Hotmath, Inc.
Introduction
Millions of middle school, high school, and college students spend from one half-hour to three or more hours on math homework each school night.
For some, this is easy and pleasant. For many, it is difficult and frustrating. Some get help from friends and family. Some hire tutors. Others simply give up. Those that give up come to class unprepared and become discouraged with math. They frequently are students with limited math help at home.
Hotmath operates a website (hotmath.com) that provides online, tutorial solutions to the required homework problems in many popular math textbooks. Our service is available for all students and accessible at schools, public libraries, and from home.
Our mission is to help students do their required math homework successfully, so they learn more, and so they become more successful in school and better prepared for desirable careers.
The Service
There are no human tutors needed with our breakthrough approach. We have created a database of teacher-created, tutorial solutions. An online student selects his/her textbook, page and problem number, and instantly begins a tutorial session for that specific problem. Our site suggest hints, asks Socratic questions, shows graphs and figures, and shows a step-by-step explained solution through to the final answer, at the student's own pace. Students will use the site to get help with tough problems, to check their work, and to prepare for quizzes and tests. Teachers will use the site in class as well as recommend the site to students for homework. In comparison to other math websites, Hotmath attracts student usage because we uniquely give specific help with their exact, required homework problems.
Cognitive science research supports the showing of worked math solutions as a superior form of teaching, compared to struggling and failing, especially among weaker students. There has been virtually no concern expressed by teachers that students will abuse the site to their disadvantage - Hotmath normally provides solutions for the odd-numbered problems only (for which the numerical answers are in the back of the book). Our overwhelming benefit is providing a way for ALL students now to successfully complete math homework assignments with understanding.
Status
Over 200 textbooks are covered on the Hotmath website. These textbooks represent the most popular textbooks used in the US. We estimate that over 80% of the US students enrolled in pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, pre-calculus or calculus are using one of these texts.
Our staff are members of major math organizations such as NCTM, MAA,
and MSA. We are partners with many leading education organizations,
including Texas Instruments, Microsoft (Encarta), and leading textbook
publishers. We are approved and/or recommended for use as a supplementary
math learning resource in many states including California. In addition
to our core offering of textbook-correlated math homework help, Hotmath
offers a full range of math help resources including review lessons, graphing
calculator help, workbooks, and math games.
Team
Chuck Grant, president, has a computer science Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1971, and has been a computer developer and entrepreneur as well as a college professor and a high school math teacher. Chuck co-founded North Star Computers and was president for 10 years. Bob Bekes, vice president, has a math Ph.D. from Oregon in 1973 and is Chair of the math department at Santa Clara University.
Casey Rodgers, a 20-year experienced Java programmer and manager, leads the development effort. Rakesh Khanna, a mathematician and math teacher, coordinates the authors. Tom Ferrio, Janet Tedesco, Dragisa Trifcovic, Robert Hall, Rachel Berkowitz, and Isaac Berniker are significant contributors in their areas of specialty. About 75 math professors and teachers have contributed to our current collection of textbook solutions.
Our advisors include Robert Wilson, former CEO of Memorex; Wayne Willis, former CEO of Ditto.com; Tom Greaves, co-founder of NetSchools; Dr. Tony Barcellos, a math professor and calculus textbook author; and Oliver Grillmeyer, cognitive science researcher at UC Berkeley.
Conclusion
Math and science education is an important national issue. Hotmath can make a big, positive difference in the lives of many people.
Chuck Grant, Ph.D.
President
Hotmath Inc.
