Log onto a lab machine
Open this page in the browser there.
Go to your p Drive and create a folder for your matlab files. (You might name it matlab-yourname)
Go to:
http://math.rice.edu/~dfield/
click on For use with version 7.7 of MATLAB.
Click on dfield8.m New December 10, 2009.
Save the file that comes up as a .txt file in the directory you just created.
------- (make sure it is the one on the P drive and not on the C drive)
Repeat the process with pplane8.m New December 10, 2009.
Close that tab of your browser.
Open the new folder on your P drive and rename both files with a .m extension
(click yes when Microsoft asks if you are sure)
Open the Academic Software Folder
Find and click on the Matlab Icon.
Matlab will (eventually) open with a number of windows open.

Open Windows explorer and find the Matlab folder on the C drive under Documents and Settings/your username/my documents
Copy dfield8.m and pplane8.m into it from your p drive.
Now in the Current folder window in Matlab you should see dfield8.m and pplane8.m
And you are ready to play...
In the command window at the >> prompt type dfield8 and press
A dfield8 setup window should open. For the first time just press proceed and you should see a direction field. Click on the field a few times...and (approximate) solutions magically appear....
Go back to the setup window and change the differential equation. Try this with several different DE's
try: x'= sin(x) +cos(x)
and: x'= sin(x) + cos(t)
and: x'= sin(x)*cos(t)
and x'=2*y*x^2
and x'=4*t/x

Describe what you see.