A PROPOSAL:
As of today: Mars is almost within human reach.
Nuclear fusion offers limitless potential if National Ignition Laboratory finds
a way around to tapping it. Genetic engineering (or as they now call it:
genetic editing) is set to revolutionize so much. There is so much optimism
about all the possibilities technology and science affords humans today. But
step back and think for a moment. We may not be knowing it but we are doing a
great disservice to the cause of science and technology (the so-called STEM) and
the unlocking of the next generation’s learning potential. For while students
of Arts (including Literature) could read, watch, listen and thus enjoy and
assimilate Arts what can the poor students of STEM do to make the study of STEM
more immersive , fruitful, enjoyable and most importantly LESS PAINFUL &
INTIMIDATING. I have a suggestion that you guys can work on to make the lives
of students of STEM a whole lot easier and study of STEM a great deal
interesting .
I
propose that you guys work on and develop a Natural Reader for the sciences and
math, STEM. This is no insignificant idea, believe me. This product / software
could revolutionize learning. It could potentially dwarf Khan Academy (its inspiration)
in its impact and reach. Once developed it could be made freely accessible to every person in
the world just as the services of Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Khan Academy are.
The developer may well become the owner of the idea / software suite.
The
motivation behind the idea is that already billions of dollars have been spent worldwide
on STEM education and, honestly, the outcome has not been very encouraging, to
put it mildly. Another motivation is to replace / substitute human labor for
computer labor to make use of the enormous potential that computers have. Some
examples from Math and Chemistry, I hope, will make what I want to say clearer.
A basic integral follows.
The
proposed Natural Reader would read the above expression as: integral of x
raised to the power n with respect to x equals x raised to the power n plus one
divided by n plus one p lus a constant. Now an example from Chemistry:
HCl + NaOH ------> NaCl + H2O
The Natural Reader would read:
Hydrochloric Acid reacts with Sodium Hydroxide to give Sodium Chloride and
Water (Oxidane).
2H2 + O2 --------->
2H2O
Two molecules of two hydrogen atoms
each react with a molecule of two oxygen atoms to give two molecules of wa ter
(oxidane)
Another example from Math: Find the
derivative with respect t o x of f(x) = x2, using the following
difference quotient :
Solution: It follows from above:
The Natural Reader woul d read the
above expression as follows: derivative of f with respect to x equals limit h approaches zero applied to the
expression f of (x plus h) minus f of (x) divided by h. Putting in the values
we get the following expression.
The Natural Reader would read thus:
Limit h approaches zero applied to the expression x plus h whole squared minus
x squared divided by h.
And finally it would read: limit h
approaches zero applied to 2x plus h which equals 2x, which is the derivative
of f with respect to x.
We all know that most Maths,
Physics, Chemistry textbooks from big publishers such as Pearson, McGrawHill,
Addison Wesley, Wiley are also published
in Adobe PDF (Portable Document For mat) format. Now the English part of th ese
math, physics and chemistry text could be read with an existing Reader, but the
technical part, examples of which I have given above, not so. Would not it be
really nic e that a Natural Reader comes to the rescue of the students of STEM,
a reader that is equally adept at reading both the English part and, more
importantly, the Technical Part. I hope that I adequately communicated to you
the basic idea I have about the Natural Reader and I earnestly request you to
look into the matter.
Bye,
Babur Khalid.
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