Comments on: Shaking Up Math Education http://teachingcollegemath.com/2009/06/shaking-up-math-education/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shaking-up-math-education Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:57:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Teaching College Math » Blog Archive » Wolfram|Alpha: Recalculating Teaching & Learning http://teachingcollegemath.com/2009/06/shaking-up-math-education/comment-page-1/#comment-1745 Teaching College Math » Blog Archive » Wolfram|Alpha: Recalculating Teaching & Learning Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:16:47 +0000 http://teachingcollegemath.com/?p=1116#comment-1745 [...] Shaking Up Math Education [...] [...] Shaking Up Math Education [...]

]]> By: Ross Isenegger http://teachingcollegemath.com/2009/06/shaking-up-math-education/comment-page-1/#comment-747 Ross Isenegger Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:58:42 +0000 http://teachingcollegemath.com/?p=1116#comment-747 My W|A fun this week was entering terms: Ross Mandy Neil and English German - just chock full of graphs, percentages, potential elementary math questions Nice to see you in the news! R My W|A fun this week was entering terms:

Ross Mandy Neil

and

English German

- just chock full of graphs, percentages, potential elementary math questions

Nice to see you in the news!

R

]]> By: Pete Horne http://teachingcollegemath.com/2009/06/shaking-up-math-education/comment-page-1/#comment-745 Pete Horne Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:04:00 +0000 http://teachingcollegemath.com/?p=1116#comment-745 A few notes in playing with WA so I can be ready this fall for my students... * Not every problem has the "show steps" option available. * When determining the equation of a line from a pair of points, it lists general form and slope-intercept form, but it does not list point-slope form, which I often prefer to use. * It is also a bit picky in how queries are stated by the user. One of Carl Bialik's examples of WA failing was actually a failure of how to properly express a constrained domain in the query. He gave "Maximize -x^3+4x^2 on the interval between -1 and 5" as an example that failed. Using "Maximize -x^3+4x^2 from x= -1 to 5" provides the correct results, albeit without the steps used to determine the results. Long and the short of it... students will use WA. It is up to us as instructors to realize this and realize the limitations of WA. If we realize the limitations, we can see if they are taking shortcuts. If we want the students to understand the underlying content and principles then we just have to question them about those, but more importantly, we have to TEACH them the underlying principles and content. A few notes in playing with WA so I can be ready this fall for my students…

* Not every problem has the “show steps” option available.

* When determining the equation of a line from a pair of points, it lists general form and slope-intercept form, but it does not list point-slope form, which I often prefer to use.

* It is also a bit picky in how queries are stated by the user. One of Carl Bialik’s examples of WA failing was actually a failure of how to properly express a constrained domain in the query. He gave “Maximize -x^3+4x^2 on the interval between -1 and 5″ as an example that failed. Using “Maximize -x^3+4x^2 from x= -1 to 5″ provides the correct results, albeit without the steps used to determine the results.

Long and the short of it… students will use WA. It is up to us as instructors to realize this and realize the limitations of WA. If we realize the limitations, we can see if they are taking shortcuts. If we want the students to understand the underlying content and principles then we just have to question them about those, but more importantly, we have to TEACH them the underlying principles and content.

]]>