KGI STEAM

The name is a combination of an abbreviation for Kogakuin (the school where I used to work) and the acronym STEAM.

The vast majority of the code was written off-the-cuff during meetings and so this wasn't originally intended to be robust piece of software by any means.

After recieving heavy use by students and faculty at the school where I used to workm I took the time to develop what started as a side-project into a full-fledged education application. Eventually I left teaching to pursue a career in software development, but having put so much work into this project, I decided open-source it in hopes that someone else might find it useful.

Table of Contents

• Features
  • Making a Worksheet
    • Problem field
    • Variables with values field
    • Answer field
    • Answer units field
    • Solution field
    • Calculated answer with units
• Installation Notes
• Demo Site
• Tech Stack

Features

The site is designed to allow students to practice solving problems. It requires no login, so students don't have to remember another set of login credentials.

For students

• Try a problem and check it instantly.
• Randomize the numbers in your problems and try again.

For teachers

• Use the syllabus to remind students what's going on in class.
• Worksheets allow you to render mathematical equations on the web.
• Resources allow students to quickly navigate to any external links you may need for class.

Making a Worksheet

Problem field

The first field is the problem field. In addition to standard markdown you can add inline LaTeX enclosing your LaTeX in \\( \\). You can also add variable to your problem by prefixing your variable names with a dollar sign.

• Valid variable names: $var1, $var_car, $m_electron

Variables with values field

allows you to specify the values of your variables. You shouldn't prefix variable names with '$' in this field. The variables should be separated by commas and can each take up to four arguments.

• variable_name[default_value, minimum, maximum, is_int=0]
• is_int should be either 0 or 1.
• If only default_value is specified, then the problem will not be randomizable.

Answer field

A mathematical expression used to calculate the answer to each problem.

Answer units field

An optional field used to display the units for the answer.

Solution Field

This field works the same way as the problem field with one additional feature. By default the variable $calculated_answer can be used to retrieve the value from the calculated answer field.

Calculated answer with units

The result of evaluating the expression in the answer field. If units were specified they will be displayed alongside the value.

Installation Notes

1. Create a python virtual environment.
2. From within your virtual env run pip install -r requirements.txt
3. Try running manage.py runserver, if that doesn't work follow the instructions printed in the error message and setup a .env_settings file.
4. Apply the migrations manage.py migrate.

Demo Site

The GitHub contains a database called demo.sqlite3. The database contains an example course with a syllabus, worksheet, and several resources.

Demo Site Admin

• Username: test.testington
• password: not-password

Tech Stack

• Python Anywhere
• Django 3.0
• Bulma CSS

Shoutouts to...

• MathJax for rendering my math equations.

• Martor for creating an awesome interface to preview and edit markdown (and for pulling my commits).

• Icons8 for inspiring the logo and providing the base SVG files.

• Real Favicon Generator for generating the favicons,

• Unsplash for providing the images for the courses.