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Education & Academic

Wolfram and the Raspberry Pi Foundation Collaborate on Free Access to Educational Project Materials

Wolfram Research is pleased to announce further collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation as part of supporting makers across the world through education. A collection of 10 Wolfram Language projects has been launched on the foundation’s projects site. These projects range from creating weather dashboards to building machine learning classifiers to using AI for facial recognition. The goal is to put the power of computational intelligence into the hands of anyone who wants access—democratizing the skills that will increasingly be needed to innovate and discover what is possible with modern computation.

By providing easy-to-follow, step-by-step tutorials that result in a finished, functioning piece of software, Wolfram aims to lower the barrier of entry for those who wish to get immediately started programming, building and making. Projects can be completely built on the Raspberry Pi or within a web browser in the Wolfram Cloud.

Alec Titterton, CBM Content Development Manager, European Sales
Education & Academic

Teacher Resources for Introducing Computational Thinking and Data Science

As many teachers make the transition back into classes after the holidays, quite a few have plans to update lessons to include segments that introduce data science concepts. Why, you ask?

According to a LinkedIn report published last week, the most promising job in the US in 2019 is data scientist. And if you search for the top “hard skills” needed for 2019, data science is often in the top 10.

Data science, applied computation, predictive analytics... no matter what you call it, in a nutshell it’s gathering insight from data through analysis and knowing what questions to ask to get the right answers. As technology continues to advance, the career landscape also continues to evolve with a greater emphasis on data—so data science has quickly become an essential skill that’s popping up in all sorts of careers, including engineering, business, astronomy, athletics, marketing, economics, farming, meteorology, urban planning, sociology and nursing.

Kathy Bautista, Academic Programs & Initiatives
Education & Academic

The Computational Classroom: Easy Ways to Introduce Computational Thinking into Your Lessons

A version of this post was originally published on the Tech-Based Teaching blog as “Computational Lesson-Planning: Easy Ways to Introduce Computational Thinking into Your Lessons.” Tech-Based Teaching explores the intersections between computational thinking, edtech and learning. Sometimes a syllabus is set in stone. You’ve got to cover X, Y and Z, and no amount of reworking or shifting assignments around can change that. Other factors can play a role too: limited time, limited resources or even a bit of nervousness at trying something new. But what if you’d like to introduce some new ideas into your lessons—ideas like digital citizenship or computational thinking? Introducing computational thinking to fields that are not traditionally part of STEM can sometimes be a challenge, so feel free to share this journey with your children's teachers, friends and colleagues.
Jesika Brooks, Blog Editor - EduTech, Outreach & Communications
Education & Academic

Computation + Literature in High School: Doctoral-Level Digital Humanities

Thanks to the Wolfram Language, English teacher Peter Nilsson is empowering his students with computational methods in literature, history, geography and a range of other non-STEM fields. Working with a group of other teachers at Deerfield Academy, he developed Distant Reading: an innovative course for introducing high-level digital humanities concepts to high-school students. Throughout the course, students learn in-demand coding skills and data science techniques while also finding creative ways to apply computational thinking to real-world topics that interest them.

In this video, Nilsson describes how the built-in knowledge, broad subject coverage and intuitive coding workflow of the Wolfram Language were crucial to the success of his course:

Brian Wood, Technical Communications & Outreach Manager
Education & Academic

Prepare for AP Calculus and More with Wolfram U

Today I am proud to announce a free interactive course, Introduction to Calculus, hosted on Wolfram's learning hub, Wolfram U! The course is designed to give a comprehensive introduction to fundamental concepts in calculus such as limits, derivatives and integrals. It includes 38 video lessons along with interactive notebooks that offer examples in the Wolfram Cloud—all for free. This is the second of Wolfram U's fully interactive free online courses, powered by our cloud and notebook technology.

This introduction to the profound ideas that underlie calculus will help students and learners of all ages anywhere in the world to master the subject. While the course requires no prior knowledge of the Wolfram Language, the concepts illustrated by the language are geared toward easy reader comprehension due to its human-readable nature. Studying calculus through this course is a good way for high-school students to prepare for AP Calculus AB.

Devendra Kapadia, Manager of Calculus and Algebra, Algorithms R&D
Education & Academic

The 2018 Wolfram Summer School: A Recap

The 16th annual Wolfram Summer School was another successful immersive education adventure made possible by the power of the Wolfram Language for rapid scientific exploration and software development. A select group of 62 participants from all around the world (ranging from advanced high-school students to postgraduate students and beyond) worked on a variety of computational projects related to science, technology and innovation and educational innovation. The three-week program was packed with cutting-edge technologies, intellectual discussions, innovation in action and community building.
Kyle Keane, Education Specialist, Outreach & Communications
Education & Academic

Why Is Sickle Cell Anemia Common in Areas with Malaria? Teaching Life Science with Modeling

Explore the contents of this article with a free Wolfram SystemModeler trial. Life science teaches us to answer everything from "How can vaccines be used to indirectly protect people who haven't been immunized?" to "Why are variations in eye color almost exclusively present among humans and domesticated animals?" You can now learn to answer these questions by using modeling with Wolfram's virtual labs. Virtual labs are interactive course materials that are used to make teaching come alive, provide an easy way to study different concepts and promote student curiosity.
Patrik Ekenberg, Applications Engineer, Wolfram MathCore Anna Palmer, Wolfram MathCore
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