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Attention all educators! Tell us how you use Wolfram|Alpha for a chance to win an iPad and a slew of Wolfram|Alpha-powered apps, PLUS a year’s subscription to Wolfram|Alpha Pro!
We want to hear your Wolfram|Alpha story. Whether you’re a primary or secondary school teacher, a university professor, a tutor, or even a homeschooling parent, we want to know how you use Wolfram|Alpha to engage your students in an exciting and dynamic way. Simply send us some details, and our favorite story will receive the grand prize: an iPad, loaded with Wolfram apps!
Wolfram|Alpha is known for its powerful computational abilities, such as being able to solve math problems like fraction arithmetic, long division of polynomials, derivatives, differential equations, and integrals. It’s equally powerful when it comes to general concepts, like animals, to more specialized information, like genome sequences. We even have lesson plans specifically intended for educators for in mind, in topics like Equations of Circles, the History of Money, and Creative Writing.
So how do you use Wolfram|Alpha in the classroom? This is your opportunity to share with the world how computational knowledge engages your students and makes learning more dynamic.
To participate in the contest, just email teachercontest@wolframalpha.com by October 15 with a basic photo/headshot of yourself or a picture of you using Wolfram|Alpha in your classroom, and the following information:
- Your name
- School name (if applicable)
- Primary subject area taught
- Class(es) taught
- Grade level taught
- Specific topic or subject for which you use Wolfram|Alpha
And answer these questions:
- What’s your Wolfram|Alpha story?
- What “wows” your students when using Wolfram|Alpha?
- What’s your favorite use of Wolfram|Alpha whether inside or outside of your field?
Our Education Outreach team will select their favorite entries. If your story is selected, we’ll highlight it in a future blog post, and you’ll have a chance to win our grand prize: an iPad, loaded with Wolfram|Alpha-powered apps, plus a year’s subscription to Wolfram|Alpha Pro! And a few runners-up will receive prizes such as a Wolfram|Alpha Tote Bag, an I Heart Spikey Mug, Wolfram|Alpha T-Shirts, or Wolfram|Alpha Spikey Paper Sculpture Kits!
Although this contest is open to anyone who self-identifies as an educator across the globe, for legal reasons we have our official rules. Read the complete contest rules and regulations.
Good luck! We can’t wait to see the inspired ways you use Wolfram|Alpha in teaching.
I used Mathematica to tutor some undergrads and the first thing I did was use Mathematica to plot a simple curve. Then I used Epilog to show two points on the curve. Then we discussed that the two points could be connected by a line and we talked about how the equation of the line would be built using slope intercept form, but the slope we actually wrote it out in terms of the points I chose on the curve. Then I used manipulate to make the difference in the denominator approach to zero but we ran into the problem of diviiding by zero, which led us to use the limit of the slope instead of the slope itself. And once we reached 0 using the limit, we had the tangent line to the curve. Then a couple of weeks later, they came back and I created an animation for te Reimann sums to approximate the area underneath a curve. Much fun and ahhhhs were had.