[Edu-sig] Fwd: Doing Math with Python at PyCon Education Seminar

[kirby urner]

On Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 11:09 PM, Amit Saha <amitsaha.in at gmail.com> wrote:



>
> Thank you! I think i have to start using Jupyter more so that I know
> how to make the best use of it or troubleshoot it when it hangs and
> even a kernel restart won;t help! But really love how it allows me to
> show the code and output together. I started using a custom.css file
> to increase the font size, so definitely improvement for me.
>
>
Yes, Jupyter is a part of the puzzle, when it comes to workflow, among
students and teachers.

I imagine students each booting the same Notebook on localhost while a
teacher walks them through it on a big screen, demonstrating how it might
be used and underlining what it teaches.

However this model presumes each student has some localhost to boot
jupyter-notebooks on. Is that a given.  Will Chromebooks work?  Can I run
Anaconda on a Pi?

This model could all be in lieu of, and/or in addition to, turning to page
such and such in a non-interactive textbook, where no coding language is
communicated, other than in non-executing typography.

My attitude is not "here's how you must organize the workflow" so much as
"lets innovate and experiment and learn all we can from each other, compare
notes".

However, creating a climate wherein innovation and experimentation are
encouraged is no simple matter.

We start with a stereotypical classroom wherein a single teacher is running
in place on a treadmill (figuratively), with a set curriculum.  There's
plenty to do, a full plate, and "learning to code" is neither expected nor
rewarded.

The curriculum is the one thing a busy math teacher maybe doesn't need to
spend extra time on, as the curriculum is handed down from above.  That's
the rock.  The school district picks the textbook, not the teacher.

I'm thinking we need keep a lot of "the rock" in terms of topics and their
interconnections (what passes for highs school mathematics in our day) but
then slide in this new tool layer based on Jupyter Notebooks in place of a
scientific calculator, per your talk.

That's a challenge however, and I think we need to broaden the consensus
that "learning to code" and "learning math" are indeed consistent goals,
synergetic in fact (whole > parts).

The New Math cohort in 1960s US, was too "top down" in retrospect.

I benefited from that curriculum (briefly, before transferring to Junior
English School of Rome), a complete overhaul of the curriculum in reaction
to Sputnik.  The US had panic attack, ala War of the Worlds with Orson
Welles.[1]

But today, with China having just launched a first satellite aimed at
testing quantum encryption technology, we're not just in some "history
repeats itself" cycle.  History spirals more than circles.

For a shift in the math curriculum to happen (yet again), we need to stop
"waiting for superman" in the guise of some army of computer scientists
that will suddenly show up to develop an entirely new high school track
called "computer science".

Yes, we have AP CS, but it's nothing mainstream, doesn't come with math
credit in most states, and is really more just Java-based computer science,
not really high school mathematics with Jupyter Notebooks and Python.

By expanding the mathematics offerings to include these "math through
coding" experiments, we have the ability to leverage existing resources,
meaning teachers already in the math teaching profession.  That's close
enough to work with.  This was never a static field.

Ultimately the goal is to rescue mathematics from its current status as
"mandatory yet off-putting".  I'm wanting math teachers themselves to drive
the process, so grass-roots, not top-down.  They'll be better positioned
having made this investment.  Learning to code is a positive career move
for them as well.

A somewhat different approach is to start with a different STEM subject,
such as chemistry or physics, and using Jupyter Notebooks to teach that.
I'm on a listserv for Physics teachers and have posted links to my
Notebooks, for those maybe unfamiliar with this option.  The scipy stack
will then follow them on into college.

Kirby

I tweet this out every so often, including @MAAnow and @Teacher2Teacher etc.
https://medium.com/@kirbyurner/the-plight-of-high-school-math-teachers-
c0faf0a6efe6#.nfc8qv4hg
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