Mathematica licenses for Minnesota public high schools
To: Minnesota High School - STEM Instructors, and High School Administrators
From: Mark Thomas, Emerging Technologies & Software Contracts Specialist, MnSCU
Date: December 09, 2011
Subject: Five cost-free licenses for Wolfram Research "Mathematica" available to each Minnesota High School
My name is Mark Thomas. I work on system-wide software contracts for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. In addition to my work on administrative software contracts for the MnSCU System Office, I also work with a number of academic software contracts, including two mathematical software contracts: Wolfram Research - Mathematica; and Maplesoft - Maple.
In addition to my regular duties, I participate as a MnSCU member of the Minnesota Learning Commons. The MnLC brings together members of Minnesota State Colleges & Universities, and the University of Minnesota, along with K-12 teachers, and staff from the Minnesota Department of Education. MnLC members strive to create synergy among our respective organizations.
During the course of my mathematical software contract negotiations, I've sought to leverage the dollars spent by MnSCU to provide introductory access for Minnesota high schools for the same technologies as used across MnSCU and the U of M. In this regard, I've asked mathematical software companies if it may be possible to provide five "cost-free" licenses of their mathematical software products for Minnesota high schools. Last year I worked with Maplesoft and rolled-out a program that provided five cost-free licenses of Maple to more than sixty Minnesota high schools.
Wolfram Research "Mathematica" offer for Minnesota high schools:
I've recently collaborated with Wolfram Research, Sales Engineer, Kelvin Mischo to finalize a plan to provide Mathematica to Minnesota high schools. This program will provide five "cost-free" licenses of Wolfram Research - "Mathematica," for any public high school in Minnesota interested in participating.
With this announcement, Minnesota public high schools may obtain five cost-free "Mathematica " licenses by following the instructions below. The arrangement with Wolfram Research is good for the remainder of this academic year.
Minnesota is the first state to gain this kind of access to Mathematica for high schools and if things go well it may be possible to extend this program.
Wolfram Blog announcement:
Read Kelvin Mischo's Wolfram Blog - announcing the Mathematica for Minnesota high schools program:
************** Instructions: ***************************
The first step toward participating in the program is to send an e-mail to MnSCU-offer@wolfram.com
Follow this template:
Subject: MN High School Offer
I would like to take part in the program offering Mathematica 8 to public high schools in Minnesota.
To expedite receiving my license, I am providing the following information:
My school's name:
Platform I use: (Windows, Mac, or Linux)
Contact information: name & e-mail
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To see Mathematicain-action, view the screencast "The First Ten Minutes with Mathematica".
Regards,
- Mark
Mark R. Thomas, MS
Emerging Technologies & Software Contracts
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
email: mark.thomas@so.mnscu.edu
tel: 651.201.1485
