Math UI

[Jay-135]

This question is not really specific to python. Apologies if that is a
party foul, but I think it is in the spirit of the list.

Suppose I give an algebra student the system:

y=2/3x + 5
4x - 2y = 7

I want the student to solve the system algebraically, to show her work,
to use appropriate notation, and to do it on a tablet computer rather
than pencil and paper. What does the UI look like for this task? Is it
something the equation editor for a word processor? Or more specialized?
Are their lots of menus? Or is it more like LaTeX, using special text
syntax to denote fractions, etc. How do we make sure that using the UI
doesn't occupy so many brain cycles that it limits the student's ability
to do the algebra?

Obviously this is less about solving systems in particular and more
about the issues that come up as computers begin to replace pencil and
paper as the standard format for communicating in a math classroom. I
would appreciate your thoughts.

Jay

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[michel paul-2]

With Sage you can do this kind of stuff:

sage: eq1(x,y) = (y == 2/3*x + 5)
sage: eq2(x,y) = (4*x - 2*y == 7)
sage: eq1
y == 2/3*x + 5
sage: eq2
4*x - 2*y == 7
sage: eq3 = eq2(y = 2/3*x + 5)
sage: eq3
8/3*x - 10 == 7
sage: eq3 += 10
sage: eq3
8/3*x == 17
sage: eq3 /= 8/3
sage: eq3
x == (51/8)
sage: eq1(x=51/8)
y == (37/4)

Sage is Python with mathematical super powers added.  It lets you treat an equation as an object and manipulate it in various ways - substituting different values for the variables or rearranging terms.  It of course has a solve function, but I've used it as above to 'show work'. 

I don't think there's a tablet app for it, but you can use Sage through a browser. 


- Michel

On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 8:36 AM, Jay Bloodworth <[hidden email]> wrote:

This question is not really specific to python. Apologies if that is a
party foul, but I think it is in the spirit of the list.

Suppose I give an algebra student the system:

y=2/3x + 5
4x - 2y = 7

I want the student to solve the system algebraically, to show her work,
to use appropriate notation, and to do it on a tablet computer rather
than pencil and paper. What does the UI look like for this task? Is it
something the equation editor for a word processor? Or more specialized?
Are their lots of menus? Or is it more like LaTeX, using special text
syntax to denote fractions, etc. How do we make sure that using the UI
doesn't occupy so many brain cycles that it limits the student's ability
to do the algebra?

Obviously this is less about solving systems in particular and more
about the issues that come up as computers begin to replace pencil and
paper as the standard format for communicating in a math classroom. I
would appreciate your thoughts.

Jay

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--

==================================
"What I cannot create, I do not understand."

- Richard Feynman

==================================
"Computer science is the new mathematics."

- Dr. Christos Papadimitriou
==================================

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[A. Jorge Garcia]

Let her use Matrices in MATLAB or SAGE! See http://sagemath.org

HTH,
A. Jorge Garcia
Applied Math and CompSci
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009


-----Original Message-----
From: Jay Bloodworth <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Thu, Jun 16, 2011 11:39 am
Subject: [Edu-sig] Math UI

This question is not really specific to python. Apologies if that is a
party foul, but I think it is in the spirit of the list.

Suppose I give an algebra student the system:

y=2/3x + 5
4x - 2y = 7

I want the student to solve the system algebraically, to show her work,
to use appropriate notation, and to do it on a tablet computer rather
than pencil and paper. What does the UI look like for this task? Is it
something the equation editor for a word processor? Or more specialized?
Are their lots of menus? Or is it more like LaTeX, using special text
syntax to denote fractions, etc. How do we make sure that using the UI
doesn't occupy so many brain cycles that it limits the student's ability
to do the algebra?

Obviously this is less about solving systems in particular and more
about the issues that come up as computers begin to replace pencil and
paper as the standard format for communicating in a math classroom. I
would appreciate your thoughts.

Jay

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http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig


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[Mark Engelberg-2]

You say the student has a tablet computer.  Don't tablets have an
e-ink mode where you can write the same way you'd write on paper?  If
so, then just write it out the way you would on paper.  Supposedly
Windows 7 has built in handwriting recognition for formulas, and there
are third party programs that piggy back on this capability (e.g.,
MathType).  I haven't tried it myself, though.

If that's not an option, I think you need to look at either LaTeX, or
possibly LyX as a friendlier front-end.

Things like Sage, Microsoft Math, and MathPiper are good tools for
solving equations, but I don't think they will be of much use in terms
of giving your student a way to write out the solving process by hand.
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