Graphing Calculators?
John Sterling
I understand that graphing calculators are becoming a common tool in
high school mathematics, and perhaps even younger. I would appreciate
recommendations for such a calculator to be used in conjunction with
high school level math, and also for books or other resources that show
how to incorporate it into the curriculum.
Many thanks for your replies.
--
John Sterling
ster...@cs.nyu.edu
cor...@delphi.com
John Sterling <ster...@cs.nyu.edu> writes:
>I understand that graphing calculators are becoming a common tool in
>high school mathematics, and perhaps even younger. I would appreciate
>recommendations for such a calculator to be used in conjunction with
>high school level math, and also for books or other resources that show
>how to incorporate it into the curriculum.
>
It is a scientific graphing calculator which received a 5-star rating
on Ziff-Davis Interactive (http://www.zdnet.com/zdi/software.program.html
)
The program was created with the suggestions of many people here on the
Internet. I'm the author, so if you have questions let me know.
---
Daniel Corbier
Danco...@aol.com, or cor...@delphi.com
Starfollower
>I understand that graphing calculators are becoming a common tool in
>high school mathematics, and perhaps even younger. I would appreciate
>recommendations for such a calculator to be used in conjunction with
>high school level math, and also for books or other resources that show
>how to incorporate it into the curriculum.
There are several good graphing calculators out there. Texas Instruments makes
the TI-82, -83, or -85, which are all good. Casio has a new color graphing
calculator (I've played with it at a demo. It's OK, but I don't personally care
for the Casio Calculators). We have a teacher at our school who is a Hewlett
Packard fanatic, and would definitely tell you to buy an HP48. I guess Sharp has
some good calculators as well.
You might try checking out the calculator manufacturers websites.
http://www.ti.com for Texas Instruments
http://www.hp.com for Hewlett Packard,
I'd guess that you could get to Casio by using http://www.casio.com (I've never
tried this one, though)
Are you thinking of buying this for a prospective high school student? If the
student is several years away from high school, I would delay buying the
calculator at this point, since the technology changes so much in only one or
two years, that by the time the kid gets to high school they may be using
something that isn't even on the market now. If the student will be enrolling in
high school next year, you might want to contact the school and see if they
recommend a particular model of graphing calculator. It might be easier for the
student if s/he is using the same calculator as everyone else, since programs
will be more readily available to them.
Personally, I prefer the TI line of calculators, but that could just be because
these are the calculators I'm most familiar with and have always used. Many
schools have bought into the TI line, since TI did something similar to Apple,
and tried to get an early hold on the educational market.
If you've really got $$$ to burn, there are some very fancy HP calculators.
Also, Texas Instruments has a new machine, the TI-92, which does geomety
constructions as well as symbolic manipulations. Really worth a look, although I
don't know as teachers would necessarily allow it's use in certain classes.
Sheila King
Jennifer Dooley
students. I agree with Ms. King's recommendation that you what to purchase
the calc. until the student reaches high school - who knows which classes
he/she will be taking and class sets are often available. If you are a
teacher, thought you might be interested in a company called Vernier Softare
that we deal with to purchase all our hardware as well as resource books.
Phone # is (503) 297-5317 or can be reached via the net (I always use a search
engine so I don't know the address. TI also puts out a nice catalog of
resource materials and hardware.
Hope this helps!!!
jdooley
Betsy Kingsburg
In article <31C99903...@cs.nyu.edu>,
John Sterling <ster...@cs.nyu.edu> wrote:
>I understand that graphing calculators are becoming a common tool in
>high school mathematics, and perhaps even younger. I would appreciate
>recommendations for such a calculator to be used in conjunction with
>high school level math, and also for books or other resources that show
>how to incorporate it into the curriculum.
>
John, and anyone else interested,
I am a participant in the Academy for Teachers of Science and Math at
the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. We have spent some time
learning to work with the TI83 graphing calculator and some of its
capabilities are interesting. Students as young as 7th or 8th grades can
learn the concepts behind linear regressions, which can be used to
predict the behavior of hypothetical data based upon actually acquired
data. Even if they don't understand it all, they will be fascinated by
the creation of the graph itself! I will not spend a LOT of time with it
next year, but it will be a small diversion at some point in the year.
TI has a web page, though I don't know the exact address. You could look
it up on Yahoo. Betsy Kingsbury king...@utkux.utcc.utk.edu
Dallas Warren Robertson
>I have been using the TI-82 in high school algebra and advanced math for
2 years now. It has changed the way I teach and view the course. I
teach more about concepts and less about procedures. I am trying to
design my course so that the main emphasis is solving problems. Data is
collected and graphed, conjections made, and tests are used to explore
the conjection. From this, the ideas presented in the texts (first and
second degree equations, exponential functions, etc) flow from the
students. I really believe that the way I previously taught math was all
wrong.....just a collection of memorized procedures.....and I believe
that our emphasis on results from standardized tests are the cause; we
need to concentrate on thinking, not rote.
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Dallas Warren Robertson Email:robe...@spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov