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Don’t Give Up on Algebra: Let’s Shift the Focus to Instruction

National Science Foundation

In its current form, school algebra serves as a gatekeeper to higher-level mathematics. Researchers and policy makers have pushed to open that gate—providing more students access to algebra, focusing in particular on those students historically denied access to higher-level mathematics. Let’s Not Be So Quick to Give Up on Algebra.

Algebra 76
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The Latest from Our R&D Pipeline: Version 13.2 of Wolfram Language & Mathematica

Stephen Wolfram

Almost any algebraic computation ends up somehow involving polynomials. can be manipulated as an algebraic number, but with minimal polynomial: &#10005. And all of this makes possible a transformative update to polynomial linear algebra, i.e. operations on matrices whose elements are (univariate) polynomials. &#10005.

educators

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Students Are Busy but Rarely Thinking, Researcher Argues. Do His Teaching Strategies Work Better?

ED Surge

That’s the argument of Peter Liljedahl, a professor of mathematics education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, who has spent years researching what works in teaching. These are the students who end up hitting a wall when math courses move from easier algebra to more advanced concepts in, say, calculus, he argues. “At

Research 356
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Expression Evaluation and Fundamental Physics

Stephen Wolfram

Since the standard Wolfram Language evaluator evaluates arguments first (“leftmost-innermost evaluation”), it therefore won’t terminate in this case—even though there are branches in the multiway evaluation (corresponding to “outermost evaluation”) that do terminate. As the Version 1.0

Physics 108
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The Physicalization of Metamathematics and Its Implications for the Foundations of Mathematics

Stephen Wolfram

One can view a symbolic expression such as f[g[x][y, h[z]], w] as a hierarchical or tree structure , in which at every level some particular “head” (like f ) is “applied to” one or more arguments. So how about logic, or, more specifically Boolean algebra ? We’ve looked at axioms for group theory and for Boolean algebra.

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What should mathematics majors know about computing, and when should they know it?

Robert Talbert, Ph.D.

As I teach my Linear Algebra and Differential Equations class this semester, which uses more computing than ever, I'm thinking even more about these topics. Can anyone seriously imagine banning microscope technology from the biology major, on the argument that biology is a more pure discipline without the technology?

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LLM Tech and a Lot More: Version 13.3 of Wolfram Language and Mathematica

Stephen Wolfram

Line, Surface and Contour Integration “Find the integral of the function ” is a typical core thing one wants to do in calculus. But particularly in applications of calculus, it’s common to want to ask slightly more elaborate questions, like “What’s the integral of over the region ?”, or “What’s the integral of along the line ?”

Computer 117