that even the multiple choice items look very different each time the game is loaded. The game gives three scores: percentage of questions answered correctly, "overall" score, which is decreased by each wrong answer and increased by each correct answer, and "health" which needs to be greater than zero for the player to "stay alive." Running out of health causes the game to be unresponsive, so that the score or percentage correct cannot be increased further. (This will typically occur if, say, a student systematically tries all the options in a multiple-choice question or types in several wrong answers in succession, but the game can be started over again from scratch with new randomized problems by reloading the page.)

A player who successfully completes a number of games on the same computer by answering all questions correctly earns "keys." This aspect of the game is under development, so as of now the keys are little more than "trophies". Stay tuned for further developments...

The collection of game tutorials is continually expanding and constantly being class tested. Students tend to react extremely positively to their use as quizzes, take naturally to the challenge, and are highly motivated to practice them at home.

Click on the picture on the right to bring up one of the game tutorials in a new window. (You can then simply close that window to return to this page.)


Using the Web site to Study Extra Topics
Sample Online Text

Our online text pages cover numerous topics not in the textbook. Each of these online topics is a complete interactive text with exercise sets (and answers to add-numbered exercises) covering everything from a detailed introduction to logic to graphing the derivative function. Some -- like the logic text -- are chapter-length, while others -- like the derivative graphing topic -- are single section items. All are interactive and ideal for both individual home study and computer classroom instruction.

Like the online utilities, many of these items are referenced in the texbook at the appropriate point. which serve to reinforce the material in the book and online tutorials, and to study for tests. These items are "live" in that they contain links to related pages, additional examples, online utilities, and interactive elements.

For additional proactive, the student can try the randomized chapter true-false quizzes to test conceptual understanding of the material, or the chapter review exercises for more in-depth exercises, many of which contain detailed solutions and interactive elements. As with classroom use, the online utilities (see below) make using technology to solve problems a snap.

Click on the picture on the right to bring up one of the online topics in a new window. Once there, be sure to click on the "Exercises for this Topic" link to see the accompanying exercise set. (You can then simply close that window to return to this page.)


Getting Access to Everything on the Site: the "Everything" Pages
Everything for Calculus
To assist students in navigating the site, we have provided three color-coded "live" tables of contents, Everything for Finite Math, Everything for Calculus, and Everything for Finite Math & Calculus. Every single resource pertinent to a specific chapter or section of each of the three textbooks is directly accessible from the appropriate Everything page, and every resource provides a link directly back to the Everything pages.

For example, if a student needs to find a specific online utility -- the online Simplex Method Tool, say -- for some homework in Chapter 4 of "Finite Mathematics and Applied Calculus", all she needs to do is go to the Everything for Finite Math & Calculus page, scroll down to Chapter 4, and access it from the "Math tools for Chapter 4" list of links.

Click on the picture on the right to bring up one of the Everything pages. You can then get anything on the Student Web site directly from there. (You can then simply close that window to return to this page.)


Excel Tutorials
Download Sample Excel Tutorial
Most sections in the books are accompanied by downloadable Excel tutorials. Each tutorial is a downloadable Miscrosoft Excel spreadsheet with macros and detailed instructions to assist the student in setting up and using Excel spreadsheet technology to explore the material in the text. Many of the tutorials are linked to specific examples in the text and elaborate on the textbooks "Excel" technology boxes. Note that, since these tutorials are Excel workbooks, Microsoft Excel must be installed before a student can use them. To use an Excel tutorial, simply click on the appropriate link to download an Excel workbook for the designated section of the text. If the student is using Internet Explorer no further action needs to be taken, and the Excel workbook will automatically open. If using another browser, the student can open the downloaded workbook Note Since these tutorials use built-in macros written by the authors, the student should, when prompted by Excel, enable macros (the default is to disable them, and will result in an inoperative tutorial).

Click on the picture on the right to download and open one of the Excel tutorials. (You can then simply close that window to return to this page.)