I’m trying to lead my students through simplifying parts of the quadratic formula. I was trying to set up a conditional statement for the cellContent (2,1) to change depending on what they have written in cell (1,2) and (2,2). But it does not appear to be changing. Any thoughts on where I am making my mistake in t1?
When they substitute a, b, and c into the formula, cell (2,1) should say “Simplify the value to the left of the ±, if necessary”
When they simplify -b, cell (2,1) should say “Simplify the value inside the radical.”
When they find the value inside the radical, cell (2,1) should say “Simplify the value in the denominator.”
Your approach should work. I noticed that you have (1,2) instead of (2,2) in your correct1 line, which is causing a problem.
You will also want to remove your initialCellContent(2,2) line because that causes a circular dependency.
The only downside to this approach is that the student must type in their answer exactly as you have it in latex, and any changes, even if equivalent, will cause the correct check to fail.
I tried using a numeric value check to avoid having to use an exact latex check, but the way I had it written in previous assignments, it required an exact number as an answer and I knew that changing that would be way beyond my skill level.
correct1 is checking to see if they replaced the a, b, and c values correctly, then in Cell (2,1) the instructions on how to continue simplifying the formula to get to the answer are supposed to appear but aren’t working.
I wanted their input (once they replace a, b, and c in the formula) to appear in cell (2,2) so they did not have to rewrite the formula. Is there a way to do that without using initialCellContent?