Hotmath News Release
Media Contact:
Chuck Grant
510.524.5525
Free Website Guides Students Through Tough Calculus Homework Problems
Tutorial explanations on award-winning site are keyed to textbook problems
San Francisco (September 5, 2002) College students can see how to solve their calculus homework problems at a free website called hotmath.com. The site helps students solve math problems assigned from their calculus and precalculus textbooks.
Hotmath offers immediate help for the actual problems in textbooks. Students go to hotmath.com, select their textbook, page and problem number, and find a self-paced series of hints, explanations, and questions that guide them through a step-by-step solution, right up to the final answer, according to Dr. Chuck Grant, CEO, who co-founded Hotmath with another math educator, Dr. Bob Bekes.
"As math instructors, we realize that lack of available help is discouraging many students from achieving their potential," said Dr. Bekes, Chair of the Mathematics Department at Santa Clara University and a former IBM executive. "By having free help 24/7, students no longer need to be frustrated when they are stumped by math homework."
Over 75 professors and teachers around the country helped create the Hotmath tutorial solutions. Published research shows that viewing worked-out solutions to homework problems is superior to struggling, according to Grant, a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur and a math teacher.
The site was introduced last year as a for-pay site, but is now free with no registration required. "We helped over 4,000 students overcome their math anxiety last year," said Grant. "We now want to reach out to all students, so we are asking corporations for sponsorships to keep the site free."
"Hotmath is supported by faculty as well as students, because we have solutions for the odd-numbered problems only," said Grant. "Our self-paced, tutorial presentations are far more helpful than student solutions manuals."
Hotmath has been approved by the State of California Learning Resource Network and has received the District Administration Magazine 2002 Website Award for Mathematics.
"Hotmath was a godsend last year when my son had homework trouble," said Patricia Lawrimore of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Media Contacts:
Chuck Grant
Hotmath, Inc.
510.524.5525
Bob Bekes
Math Department
Santa Clara University
408.554.4883
rbekes@scu.edu
(Editors: Grant & Bekes available for interviews)
