Stephen Wolfram Q&A
Submit a questionSome collected questions and answers by Stephen Wolfram
Questions may be edited for brevity; see links for full questions.
May 14, 2012
From: Reddit AMA
How do you see integration of computational thinking into general math education working? Is it something that every student should be exposed to? How deep does the integration go?
My brother Conrad has an initiative related to this, called Computer-Based Math: https://www.computerbasedmath.org/
I think there are also things to do directly with computation and NKS, without any direct connection to traditional “math”. And yes, I think these are great for all students. Both because it’s a foundation for a lot of things in the world. And also because it’s engaging in many different ways (e.g. one can make discoveries easily; there are interesting visual/artistic forms to generate; etc.)
It’s interesting to me that one can successfully teach Mathematica even to quite young students. It’s a very satisfying thing for them: type a small amount in correctly, and all kinds of things can happen.