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Education & Academic

Looking Beyond the “Hour of Code”

For many years, Wolfram Research has promoted and supported initiatives that encourage computation, programming, and STEM education, and we are always thrilled when efforts are taken by others to do the same. As sponsors of organizations like Computer-Based Math™, which is working toward building a completely new math curriculum with computer-based computation at its heart, and the Mathematica Summer Camp, where high school students with limited programming experience learn to code using Mathematica, we're probably more acutely aware than most of how important programming is in schools today.
Wolfram Blog Team
Education & Academic

12 Years of Wolfram Science Summer School Data Analytics

Applications are now open for the 2014 Wolfram Science Summer School, the twelfth year it's been held. Over my six years of participation in the school (as Event Director, student, and instructor), I've met a lot of people from all over the world, seen a lot of interesting projects (many of which turned into theses, papers, and products), and worked on my own projects as well. Some of my favorite student projects over the years have been in economics, medicine, finance, and music.
Abigail Nussey, Special Projects Technical Project Manager, Special Projects
Education & Academic

Q&A with Harvard Professor Oliver Knill

Last month, students in the midterm review session of Harvard's Math 21a class received a lesson in Mathematica they would not soon forget. Professor Oliver Knill coded a 3D-animated Miley Cyrus swinging on a wrecking ball to the beat of her song (by the same name). Knill used the same principles of mathematics that his class was reviewing for the midterm---and now he just may be the coolest professor ever.
Wolfram Blog Team
Education & Academic

Good Times, Great Computations: Wolfram Summer Internship Projects

Each summer a group of interns arrives at Wolfram Research to work on a host of exciting projects that not only prepare them for their future careers, but also give them the opportunity to make some great contributions to Wolfram technologies. One such contribution this year was the “Fun Curves” project for Wolfram|Alpha that took drawings of famous cartoon characters and turned them into mathematical equations.
The Summer 2013 Wolfram Interns
Education & Academic

Attention Teachers and Educators—Good News!

The Wolfram Demonstrations Project has newly organized its K--12 interactive content to fit United States Common Core State Standards. Engagement, exploration, discovery---these are the staples of good education. Giving students the freedom to be curious and the tools to satisfy that curiosity helps develop independent thinkers and confident problem-solvers. With the Demonstrations Project, students can visualize, manipulate, and explore the very principles that are being taught in the classroom. Teachers can enrich their lesson plans with cutting-edge and engaging content by exploring the Demonstrations database by grade level and Common Core Standard.
Wolfram Blog Team
Education & Academic

Mathematica Summer Camp 2013 Comes to an End

Thirty-three extremely intelligent high school students gathered at Bentley University July 7-19 to participate in our second annual Mathematica Summer Camp. The program lasted two weeks, and within this small window of time, students created their very own Mathematica projects. At the end of the camp, students presented these projects to their peers, camp instructors, and Stephen Wolfram. Projects ranged from games created in Mathematica to a Demonstration of the "Wavefunction and Probability Density of a Coupled Quantum Harmonic Oscillator." These projects will be posted to the Wolfram Demonstrations Project here, adding to the great work of those from 2012!
Crystal Fantry, Education Content Manager
Best of Blog

Is There Any Point to the 12 Times Table?

My government (I'm in the UK) recently said that children here should learn up to their 12 times table by the age of 9. Now, I always believed that the reason why I learned my 12 times table was because of the money system that the UK used to have---12 pennies in a shilling. Since that madness ended with decimalization the year after I was born, by the late 1970s when I had to learn my 12 times table, it already seemed to be an anachronistic waste of time.
Jon McLoone, Director, Technical Communication & Strategy
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