DERIVE MEMO

Spring 2007

To: Student DERIVE Users

From: Math Division

Re: Important Information

1. There are three areas which have DERIVE available for student usage as an open lab.

The College Computer Labs (ILB110).

Math Walk-In Lab in the Hickory Ridge Building (HR230)

The Learning Assistance Center in the Library (L230)

The hours that these areas are available to students will be given to you in class.

2. You can purchase DERIVE 6.1 software at Texas Instruments for $80 plus postage (as well as other companies) or you can order a free Trial edition for 30 days.  To download the trial edition go to:

education.ti.com

click on DOWNLOADS

click on Pick-Up Window

click on Free Computer Software

Click on Derive (tm) Trial Edition and then download it.

It should be noted that both Derive 5 and Derive 6 will be used in the classrooms and for labs.  Your instructor will tell you which Derive version can be used on exams.

3. In order to use the open computer lab in the L Building, students must have a valid ID.

4. Do not abuse your printing privileges in the HR Building. Only math assignments may be printed. A radical increase in costs for printer cartridges will mean an additional lab fee for students.

5. Printing your graphs (Derive 5)

1. Click on the 2-D Plot Title Bar
2. Place appropriate annotations on the graph for clarity and identification.
3. Click on File, Print Preview
4. Zoom In/Out to see details
5. If graph is satisfactory, click on Print.

6. Printing your expressions (Derive 5)

1. Click on the Algebra Title Bar.
2. Clean-up the work by removing unnecessary lines and separating different parts of the problems in the lab with comment lines (in quotes) and/or annotations (only the first 66 characters in an annotation will be printed). It is important not to replace the Derive annotation with your annotation.
3. Place your name(s) on the first and last line of the expressions by either authoring an expression in quotes or by using an annotation. If necessary, move expressions to match the question order and renumber the expressions.
4. Click on File, Print Preview
5. Zoom in/out to see details and change pages to see all the work.
6. If the expression print out is satisfactory click on Print.

7. Saving Files (you can only save Algebra files) (Derive 5)

1. Click on File, Save as
2. Under File name type in A:\ Filename.mth

(Note that the file name can have a maximum of 8 letters or numbers with no spaces. The A: and the .mth are important.) Then Save.

8. Retrieving files (Derive 5)

1. Click on File, Load, Math
2. Type in A:\filename.mth or just A:.(If you type in A: a list of all files with the mth extension will be presented. Click on the appropriate file). Then Open.
3. If you have an Algebra screen open, the file you have opened will be placed at the end of the current screen.
4. If you do not have an Algebra screen open a new Algebra screen will be opened with the title of the file you just opened.