273 - Conrad Wolfram on Computational Thinking

<p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">Today’s episode is featuring a conversation on computational thinking with Conrad Wolfram.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">Conrad Wolfram directs global strategy for Wolfram Research, a leader in computational resources. For the last decade, Wolfram has been encouraging educators to teach math(s) as if computers existed. He wants teachers and policymakers to stop fixating on calculations like long division and factoring polynomial equations, and instead, start focusing on computational thinking.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">Conrad’s newest book, <em>The Math(s) Fix,</em> is the foundation for a revolution in education. It maps out the vision and the solution to change math(s) at its core.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">Listen in to learn about computational thinking and how it can serve as the solution to the current, detrimental traditional math(s) curriculum.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><strong>Key Takeaways:</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[:10] About today’s episode.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[:51] Tom welcomes Conrad to the podcast!</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[1:27] About Wolfram’s family background with math.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[2:41] What the Wolfram language is.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[3:47] About this new era we’re in today (what Wolfram considers the ‘AI age’ or the ‘fourth industrial revolution’), especially with regards to computation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[8:42] The two big ideas in <em>The Math(s) Fix</em>: the importance of computational thinking across the curriculum and that we should begin to utilize the powerful supercomputers in our pockets rather than spending all our time in school learning to hand-calculate.</span></p> <p><span sty