SDSU

Math 121 - Calculus for Biology I
Spring Semester, 2000
Computer Lab Introduction

  © 1999, All Rights Reserved, SDSU & Joseph M. Mahaffy
San Diego State University -- This page last updated 03-Feb-00

Computer Lab Introduction

This page is designed to give you step by step instructions on what to do for your first lab.

  1. Introduce yourself to your lab partner. Exchange email and phone numbers to enable you to contact and meet for completing your lab before next Friday when your lab is due.
  2. Log onto the computer. Most weeks you will have your own computer account and password, but for this week use login: ma121c00 with password: joe (Accounts were not established on time.)
  3. Double click on My Computer, then home on funhouse (H:). Find the folder students, then the folder ma121c. In this folder you should find the folder ma121c00 (later it will be ma121cxx, where xx will be your personal account). In there you should be able to find the files cover, summary, and Grptp. Right click on each of these files and choose copy. Return to the top directory My Computer, and find the Floppy A icon. Double click on the Floppy A icon. (If you get an error, then your disk is probably not formatted. You can format your disk by right clicking on the Floppy A icon and choosing the format option.) With your Floppy A open, you select edit, then paste, and you should see the appropriate file appear on your disk. (In the future, you will store your documents on your ma121cxx directory on the computer server.)
  4. Launch Internet Explorer. You should go to my web address: www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~jmahaffy/courses.html
  5. Go to the lab webpage. (This one often has trouble being reached, so you may need to attempt this a couple of times. I go back to Introduction, then back to Laboratory until the lab page shows up.) Normally, this is where you will get the files, like the cover page and graphing template that you grabbed earlier from the ma121c00 folder.
  6. Go down to where you enter the lab number and your group number. Enter this and obtain your lab for this week. Highlight this lab and choose copy under the edit on the toolbar. Next go to the lower left corner with the Start. From there go up to Programs, then select Microsoft Word.
  7. When the Word document has opened, you select paste under the edit command, and you should see your lab appear on the page. You can save this for your electronic copy of the lab on your Floppy disk or on the H-drive. This document will provide a good outline for placing your answers to the lab (your main lab document).
  8. Return to the webpage and under Question #1, you should see a hyperlinked graph to grab from the web. Right click on this hyperlink, then select Save Target as.... Go back to My Computer, home on funhouse (H:), students, ma121c, (or to your Floppy A drive) and save this file. You can close the webpage for now.
  9. The last file should be an Excel file lab1-1-x, where x is a number 1-3. Double click on this file, then follow the directions on the Excel help page to make this into a good looking graph. This is the main part of Question 1 a. Copy and paste this graph onto your main lab document, which you hopefully saved earlier.
  10. For Question 1 b, you want to return to your main lab document (hopefully saved as a Word document). Open Equation Editor by going to insert, then object, then selecting Equation Editor. The Word help page on my website has the information on how to create and store this equation on your document.

We now give a few details on how to create the graphs using the Graphing Template that you saved earlier on your Floppy A.

  1. You should make a duplicate copy of the Graphing Template and keepthe original one unchanged for the future. You do this by right clicking on the Grptp file and selecting copy. Next in the target area (say on the Floppy A next to Grptp) you again right click and select paste. You can rename your file by clicking on the name and typing over a new name.
  2. Double click on the copy of the Grptp file to open it in Excel. Erase the old graph and the description on the template.
  3. Your problem has an interval of interest, say [-2,5]. The copy of Grptp has firstx= -1, so change it to -2, then change lastx= 1 to 5. You should see all of the first column A changing when you change these numbers with the number in A2 being -2 and the one in A53 being 5.
  4. Click on B2. You will see "= A2^2 + 1" appear in the text region of the menu bar. Change this to one of your equations, say the line, with A2 taking the place of x in the formula.
  5. Next you want to fill down column B with the new y values. You can do this by highlighting all of column B from B2 to B53. Go to edit, then fill, and finally down. You should see the values change. (An alternate and easier way is to move the cursor to the lower right corner of B2 until it changes shape to a narrow +. Hold the mouse button down at this time and pull down to B53 to fill down the y values.)
  6. Repeat this process in C2 for the quadratic, putting the equation in the text area of the menu bar.
  7. To create the graph. Highlight columns A, B, and C. Go to the icon for Chart Wizard and select it. Choose the XY-scatter plot and the lower right image showing a graph with lines. Proceed with next, then you should be able to continue add stuff to the graph much as you did in Question #1a to create a good graph.

At the end of your session, you go to the Start button in the lower left corner. Select log off to end your session.