Mathway is a website where you can type in problems ranging from basic math to Calculus and not only get the answer, but a step-by-step explanation. All of the key vocabulary words in each explanation are linked to an online glossary. You can graph answers on the coordinate plane when needed as well.
This should be on every students' list of sites to use for homework help, as well as a great self-directed way for students to check their own work. You could do anything from a set of problems, project or test and then have students correct everything themselves and get detailed explanations all from one website. It's fantastic.
You might check out the rest of Mr. D's blog as well.
Wow!! Thanks so much for the post!!
ReplyDeleteSome linear algebra! Not bad. Unfortunately I haven't done that in half a year .... so I don't feel like pulling out my LA textbook to see if they'll solve some rather funky problems.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone else thinking that this website will lead to students not merely checking their own work, but having the website do all the work for them?
ReplyDeleteWell my experience generally has been that by the time you get to AP level and so forth, never mind college, that although teachers spot-check homework they don't really grade it.
ReplyDeleteSo really it seems to me that math homework is for practice only. I am not sure if this is universal, but from algebra II on, most teachers won't go through the ardour of grading your homework -- but frequent testing comes in the form of weekly quizzes based off the type of problems you find in homework.
I found that quite liberating too, because after a while you would get the hang of a procedure and you could choose to focus on particular problems that you found interesting. Drilling of course is important, but that way you wouldn't be punished for not getting how a particular problem was solved the first time around (at least in high school ... or a dual-enrolled student in high school, where the opportunity of attending office hours was nonexistent). You were however punished in the quiz the couple of days after.
I take this to be the general lecture -> self-graded homework -> quiz model that seems to be universal be it at the AP level, community college, state flagship U, famous school X, etc.
Now of course in secondary two in Singapore the teacher would still individually and thoroughly grade homework but I don't know if that happens at higher levels.
Math is one of the rarer disciplines I think where copying out working (or a proof) does help you understand it.
Le radical galoisien, my concern is that the less-dedicated students will just use this website to do their math homework and skip the practice, with the problems for the quiz left to the future.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I have often found copying out working useful as a study skill, but still a vital step in learning maths is to actually try to solve a problem by yourself at some point.