Stem Education continued from page 11
In addition to data, Wolfram Alpha can
generate simple diagrams
relevant to the search topic, such as this astronomical diagram
showing the recent transit of Venus across the sun from the earth.
However, Wolfram Alpha isn’t the online tool that is going to replace what we do as educators. It can’t explain HOW a particular computation is relevant to an experiment you might be doing, and it doesn’t really give much narrative or context (you’ll still want to use Google or Wikipedia for some of these things) to what you might be studying. Rather, it is just a tool for searching data. Science fiction fans might think of it like the omnipresent “computer” from Star Trek episodes that can do calculations and give you plain English responses when you ask. But, in those episodes, it isn’t flying the ship. Rather, it is a tool that can do so much of the heavy lifting of research and computation that we otherwise spend our time on in STEM classrooms, and that can and should facilitate a move toward higher order thinking and conceptualization in our classes… just like the calculator did so many years ago.
Stephen Best is an Education Consultant for the Michigan Department of Education in the School Reform Office. He is the past director of MACUL SIG-PL, and planned the iPads in the Classroom and Teaching and Learning in the Cloud conferences for MACUL. His work includes designing learning programs for teachers in STEM topics.
Leadership changes continued from page 7
MACUL welcomes new Board members Terri Gustafson, David Prindle, Ron Houtman and Mary Saffron. We also welcome Barb Fardell as our new Michigan Department of Education Liaison.
The 2012-2013 program year will be led by these Board officers: Steve Schiller, President; Pam Shoemaker, President Elect; Pete Mantei, Treasurer; and Tammy Maginity, Secretary. We greatly thank outgoing Board President Mike Oswalt,
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Past President Tim Kamps and Secretary Gina Loveless.
SIG Leader Changes
We also say goodbye and thanks to Andy Losik, SIGEE Director; Lisa Wickman, SIGMM Director; Mary Saffron, SIGOL Director; Chris Skoglund, SIGSPED Assistant Director; Steve Best, SIGPL Director; David Prindle, SIGPL Assistant Director; and Scott Schopierary, SIGPL Communications Director. MACUL welcomes these new SIG leaders: Jen
FALL 2012 |
Omo, SIGEE Communications Officer; Eric Strommer SIGMM Communications Officer; Danielle Letter, SIGOL Communications Officer; Doug Kish, SIGSPED Assistant Director; Gina Loveless, SIGPL Director; Jason Kalis, SIGPL Assistant Director; and Julia VanderMolen, SIGPL Communications Officer.
If you are interested in becoming more involved in a leadership role in MACUL, contact me at
rwiltse@macul.org.
MACULJOURNAL
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