Your goal is to create a Mathematica tutorial. You have two options.

1. Create a tutorial to help students with coursework from another math class. Is there a topic that you learned in a previous class that you really wish you understood better? What tutorial would you send back in time to "previous you" to help you learn the material better?
2. Create a tutorial to teach someone about the capabilities of Mathematica. Is there a (broad) topic that you saw as you explored the Documentation Center that you wish you understood better? What inspires you in real life that you can use Mathematica for?

You will be organized into working groups based on the subject you choose so you can share knowledge.

The final product of this project will be a Mathematica notebook, a two-page lab report, and a five-minute presentation.

The Mathematica notebook must:

• Present a clear project statement.

  Address precisely what topic you are presenting in the tutorial. Make sure both the topic and audience for your notebook are clear and explicit.

• Be created for a user in your target audience.


• Show the user how to acheive the desired result using Mathematica in a well-documented way.

  You should introduce the specialized commands that the users need to know, explaining what they do, and how they work. You should write clearly the methods that the users need to follow in order to get the final result. You should work through a representative example to highlight your methods. At the end of the worksheet, you should include a few more examples that users should try on their own. All guidance should be written in complete sentences and paragraphs, and included in text cells.

• Be formatted in a clear and organized manner.

  The project should be a well-organized Mathematica notebook, where the methods are broken down into sections labeled with appropriate and descriptive headings. Subsections and itemized lists should be used where appropriate.

• Assume knowledge from early tutorials.

  You should expect that your audience has already gained the skills that you have seen in Tutorials 1–5, so you don't have to teach those ideas. (Feel free to provide a sentence reminder if you feel that would be helpful.)

The two-page lab report must:

• Discuss how you stretched your knowledge.

  Explain how you chose your topic and why it is either (a) reflective of your mathematics knowledge or (b) relevant to your interests outside school. Explain how the quality of your Mathematica file is reflective of your current knowledge of Mathematica and existing programming skills. It is good to compare with previous experiences.

• Discuss your organization.

  Explain why you feel that the way you organized your notebook was the best way to present the material.

• Discuss the revision process.

  Explain how your project evolved over time, including how discussions with your classmates influenced the ways in which you changed your project.

• Be written in a clear and organized manner, using full sentences and proper English.


• Use 1 inch margins, 1.5x spacing, 11-point Times New Roman font. (Your writeup will be approximately 900-1100 words.)


• Include a separate cover page with the title of your notebook, your name, and the date.
  (This page does not count toward your two pages.)

Note: This is like a lab report from your science classes. You are documenting the process and decisions you are making along the way and explaining the outcome of your work.

The presentation must:

• Introduce the audience and topic of your project.


• Explain the most important Mathematica commands you are teaching.


• Go through one of the examples you included.


• Be organized and rehearsed.

  You need to make sure that you have practiced what you are going to say a couple of times.

• Respect the time limit.

  Five minutes is a very short amount of time! This means you really need to have practiced multiple times to you use your time efficiently.

• Project Proposal due Tuesday, February 7:

  By this date, decide upon the thrust of your project. Which topic will be your focus? Can you craft a coherent tutorial of the right length from this topic? Who will be the audience for your Mathematica notebook?

  You will have time in class to explore how Mathematica relates to your proposal.

• Prepare Project Ideas for Tuesday, February 14:

  For this day, make sure you have explored concepts that you will need for your project. Start a Mathematica notebook where you have developed an outline of your tutorial. Bring it to class on this day and we will brainstorm about your project.

• Project Draft due on Thursday, February 16 Thursday, February 23:

  By this date, you are expected to be have completed most of your project. The class period this date will be showing your project to your classmates, completing a peer review, and discussing ways to improve your project.

• Project Presentation on Thursday, February 23 Tuesday February 28 and Thursday March 2:

  On this day, you will present your project to the entire class, explaining what your project does, and working through a representative example for the class.

This project represents 24% of your semester grade. You will be graded on each of the following standards.

• Engagement:
• Did you make steady progress on your project from start to finish, respecting project deadlines?
• Did you regularly attend the in-class work days, discuss your progress with classmates, and check in with the professor?
• Did you turn in your final project by the deadline?
• Tutorial Content:
• Is it obvious who your target audience is?
• Have you explained to the user the goal of the tutorial?
• Does the subject level of your project match your level of expertise in the subject?
• Does the complexity of your project match your level of computer programming background?
• Does the project show your advancement in programming in Mathematica and in computer programming in general?
• Tutorial Organization:
• Have you situated the tutorial in the user's previous knowledge?
• Does your tutorial convey how Mathematica is useful to a person learning the topic you are sharing?
• Does your project proceed in a logical manner?
• Do you provide enough information and guidance for users to be able to use your tutorial efficiently?
• Are your explanations clear, written in full sentences, and in proper English?
• Tutorial Formatting:
• Is the worksheet broken down into sections?
• Do the sections have descriptive names?
• Are subsections and text cells used where appropriate?
• Is the worksheet of the correct length?
• Lab Report Content:
• Did you discuss the decisions you made thoroughly and thoughtfully?
• Did you discuss the revision process thoroughly and thoughtfully?
• Did you justify how your work is reflective of your level of expertise in the subject and your advancement in programming skills?
• Lab Report Style:
• Did you follow the writing format requirements?
• Do you use complete sentences and proper English?
• Does your lab report stay focused and present a coherent story?
• Presentation Content:
• Did you introduce the audience and topic of your project?
• Did you explain the key Mathematica commands you are teaching in a clear and engaging way?
• Did you go through one of the examples from your project?
• Presentation Style:
• Did you put time and effort into crafting your presentation?
• Do you keep the audience's attention?
• Did you respect the time constraints?
• Did you arrive on time for everyone else's presentation?

You will be assigned a score for each standard on an E-M-R-N scale as follows.

First I ask myself:

Does this work meet the expectations outlined in the standard?

If it does, then depending on how complete and clearly communicated your work is, you will receive one of the following scores:

E	Exemplary	The work meets or exceeds the expectations of the assignment. Communication is clear and complete. Mastery of the concepts is evident. There are no non-trivial errors in understanding.
M	Meets Expectations	Understanding of the concepts is evident through correct work and clear, audience-appropriate explanations. Some revision or expansion is needed, but no significant gaps or errors are present.

If it does not, then you have not demonstrated understanding of the concept. In this case, I will determine if you show partial understanding, and you will receive one of the following scores:

R	Revision Needed	Partial understanding of the material is evident, but there are significant gaps that remain. Needs further work, more review, and/or improved explanations.
N	Not Assessable	Not enough information is present in the work to determine if there is understanding of the concepts. Work is fragmentary or contains significant omissions. Or, there are too many issues to justify correcting each one.

Your final project grade will be based on the number of scores at each level as follows.

A	(95+)	Earn a score of M or higher on all standards and a score of E on at least five standards.
B	(85)	Earn a score of M or higher on all standards and a score of E on at least three standards.
C	(75)	Earn a score of M or higher on six standards and no N scores.
D	(65)	Earn a score of M or higher on five standards and at most one N score.
F	(50–)	Have fewer than five E or M scores OR earn two or more N scores.

Design and 3D print a piece of three-dimensional art using Mathematica.

The final product of this project will be a physical piece of Mathematical art, a Mathematica notebook, and a two-to-three page writeup.

The piece of art must:

• Have a name.

Give your piece of art a name!

• Have a two-sentence description.

Write a blurb to accompany your piece. Include some background information (your inspiration / what math you used) and one or two ideas that you were hoping to convey by creating the piece. Also include the material it is made out of.

• Originate from some mathematical idea or concept.

  Your work should have at its base some mathematical idea that interests you. You may choose to try to faithfully replicate the concept or simply use the concept as a seed in a more abstract piece.

• Use 3D modeling and functional techniques from Mathematica.

  A common theme in many pieces of Mathematical art is the use of repetition or symmetry; Mathematica excels at both. Your art should be designed to make use of these capabilites. You also will be taught multiple methods of creating 3D models using Mathematica. You will need to apply these advanced techniques to create your model.

• Takes artistic considerations into account.

  You are creating a piece of art and you have complete control over the final product. You get to choose the subject, your interpretation, and the printing material. Your creativity comes into play here; it should allow you to bring out the qualities you want the most in your project. Do you want your object to be smooth? Should it be open so that you can see through it? Should it be dense? Should it be visually heavy or light? What message do you want to convey to observers? Aestheically pleasing? Surprising? Jarring? Proportional? Abstract? These choices will be documented and included in your writeup.

• Reflect your current level in mathematics and computer programming.

  You will need to be able to justify why the complexity of your computer code matches your capabilities in computer programming and why the mathematical concepts that form the basis for your sculpture match your mathematical background.

• Has been critiqued, refined, and revised multiple times.

  We will work to improve your project at many steps. What works well in Mathematica? What doesn't? What works well when doing 3D printing? What doesn't? By refining your project through constructive criticism and through prototyping, you will be able to get the most out of your project. The Shapeways website may reject models that do not match their requirements.

The Mathematica notebook must:

• Show the construction process of your piece of art in a well-documented way.

  You should break down your piece of art into its components, explaining carefully your aim and the result of each component. All work should be written in complete sentences and paragraphs, and included in text cells.

• Be formatted in a clear and organized manner.

  The project should be a well-organized Mathematica notebook, where the methods are broken down into sections labeled with appropriate and descriptive headings. Subsections and itemized lists should be used where appropriate.

• Only include relevant Mathematica code.

  Do not include all your scratch work in your final Mathematica submission. However, DO include the code used to create at least one alternate version of your model that you explored.

The two-to-three page writeup must:

• Discuss the choices you made.

  There are many choices and decisions that went into your final sculpture. Explain how you chose your subject, how you approached the designing of your model, and how you chose the material for your sculpture. What impressions did you want to give a viewer when creating the sculpture, and how did you work to make sure your sculpture gives these impressions? Focus on the model you are submitting. Do not spend time discussing the other ideas you brainstormed unless you are explaining conceptually how they led to the current artwork.

• Discuss the process.

  What obstacles did you encounter as you created your art? As you exported to STL format? As you uploaded to Shapeways? What was your first impression when you saw your prototype? If you had more expertise in Mathematica or more time to work on this piece of art, or were going to design a new, related, piece of art, what would you change and why?

• Convey the mathematics behind the model.

  What can a viewer learn about math, geometry, or computing from looking at the model? What mathematical principles are at work, and are those principles evident in the finished sculpture?

• Put your sculpture into context.

  Explain how your sculpture is reflective of your current level in mathematics. Explain how the quality of your Mathematica file is reflective of your current knowledge of Mathematica and general programming skills.

• Discuss the revision process.

  Explain how your project evolved over time, including how discussions with your classmates influenced the ways in which you changed your project. In what ways did you decide to refine and revise your project once you received your prototype?

• Provide key details about your sculpture.

  Include a separate cover page with the title of your artwork, the material the final sculpture is printed in, a two-sentence description of your piece, your name, and the date.

• Be written while aware of the grading criteria.

  Make sure to read the criteria below about how your writeup will be graded.

• Be formatted in a clear and organized manner, using full sentences and proper English.


• Use 1 inch margins and 1.5x spacing, 11-point Times New Roman font. (Your writeup will be approximately 1200 words.)

• Start exploring by Thursday, March 9:

  Before class, get inspired! Explore some mathematical flavored blog posts, watch some mathematical videos. Take time to browse mathematical and non-mathematical art. Develop a taste for what you like. What type of mathematics can serve as a base for your art? What type of artist do you aspire to be? Comment on our discussion board with links to two or three inspiring objects.

• Prepare Project Ideas for Thursday, March 16:

  For this day, your idea should be getting more concrete. You should have researched the mathematical topic and started sketching on paper some of the concepts you are considering. Start a Mathematica notebook that plays around with some of these concepts. Bring your sketches and notebook to class and we'll meet in groups to brainstorm ways to improve your project. On this day, part of class will be a discussion of the limitations of 3D printing and how to use Mathematica to best represent your concept digitally.

• Project Draft on Tuesday, March 28:

  By this date, you will have gone through multiple prototyping phases in the Makerspace and you will bring a physical version of your 3D model to class for prototype critiquing and peer review. Also you will bring a draft of the parts of your writeup that discuss the intentionality behind your work, the choices you made along the way, the mathematics and code you used to create your model, and any trials and tribulations you faced in getting to this point of the process. We will do a peer-review day for constructive criticism. We will all meet and discuss what worked as planned, what didn't work as well as hoped, provide suggestions for polishing and refinement for the final submission.

• Final submission on Tuesday, April 4:

  You must have refined your project and submitted it to Shapeways for printing in your desired material. Also on this day, submit a copy of your writeup, Mathematica notebook, and STL file.

• Art Exhibition installation on Friday, May 5:

  We will be having an art exhibit in the Queens College Library. You will be asked to give a short artist statement about your project for everyone to learn more about your concept and process.

This project represents 30% of your semester grade. You will be graded on each of the following standards.