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Education & Academic

Wolfram Plans to Offer Classes for Homeschoolers This Semester, and We Want to Hear from You!

Schooling looks a little different in 2020. Whether it’s technical issues with the transition to online courses, decreased physical attendance or delayed and last-minute openings, we’re all feeling the pressure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Wolfram Research, we've been involved in education for decades and count millions of parents, teachers and students as both our customers and our friends. Because of this longstanding commitment to learning, we have content, experts and platforms at the ready to help parents and students who are looking for ways to augment their learning.

Arben Kalziqi, Content Developer and Instructor, Wolfram U
Best of Blog

Learn Linear Algebra in Five Hours Today with the Wolfram Language!

Linear algebra is probably the easiest and the most useful branch of modern mathematics. Indeed, topics such as matrices and linear equations are often taught in middle or high school. On the other hand, concepts and techniques from linear algebra underlie cutting-edge disciplines such as data science and quantum computation. And in the field of numerical analysis, everything is linear algebra!

Today, I am proud to announce a free interactive course, Introduction to Linear Algebra, that will help students all over the world to master this wonderful subject. The course uses the powerful functions for matrix operations in the Wolfram Language and addresses questions such as "How long would it take to solve a system of 500 linear equations?" or "How does data compression work?"

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

The Wolfram High School Summer Camp Went Virtual, and It Was an Experience!

For more on Wolfram’s summer education programs, read our post about the Wolfram Summer School.

This year marked the ninth annual Wolfram High School Summer Camp, and it was a truly amazing experience. Forty-four students joined us remotely from around the world—from almost on the doorstep of Wolfram’s headquarters in Illinois to as far-flung as Kazakhstan, Germany, Russia, South Korea and India. They dedicated two weeks to learning the Wolfram Language, creating remarkably high-level independent projects and developing strong computational thinking skills. Our students had the opportunity to learn from subject experts from Wolfram Research, their mentors and teaching assistants (TAs) and, of course, our CEO Stephen Wolfram, who met with each student to discuss their projects.

Rory Foulger, Precollege Educational Programs, Outreach & Communications
Education & Academic

Pandemic-Inspired Innovations Make for the Best Wolfram Summer School Yet

For more on Wolfram’s summer education programs, read our post about the Wolfram Summer Camp.

The 18th annual Wolfram Summer School has just thrown its graduation party in High Fidelity, a virtual world augmented with spatial audio. Students and faculty sang together during karaoke with a DJ and jukebox, chatted away mixing techspeak and humor, said farewells and had a ball celebrating the completion of the program. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we chose to make our summer programs more accessible to the students and faculty from all corners of the world—this year from 25 countries and all populated continents.

Vitaliy Kaurov, Director of Community Engagement
Education & Academic

The Math(s) Fix: Try a Sample Lesson! Self-Study, Problem-Solving Learning Resources

As Conrad Wolfram writes in his new book, education in computational thinking and quantitative problem solving are largely absent from today’s mathematics curricula. With the current crisis changing education practice in many ways, what better time to try out a sample of our new curriculum? It’s a curriculum fit for learners who want to be better prepared for an AI age where computers can be used to their full potential.

It’s a beta release, a first sample manifestation of what can be deployed in a self-study mode to implement The Math(s) Fix. We’re stretching what can be done in a browser to the limit, so please be patient with refresh times. The content and intended learning outcomes are the key points to look out for; you can see how we’ve merged the learning of general "thinking" outcomes and computation outcomes with real contexts in accessible problems.

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

Released Today: The Math(s) Fix

Wolfram Research has always believed in the power of computation to deliver better decisions. But there are two sides to achieving this: not only the best computational technology but also the best education for computational thinking.

After more than 15 years of conceptualising the idea, 10 years of build-out and 2 years of writing and editing, I have assembled The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age (or TMF for short) and thrown it out to the world today in ink and e-ink.

Conrad Wolfram
Education & Academic

Quantum Chemistry: Step-by-Step Chemistry Series

After working our way through chemical reactions, solutions and structure and bonding, we close out our step-by-step chemistry series with quantum chemistry. Quantum chemistry is the application of quantum mechanics to atoms and molecules in order to understand their properties.

Have you ever wondered why the periodic table is structured the way it is or why chemical bonds form in the first place? The answers to those questions and many more come from quantum chemistry. Wolfram|Alpha and its step-by-step chemistry offerings won’t make the wave-particle duality any less weird, but they will help you connect chemical properties to the underlying quantum mechanical behavior.

The step-by-step solutions provide stepwise guides that can be viewed one step at a time or all at once while working through a problem. Read on for example problems covering orbital diagrams, frequency and wavelength conversions, and mass-energy equivalence.

The Wolfram|Alpha Chemistry Team
Education & Academic

Structure and Bonding: Step-by-Step Chemistry Series

We’re back this week with more chemistry, to explore molecular structure and bonding with Wolfram|Alpha and its step-by-step chemistry offerings. Read more on chemical reactions and solutions from previous weeks, and join us next week for our final installment on quantum chemistry!

Structure and bonding in chemistry refer to where the atoms in a molecule are and what holds those atoms together. Molecules are held together by chemical bonds between the atoms comprising the molecule. Understanding the interplay between molecular structure and the electrons involved in bonding is what facilitates the design of new molecules, the control of chemical reactions and a better understanding of the molecules around us.

To master structure- and bonding-related calculations, the step-by-step solutions provide stepwise guides that can be viewed one step at a time or all at once. Read on for example problems covering Lewis structures, oxidation numbers and orbital hybridization.

The Wolfram|Alpha Chemistry Team
Education & Academic

Chemical Solutions: Step-by-Step Chemistry Series

Last week, we kicked off a four-part series on Wolfram|Alpha's step-by-step chemistry offerings with chemical reactions. Future posts will cover chemical structure and bonding along with quantum chemistry. We continue this week with chemical solutions, another foundational component of all chemistry classes.

From the blood in your veins to the oceans covering the planet, solutions are everywhere! Understanding their chemical properties is essential to sustaining life, creating new materials and treating illness. As such, disciplines ranging from biology to material science to the health professions all must be comfortable doing solution-related computations.

To master such calculations, the step-by-step results provide stepwise guides that can be viewed one step at a time or all at once. Read on for example problems covering solute concentration, solution preparation, pKa and colligative properties.

The Wolfram|Alpha Chemistry Team
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