Grand Daughter needs a Calculator., Graphing, A,B,C , Symbols, Signs

[space-time]

American students are taught to solve problems numerically instead of algebraically. I noticed this while watching undergraduate students struggle with Physics homework. In many cases some properties of objects are irrelevant, i.e. they cancel out and the final answer depends on a very small numbers of parameters. For example, the speed of a satellite around Earth does not depend on the mass, it depends on altitude. if you solve the equations properly, the mass of satellite cancels out.

I watch students get stuck because they did not know the mass of satellite when they tried to calculate the force for example. Showed them how to solve it algebraically. The smart kids got it and usually didn't have trouble with future assignments. Apparently no one had shown them how to do this before. The dumb kids got even more confused.

so I think a complicated calculator is in fact not good for students, all they really need is something like the Calculator application from OS X or Windows, in Scientific mode (not basic). A calculator like this can be bought for $10 or less.

Help them develop their brain not the accounting skills. And this is not supposed to sounds like an insult to any CPA, please do not interpret it as such.

[graylocks]

space-time wrote:
so I think a complicated calculator is in fact not good for students, all they really need is something like the Calculator application from OS X or Windows, in Scientific mode (not basic). A calculator like this can be bought for $10 or less.

that's all well and good as long as the student has someone in the home to teach them how to do what you describe. if the school is teaching calculator methods, for better or worse, that's the only kind of instruction the kid is going to get from the school and if she doesn't have a calculator with which to do it the only way the school teaches then she is going to fail.

[graylocks]

by the way Ombligo's approved calculators link was for the AP exams. here is the collegeboard info on calculators for the SAT:

[space-time]

graylocks wrote:
[quote=space-time]
so I think a complicated calculator is in fact not good for students, all they really need is something like the Calculator application from OS X or Windows, in Scientific mode (not basic). A calculator like this can be bought for $10 or less.

that's all well and good as long as the student has someone in the home to teach them how to do what you describe. if the school is teaching calculator methods, for better or worse, that's the only kind of instruction the kid is going to get from the school and if she doesn't have a calculator with which to do it the only way the school teaches then she is going to fail.
sounds more like the schools is a failure in this case.

[graylocks]

space-time wrote:
[quote=graylocks]
[quote=space-time]
so I think a complicated calculator is in fact not good for students, all they really need is something like the Calculator application from OS X or Windows, in Scientific mode (not basic). A calculator like this can be bought for $10 or less.

that's all well and good as long as the student has someone in the home to teach them how to do what you describe. if the school is teaching calculator methods, for better or worse, that's the only kind of instruction the kid is going to get from the school and if she doesn't have a calculator with which to do it the only way the school teaches then she is going to fail.


sounds more like the schools is a failure in this case.
without a doubt.

[davester]

Things sure have changed. When I started college the only rule regarding calculators is that you weren't allowed to use them on tests...oh, except this kind...

[Grace62]

The use of graphing calculators leads to improved student outcomes in math education, under the right conditions. A large body of research across many countries and over several decades supports this. The teacher must be properly trained in the technology, and the curriculum must use the calculator consistently throughout, not just as an add-on.

Students taught this way do well both in graphical and algebraic problem solving.

[Rolando]

[Grateful11]

We just sold a TI-83 and a TI-83+ on eBay got $55 and 60 for them
if I had known sooner. We don't even know where the plain 83 came
from my son wanted to keep one 83+. I'd say try eBay.

[OWC Jamie]

TI graphing calculators are sold practically anywhere school supplies are sold ( or used to be)



and be ever so thankful your aspergers granddaughter can do math.
My nephew can't and has no concept of monetary values at all, can't even make change.
Doesn't want to.
He can write, though.
scathing liberal political ranting and he could make the writers at Hustler blush.