An NKS High School Curriculum

Introduction

Objectives: Core Lessons

Core Lessons

Objectives: Advanced Lessons

Advanced Lessons

NKS Glossary

Introduction

Introduction To Teachers

Objectives: Core Lessons

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Remarks

Teaching NKS should be simple. Not only is the material accessible, but it is also engaging on several different levels. Even young children starting school can do the basic experiments. Older kids studying simple rules can learn to think rigorously and critically, as well as take on challenging problems.

I will survey an alpha version of the educational materials that we at Wolfram Research have been making to introduce NKS. There will be a core two-week course geared towards high school students, which could also be used at the college level. There will also be a set of lessons which can lead to more open-ended instruction, treating some material more deeply or posing challenging problems. In addition, we will make lessons geared to the elementary and middle school levels.

I will also talk about the process of learning about NKS, which is related to making original NKS discoveries. The science of NKS has some things to say about learning and knowledge, at least in the context of studying simple programs.

There are definite phases of understanding, and we are concentrating on the introductory levels with these materials. We hope that these materials will be easily understood by teachers, and that they will find them flexible enough to fit in with their own style and philosophy of teaching.

Objectives

Developing comfort with digital information and simple programs

Developing comfort with use of computer.

Understanding use of "simple" and "complex", for rules, and for behaviors

Know ECA

Develop basic NKS observations and intuition

Searching simple programs as a tool or to find interesting behavior

Collect facts about ECA

Understanding use of "simple" and "complex", for rules, and for behaviors