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Re: Mathematica as a New Approach to Teaching Maths

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg127472] Re: Mathematica as a New Approach to Teaching Maths
• From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
• Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 04:58:56 -0400 (EDT)
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• Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu

Of course this has been tried at both secondary school and college levels.

For a start, browse to http://www.wolfram.com/support/learn/ and click 
the "Education" pane on the right, then select the level.

Over a number of years I've had quite a bit of experience of teaching 
non-traditionally with the aid of Mathematica, by myself and in concert 
with colleagues. The results were mixed, owing primarily to two factors:

  (1) Such an approach was not what the students were accustomed to 
experiencing. They could no longer merely fall back upon doing mindless 
calculations following rote procedures but rather had to think. And 
consequently...

  (2) The courses were considerably more difficult for many students 
than the traditional versions.

On 7/26/12 3:32 AM, amzoti wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I just watched what is probably considered a hot button topic issue by some from "Conrad Wolfram's recent TED talk "Stop teaching calculating, start teaching math".
>
> I was wondering if any Mathematica users have ever explored this and how they may be approaching it.
>
> I love the idea of teaching students to use Mathematica as an exploratory tool which allows them to ask what if questions for learning to problem solve and to ask better questions.
>
> Has anyone developed or researched an approach to replace the traditional teaching methods (crank out silly answers) at any level?
>
> It would be great if Mathematica could even suggest such as approach!
>
> Anyway, would love to hear any feedback, pointers or ideas.
>
> Sorry if this is off-topic!
>
> Thanks
>

-- 
Murray Eisenberg                     murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts                413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street            fax   413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305

• References:
  • Mathematica as a New Approach to Teaching Maths
    • From: amzoti <amzoti@gmail.com>