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Wolfram|Alpha for Science and Math Educators

August 19, 2010 —
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The Wolfram|Alpha Blog is not only your official news source for new data and features, but it’s also a great place to read how others are using Wolfram|Alpha in everyday life, for education and on the job. This week, a tweet linking to @drwetzel‘s latest blog post “How to Integrate Wolfram Alpha into Science and Math Classes” caught our attention. With a new school year upon us, we wanted to share his examples for using Wolfram|Alpha through the website, widgets, and mobile apps with educators who are looking for ways to incorporate Wolfram|Alpha into their math and science classes.

From the Teach Science and Math blog:

How to Integrate Wolfram Alpha into Science and Math Classes

“What is Wolfram Alpha? It is a supercomputing brain. It provides calculates [sic] and provides comprehensive answers to most any science or math question. Unlike other search sources, you and your students can ask questions in plain language or various forms of abbreviated notation.

Contrary to popular belief, Wolfram Alpha is not a search engine. Unlike popular search engines, which simply retrieve documents based on keyword searches, Wolfram computes answers based on known models of human knowledge. It provides answers which are complete with data and algorithms, representing real-world knowledge.

Teaching Strategies: Researching Facts and Information

Science and math teaching strategies with Wolfram begin with allowing students to search for information about specific facts and information. The following examples provide support for stimulating critical thinking using a digital lens.”

Click here to continue reading this post on the Teach Science and Math blog.

If you’re new to Wolfram|Alpha, we invite you to visit the Wolfram|Alpha for Educators site to browse our video gallery, download lesson plans, and more. Are you already using Wolfram|Alpha in your classroom? Share your story in the comment box below and you could be featured in an upcoming post on how educators are using Wolfram|Alpha as a learning tool in a variety of subjects.

3 Comments

Hi I wondered if you would post a blog post on “Wolfram Alpha for Blondes”? We blogged on this amazing tool and hope you will feature our blog post as well. We’d like you to remember that your tool is helpful to educators and scientists, but we Blondes and Women over 45 will find it very useful as well. Here’s the link: http://stillblondeafteralltheseyears.com/2010/08/wolfram-alpha-review-what-is-it-women-over-45-why-should-you-care/

Posted by Still blonde after all these YEARS! August 20, 2010 at 10:07 am

Hi! I’m Systems Engineering student at Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia (UCC) – Neiva. I use W|A to resolve Calculus problems, Linear Algebra, Classic Algebra, Convert Currencies, Search for world cities ubication, compare countries, products, technology and other interesting topics.

W|A is a USEFUL and POWERFUL tool that allows understand real problems.

Respect a devices, I use it in my laptop, desktop and Internet tablet, and the visual presentation remains coherent.

So long!

Posted by John Ortiz August 26, 2010 at 9:20 am

I’m writing from the department of chemistry and physics at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX. This semester we’ve decided to use Wolfram Alpha in our physics labs. For example the students can use the symbolic partial derivative operations to compute and verify their uncertainty calculations, which are an integral part of every lab report they write. Many of our students were pleasantly shocked when I told them there was a “google” for scientists.

Posted by Jim Clarage August 30, 2010 at 8:32 pm