I’d like to create an activity where students factor completely and immediately receive feedback on whether they are correct or not. How do I do this? I’m a “newbie”!
are students factoring numbers? polynomials? It’ll be a very different problem depending.
They will be factoring quadratics of all forms. Here are a few examples.
25-x^2
x^2 -16x+63
3x^3 -5x^2+2x
28x^4+16x^3-80x^2
I am completely new to CL, so please be patient with me! 
CL cannot check for correctness by comparing two functions. So the way around it that is shown in the examples is to evaluate each function with two lists, use total to count up the list, and subtract the two functions. However, this does not give deference to the form the student writes it in. The best way I have found to account for form is to use cellNumberusage to look for the particular values that should be in the factored form, vertex form etc.
I think picking up programming languages is easiest by looking at working examples and decomposing them, so I think trying to string together some basics might help.
The started working with CL a few weeks ago. The first CL activity I tried to make was also an activity for factoring quadratics. I wasn’t able to complete them in time to use with my students, so I have temporarily abandoned the projects I started. I might polish them and use them over the Christmas break and use for remediation in the spring.
You are welcome to take a look. I am by no means an expert so there may be better ways of achieving what you are looking for.
Thank you so much for your response. I’ll definitely check out your examples.
Sara Anne