Computer-Based Maths for Parents
Most parents think their children could be doing better at maths. The question is, which maths?
Most school curricula have diverged from what's required for technical and less-technical jobs or even just everyday understanding. Yet this real maths understanding is crucial to success.
The key difference is how calculating is done. In the last 50 or so years, it got automated beyond previous imagination. That's led to us applying it in many more places, with harder problems to solve. Your children are entering that new world where maths is everywhere, as is computing power. Getting adept at problem-solving with Computer-Based Maths is the crucial skill, not hand calculating for simple problem solving.
Sometimes computers get applied to the same old traditional maths to assist learning. That may work better or worse than a teacher, but it doesn't solve the basic problem: having your child learn the right subject.
Resources you can use today
While we build CBM materials for you to try, here are a number of related activities that aren't CBM but will give a flavour of the technology and activities available in CBM lessons:
Wolfram|Alpha
- Find solutions to crosswords and other word problems. For example, words that will fit " _ _ t _ _ t e".
- Look at geographical data. For example, see a cross section of Mount Kilimanjaro.
- Step-by-step solutions to traditional maths problems. For example, completing the square (requires Pro version).
Wolfram Programming Lab
Wolfram Language
Wolfram Demonstrations Project
- See a range of interactives that Mathematica users have created.
- What structures can be made from triangles?
- Basic gaming algorithms—how to win at tic-tac-toe?
Mathematica
Conrad Wolfram's The Math(s) Fix
The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age is a groundbreaking book that exposes why maths education is failing worldwide and how the only fix is a fundamentally new mainstream subject.
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