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I would like to eventually teach Mathematica to my future high school students. In high school, there are many students who haven't taken a computer science class yet. I know Mathematica can get really complicated(it was for my first year!), what are some things that I should include in my lesson plan during the first semester? May I have some visual examples please?

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    $\begingroup$ You might want to look at what gets taught in their math and science classes, and then show them how Mathematica can help in solving problems that show up in those other classes. $\endgroup$
    – J. M.'s eventual burnout ♦
    Apr 23, 2013 at 18:41
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    $\begingroup$ I like this a lot: library.wolfram.com/infocenter/MathSource/1847 But the real question is, what exactly would you like to teach through Mathematica? Some maths, e.g. plotting and analysing functions? Approaches to programming (e.g. functional vs procedural, data structures, etc.)? Or just play with visual things while learning some light programming, e.g. demonstrate a recursive function drawing a Koch curve? It'd be good to be a bit more specific about these things. $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Apr 23, 2013 at 18:43
  • $\begingroup$ @J.M. The "Intelligent Design" curricula could be quite inspiring $\endgroup$
    – Dr. belisarius
    Apr 23, 2013 at 18:45
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    $\begingroup$ NARQ or not...? $\endgroup$
    – Sjoerd C. de Vries
    Apr 23, 2013 at 19:37
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    $\begingroup$ I disagree that Mathematica is "complicated." If you understand that what you're doing (and what Mathematica itself is doing) is transforming expressions from one form to another, the rest follows. So for example, you could show how Mathematica itself might reduce fractions using a rule(s). And you can show how relentless the Mathematica system is in this aspect by doing /. Hue[___] -> Hue[1] on the graphical output of a plot. Etc. $\endgroup$
    – amr
    Apr 23, 2013 at 21:10

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