Wolfram|Alpha – Jon Oaks

Wolfram|Alpha Queries

By Jon OaksApr 15, 2011

This is my response to this post by Mr. Morford concerning his view of Wolfram|Alpha.In my Finite Math class this semester, I have been using Wolfram|Alpha a lot. The other day one of my students wanted to use Wolfram|Alpha to reproduce one of the feasible regions, when all she knew were the corner points. I told my student to do it directly. Our first query was 'shape with corner points at (1,3) (4,5) (8,6) and (3,1)'. Wolfram|Alpha didn't take very well to that. After a few trials, I put in the query: 'polygon with vertices at (1,3) (4,5) (8,6) and (3,1)'…

UncategorizedWolfram|Alpha

Factoring widget using Wolfram|Alpha

By Jon OaksApr 14, 2011

Here is my first ever Wolfram|Alpha widget. I'm not sure how useful it will be, but here it is anyway. http://developer.wolframalpha.com/widgets/gallery/view.jsp?id=15c33a5faaac529...

UncategorizedFactoring, Widget, Wolfram|Alpha

Games, Activities, and Useful Web Tools.

By Jon OaksMar 10, 2011

Here's a rundown of some of the games and activities that I've recently used in the classroom, along with various other useful links that I can see being applicable to learning and education. 1. Ed On Your Own Crossword Puzzles - This particular link from Ed on Your Own has a list of free printable math crossword puzzles for the classroom. Recently I used the One Step Equation Crossword Puzzle and the Two Step Equation Crossword Puzzle with my students. Even the students who were not doing so well with solving equations seem to be doing significantly better after doing these…

UncategorizedActivity, Cell Phone, Desktop Sharing, Equations, Finance, Games, History, I Have Who Has, Integers, Links, Measurement, Proportion, QR Codes, Ratio, Video, Wolfram|Alpha, Worksheets

Links from the Week – including a LCM/GCF Competition-Style Idea

By Jon OaksFeb 06, 2011

Sometimes I wonder how many people actually find this more annoying than useful. 1. Maple Worksheets for Calculus - In addition to the Applets which I previously posted about, there St. Louis University also has a series of Maple Worksheets for Calculus that could prove to be useful. That is, if Maple is your thing. 2. How Much Does It Cost to Go to the SuperBowl and The History of the SuperBowl are potentially two useful Infographics for about this time of year that could provide for some discussion on Sports Statistics, etc. Although, I mainly just thought they were incredibly…

UncategorizedActivity, Calculator, Calculus, Clock, Desktop Sharing, Games, GCF, History, Infographics, LCM, Online, Statistics, Video, Wolfram|Alpha

Using Wolfram | Alpha Effectively

By Jon OaksDec 09, 2010

When I was helping some of my students review for their final exam tonight, I was reminded about Wolfram|Alpha, and how to effectively use it in the classroom. One of my students was trying a factoring problem, and he all of a sudden started typing it into his computer. I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that he was using WA. I was also reminded that I was the one who told him about it. I am very adamant that WA is an effective tool to aid in student learning, as long as it is used…

UncategorizedRamblings, Wolfram|Alpha