The Impact of CAS Use in Introductory Engineering Mathematics

In this paper we describe and discuss the way the usual challenges of CAS use has been met with in a first year engineering mathematics course which is based on a thorough and experienced implementation of the advanced CAS program Maple. The intensive use of Maple seems to cause a decrease in the students’ preparation for the lessons and in their use of the classic textbooks.

Not all of the students seem to fully utilize the experimental benefits of the software program and some of the students do not avoid pitfalls like doing exercises just by changing the variables in the provided Maple examples. In our conclusion we suggest an upgrading of the Maple Demos in a way that strengthens the interactive and conceptual potentials at the expense of the repetitive ones.