Symbolic Calculus Training By Means Of Math Trainer

This paper describes MathTrainer, a system that guides the student while learning mathematical concepts that involve symbolic manipulation, such as the resolution of Ordinary Differential Equations. MathTrainer shows students the steps that are required to solve exercises with symbolic calculations. The exercises can be posed by the student or by the system. MathTrainer identifies the type of exercise by means of a pattern matching mechanism and then it successively shows the tasks to be accomplished in order to solve the exercise. MathTrainer has been integrated in the MathEdu teaching environment, which includes an authoring tool for the design and interactive resolution of mathematics exercises. Thanks to this integration, MathEdu allows the students to learn first how to solve problems of different types; after this, they can practise and get feedback about their actions.