GeoGebra was recently announced the 2009 winner of the “Microsoft Education Award” by The Tech Museum. This award is only the latest feather in GeoGebra’s much-decorated cap.

GeoGebra is dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus. It offers multiple representations of objects in its graphics, algebra, and spreadsheet views that are all dynamically linked. It is particularly well-suited to middle and high school mathematics.

While other interactive software (e.g. Cabri Geometry, Geometer’s Sketchpad) focus on dynamic manipulations of geometrical objects, the idea behind GeoGebra is to connect geometric, algebraic, and numeric representations in an interactive way. You can do constructions with points, vectors, lines, conic sections as well as functions and change them dynamically afterwards. Furthermore, GeoGebra allows you to directly enter and manipulate equations and coordinates. Thus you can easily plot functions, work with sliders to investigate parameters, find symbolic derivatives, and use powerful commands like Root or Sequence.

The best part is that unlike Geometer SketchPad  and Cabri Geometry, GeoGebra is absolutely free.

[Note: This post has been authored by guest writer, Sidhanth Venkatasubramaniam].