Computer-Based Math

Last updated

Computer-Based Math is an educational project started by Conrad Wolfram in 2010 [1] [2] [3] [4] to promote the idea that routine mathematical calculations should be done with a computer.

Contents

Conrad Wolfram believes that mathematics education should make the greatest possible use of computers for performing computation leaving students to concentrate on the application and interpretation of mathematical techniques. [5] Wolfram also argues that computers are the basis of doing math in the real world and that education should reflect that [6] and that programming should be taught as part of math education. [7]

Wolfram contends that this approach is fundamentally different from most of the use of Computers in the classroom (or Computer-based mathematics education), [8] whose role is to help to teach students to perform hand calculations, rather than to perform those computations and is also distinct from delivery tools such as E-learning systems.

In 2010 the website www.computerbasedmath.org was set up to start developing a new curriculum and interactive digital learning materials to support it. It holds an annual conference.

In February 2013, Estonia announced that it would be piloting a Computer-Based Math developed statistics course [9] [10] [11] in cooperation with the University of Tartu. [12] The African Leadership University plans to use materials developed by ComputerBasedMath.org in its Data and Decisions curriculum. [13]

UNICEF supported the third Computer-Based Math Education Summit in New York, in 2013. [14]

Examples of calculations that should be done with a computer include arithmetical operations such as long division or integration techniques such as trigonometric substitution.

In 2020 Wolfram published a book "The Math(s) Fix" detailing the problems and his proposed solution. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolfram Mathematica</span> Computational software program

Wolfram Mathematica is a software system with built-in libraries for several areas of technical computing that allow machine learning, statistics, symbolic computation, data manipulation, network analysis, time series analysis, NLP, optimization, plotting functions and various types of data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other programming languages. It was conceived by Stephen Wolfram, and is developed by Wolfram Research of Champaign, Illinois. The Wolfram Language is the programming language used in Mathematica. Mathematica 1.0 was released on June 23, 1988 in Champaign, Illinois and Santa Clara, California.

A computer algebra system (CAS) or symbolic algebra system (SAS) is any mathematical software with the ability to manipulate mathematical expressions in a way similar to the traditional manual computations of mathematicians and scientists. The development of the computer algebra systems in the second half of the 20th century is part of the discipline of "computer algebra" or "symbolic computation", which has spurred work in algorithms over mathematical objects such as polynomials.

Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process, some social science, and some teaching pedagogy. The standards for science education provide expectations for the development of understanding for students through the entire course of their K-12 education and beyond. The traditional subjects included in the standards are physical, life, earth, space, and human sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mathematics education</span> Mathematics teaching, learning and scholarly research

In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge.

Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM) are guidelines produced by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 2000, setting forth recommendations for mathematics educators. They form a national vision for preschool through twelfth grade mathematics education in the US and Canada. It is the primary model for standards-based mathematics.

Founded in 1920, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a professional organization for schoolteachers of mathematics in the United States. One of its goals is to improve the standards of mathematics in education. NCTM holds annual national and regional conferences for teachers and publishes five journals.

Symbolic Manipulation Program, usually called SMP, was a computer algebra system designed by Chris A. Cole and Stephen Wolfram at Caltech circa 1979. It was initially developed in the Caltech physics department with contributions from Geoffrey C. Fox, Jeffrey M. Greif, Eric D. Mjolsness, Larry J. Romans, Timothy Shaw, and Anthony E. Terrano.

Traditional mathematics was the predominant method of mathematics education in the United States in the early-to-mid 20th century. This contrasts with non-traditional approaches to math education. Traditional mathematics education has been challenged by several reform movements over the last several decades, notably new math, a now largely abandoned and discredited set of alternative methods, and most recently reform or standards-based mathematics based on NCTM standards, which is federally supported and has been widely adopted, but subject to ongoing criticism.

Investigations in Numbers, Data, and Space is a K–5 mathematics curriculum, developed at TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The curriculum is often referred to as Investigations or simply TERC. Patterned after the NCTM standards for mathematics, it is among the most widely used of the new reform mathematics curricula. As opposed to referring to textbooks and having teachers impose methods for solving arithmetic problems, the TERC program uses a constructivist approach that encourages students to develop their own understanding of mathematics. The curriculum underwent a major revision in 2005–2007.

Math wars is the debate over modern mathematics education, textbooks and curricula in the United States that was triggered by the publication in 1989 of the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and subsequent development and widespread adoption of a new generation of mathematics curricula inspired by these standards.

Reform mathematics is an approach to mathematics education, particularly in North America. It is based on principles explained in 1989 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). The NCTM document Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (CESSM) set forth a vision for K–12 mathematics education in the United States and Canada. The CESSM recommendations were adopted by many local- and federal-level education agencies during the 1990s. In 2000, the NCTM revised its CESSM with the publication of Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM). Like those in the first publication, the updated recommendations became the basis for many states' mathematics standards, and the method in textbooks developed by many federally-funded projects. The CESSM de-emphasised manual arithmetic in favor of students developing their own conceptual thinking and problem solving. The PSSM presents a more balanced view, but still has the same emphases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xcas</span> Computer algebra system

Xcas is a user interface to Giac, which is an open source computer algebra system (CAS) for Windows, macOS and Linux among many other platforms. Xcas is written in C++. Giac can be used directly inside software written in C++.

Computational thinking (CT) refers to the thought processes involved in formulating problems so their solutions can be represented as computational steps and algorithms. In education, CT is a set of problem-solving methods that involve expressing problems and their solutions in ways that a computer could also execute. It involves automation of processes, but also using computing to explore, analyze, and understand processes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrad Wolfram</span> British technologist and businessman

Conrad Wolfram is a British technologist and businessman known for his work in information technology and mathematics education reform. In June 2020, Wolfram released his first book, The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age.

Statistics education is the practice of teaching and learning of statistics, along with the associated scholarly research.

Project SEED is a mathematics education program which worked in urban school districts across the United States. Project SEED is a nonprofit organization that worked in partnership with school districts, universities, foundations, and corporations to teach advanced mathematics to elementary and middle school students as a supplement to their regular math instruction. Project SEED also provides professional development for classroom teachers. Founded in 1963 by William F. Johntz, its primary goal is to use mathematics to increase the educational options of low-achieving, at-risk students.

The Secondary School Mathematics Curriculum Improvement Study (SSMCIS) was the name of an American mathematics education program that stood for both the name of a curriculum and the name of the project that was responsible for developing curriculum materials. It is considered part of the second round of initiatives in the "New Math" movement of the 1960s. The program was led by Howard F. Fehr, a professor at Columbia University Teachers College.

The computational knowledge economy is an economy 'where value is derived from the automated generation of knowledge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Notebook interface</span> Programming tool blending code and documents

A notebook interface or computational notebook is a virtual notebook environment used for literate programming, a method of writing computer programs. Some notebooks are WYSIWYG environments including executable calculations embedded in formatted documents; others separate calculations and text into separate sections. Notebooks share some goals and features with spreadsheets and word processors but go beyond their limited data models.

Computational literacy is a term that is used to describe the broad ability to apply computational thinking and awareness of the range, scope and limitations of computational techniques. It is distinct from the ability to perform math calculations by hand, instead anticipating that the actual computations will be performed by computers.

References

  1. ↑ We need to base maths lessons on computers The Telegraph, 03 Dec 2009
  2. ↑ Revival Plan The New Indian Express
  3. ↑ Computers do it better, Times Higher Education Supplement, 30 March 2012
  4. ↑ Closing the gap between modern life and the math curriculum New York Times, 10 Feb 2013
  5. ↑ Reinventing Math for the Computational Knowledge Economy Big Think, Jan 2013
  6. ↑ http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6395648 Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine Times Educational Supplement
  7. ↑ ICT teaching upgrade expected in 2014 The Guardian, 20 Aug 2012
  8. ↑ Teaching kids real math with computers TED 2010
  9. ↑ Estonian Schools to Teach Computer-Based Math Wall Street Journal, 11 Feb 2013
  10. ↑ Math Rebels Invade Estonia With Computerized Education Wired, 12 Feb 2013
  11. ↑ Estonia Chosen as Testing Ground for Math Education Experiment Estonian Public Broadcasting News
  12. ↑ Estonian, British experts team up to develop computer-based math education Postimees, 13 Feb 2013.
  13. ↑ http://www.alueducation.com/en/alu-partner-computer-based-maths-announces-annual-summit-3/ [ bare URL image file ]
  14. ↑ UNICEF and Computerbasedmath.org Announce Major Summit to Reconceptualize Math Education Worldwide unicefstories.org
  15. ↑ Stop Calculating And Start Teaching Computational Thinking Forbes.com June 2020
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.