Teaching of Linear Algebra to Engineering Students using Scilab: mathematical and computational aspects

Abstract

The teaching of Algebra, in special Linear Algebra, to engineering students, come changing its focus since the popularization of personal computers. Various specialized softwares has been developed and has become feasible to pay more attention in the algebraic thinking to solve problems and minus attention in the calculus itself. But one needs to be careful to not go to the extreme of this teaching-learning process. The teaching of Algebra using computational software must not mean the teaching of a sequence of commands and its syntaxes. On the other hand, it must not mean to memorize a sequence of definitions and theorems. So we propose a equilibrium point based on our experience with students of engineering that attended in our lessons of Algebra with Scilab software.