From funcalculus at gmail.com Sat Aug 15 13:21:14 2015 From: funcalculus at gmail.com (Peter Farrell) Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2015 07:21:14 -0400 Subject: [Pythonedu-wg] Python in Math Education Message-ID: Hello! I was a math teacher for years and finally came to the conclusion that math education in the 21st Century should embrace computers and programming. I learned LOGO because of Seymour Papert but a student of mine turned me on to Python. The tools I use for exploring math are Python's Turtle module, Pygame and my favorite, Visual Python. As has been pointed out, there's a need to train teachers in the tools and to provide curriculum or resources. I gave a talk on this topic at the Bay Area Python Interest Group in 2013, showing a few hands-on explorations in using Python to explore math topics. This year I published Hacking Math Class with Python , which contains dozens of programs, some very short, for applying Al Sweigart's motto "Automate the Boring Stuff" to learning math topics like algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus. It starts with an introduction to Python using turtle geometry and provides programs for everything from finding means and medians to solving the Pythagorean Theorem and quadratic formula to solving higher order polynomials using synthetic division. There are spirographs using trigonometry and fractals using recursion and/or complex numbers. I introduced it to the Coder School in my town (on the SF Peninsula) and they use it to take beginning programmers through their first steps in Python. I think it's time to get Python into every math class, and I'd love to start a discussion on how to accomplish this. I would love to get the word out there to educators about my contributions so far, and if anybody would like to review the book I'll send you a free pdf. The version on the website is Python 2 but when I sent a freebie to Kirby I thoughtfully translated everything to Python 3 so let me know if you'd prefer that version. Looking forward to the discussion! Peter Farrell San Mateo, CA farrellpolymath.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: