1. PREFACE#
This book is an introduction to the use of Python Jupyter Notebooks (JNBs) for college math teachers and their students. The book is an evolving work in progress, but we hope this 1st Edition may already be quite useful to a college math teacher who is interested to use Jupyter Notebooks in their courses. Each section of the book has been written in the form of a Jupyter Notebook and can be downloaded using the download button at the top menu bar. In some cases, additional data files or image files may need to be downloaded as well. All the files are available in the src folder of the github repository timothyprojectGiG/JB_Math_Textbook
Each chapter contains a JNB lab with solutions. Experienced teachers can modify these labs and create new labs tailored to their courses. The chapters were written by different authors/authorship teams, and as such, vary in style. Each chapter essentially can be read independently of the others as long as one has the pre-requisite mathematical knowledge. Some effort has been made to standardize the chapter formats, and the index may help the reader find specific topics of interest. There is virtually no limit to what can be done with JNBs, and we hope this work serves as a useful starting point for teachers and students to enrich and enliven the study of mathematics using this tool.
The JNBs used to create this book contain special markdown code which are needed to produce features such as indexing, referencing, and highlight boxes in the Jupyter Book. Some editing of a downloaded JNB may may make it more suitable for classroom use.
To the First-Time Jupyter Notebook (JNB) User
Welcome to the wonderful world of Jupyter Notebooks (JNBs)!
In this book, we will be using JNBs as type of user-friendly way to input and execute codes in the Python programming language. JNBs also are useful to create documents which include photos, videos, slide presentations, as well as output to Python computer programs. In fact, this entire book is written using JNBs.
To get started, it will be very helpful if you consult with someone who is already using JNBs. If that is not possible, you will need to install Jupyter Notebooks using the free Anaconda distribution downloadable from www.anaconda.com. Next, skip to Section 2.3 Beginning Python Programming in the PRE-COLLEGE chapter (if you are using the online book, you can navigate using the left menu bar). Reading this section will hopefully help you install and run your first JNB. Then you can try to work through the rest of the PRE-COLLEGE chapter.
We wish you all the best!
This first edition would not be possible except for the contributions of a congenial team of faculty who worked together during Summer 2023 (acknowledged as authors of their contributed chapters), as well as a team of students (Jakob Hildebrandt, Gavin McClowry and Jonathan Zhu) who did a variety of edits during Summer 2024. The exceptional contribution of Claire Wagner to create both the online and PDF versions of this book must also be acknowledged. Generous support for this project from the Wheaton College Data Science Fund (Dr. Ying Li) and Summer Research Program is gratefully acknowledged.
As this work was completed at the time of my transition to professor emeritus, my hope and prayer is that this book will prove to be useful to the next generation of faculty and students.
P. Isihara, Wheaton College, Wheaton IL, July 2024