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Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

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Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#51

Post by jrockway »

jedberg wrote: post #21
jmcphers wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can easily store notes on a TI calculator. I had a TI-85 in college, and was occasionally guilty of writing TI-BASIC programs to make tests easier (for example, I had one which computed Euler's method).

Most test proctors make you clear your memory before a test in high school. In college they don't care as much because they are used to making "open book tests".

It was always threatened but never actually done in my experience. I had programs for all the formulae we needed to memorize... but also memorized the formulas.

I think it is standardized tests where the "clear your memory" would come up, but again, it was never done. I also don't think they asked any questions where the programs would have been an advantage, either. (The thing that's stuck most in my mind is the quadratic formula. The SAT could ask you "find the roots of this equation", but you don't need to know the quadratic formula to do that... the test is multiple choice so you can just multiply their answers and pick the one that matches the question. For that reason, I don't think they ask that kind of question, but I could be wrong. It has been a while.)

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#52

Post by [deleted] »

roland35 wrote: post #11

I am not a fan of the lobbying side of this story, but I do think that the TI graphing calculators are good products. They are very durable and easy to use. I fondly remember programming a multiplayer poker game in TI-BASIC on a road trip complete with a CPU player! I also would browse TIcalc.org to look for new games and utilities. I later bought a TI-89 Titanium which opened up the gaming possibilities! Check out s…

[deleted]

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#53

Post by cbm-vic-20 »

jordache wrote: post #24

HP 48g FTW! Seriously considered it's IR data sharing capabilities with other classmates... imagine beaming messages across the room!

This is the correct answer. I'm still sore over someone stealing my HP-48G near the end of my last year of university. Though I'm looking forward to getting a SwissMicros HP-16 clone for my embedded projects...

https://www.swissmicros.com/

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#54

Post by exhilaration »

frostburg wrote: post #6
borgel wrote: post #2

Approximately related, I find the NumWorks calculator [1] absolutely enthralling. It has a fairly beefy modern ARM Cortex M4 processor which runs an attractive GUI written in Python. And yes, you can write and run Python on the device. The hardware is very well described [2] in human terms and electrical schematics are available. Software is totally open source and the device can be easily reflashed. I'm not sure wha…

It's nice but as far as I know it doesn't have a real CAS despite its processing power.

If anyone, like myself, was wondering what a CAS is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_algebra_system

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#55

Post by iguy »

I'm surprised these are allowed in exams at all. Can someone who wrote such exams tell me what sort of questions were asked for which graphing was useful? Clearly there would be no point in asking many curve-sketching questions.

In teaching, I can see the utility of sometimes being able to ask the computer. But ideally not a cheap computer from the 90s. And of sometimes being forced to do without. But in exams, where standardization matters, why not restrict to basic 4-function calculators?

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#56

Post by logfromblammo »

jedberg wrote: post #30
bsamuels wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick with those is you can make a TI-BASIC program that will make it look like you cleared the memory - fake empty "programs" list and all. There were a few tiny details you couldn't replicate like the highlighting animation, but they never noticed when I did it.

I in fact did this in high school. But now that the current high school teachers are people my age who actually grew up using the calculators, they are wise to that ploy. :)

I also did this, but never got around to storing test-related materials in my phone. It was mainly for preserving my goofing-off programs.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#57

Post by jabl »

Is there (non TI funded) research showing that graphing calculators are actually helpful in high school level math education? I'm somewhat sceptical.

I had a ti-85 in high school, but in university graphing calculators were verboten (basic scientific calculators were allowed). And I don't think they would have been useful, even if they would have been allowed.

My university experience sort of mirrors my "real world" experience as well. If I need something non-trivial, I have access to a computer with python/R/Julia/Matlab/octave/mathematica/take-your-pick that blows those graphing calculators out of the water. If not, a plain scientific calculator is good enough. I've literally never thought "if I only had my trusty ti-85".

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#58

Post by japhyr »

I've been a math and science teacher for the last 25 years. I have always told students they could use whatever device worked for them, and I have alway been very clear that the only reason TI calculators are so prevalent is because the test-taking companies require them.

The only time I have encouraged their use is for students who are going to take a test that requires them, and even then they should only use them enough to know how they work. There are much better tools for learning and exploring many areas of mathematics.

For students who don't have a specific device they wanted to use, I steered most of them over the past few years to https://www.desmos.com/calculator.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#59

Post by mnm1 »

I had a Casio graphing calculator in the 90s and while it was ridiculed and I was made fun of sometimes by other students, it did the job just fine. If the school requires a certain brand, they should pay for it themselves or stop being such entitled assholes. Many students and their parents don't have $100 to throw away unnecessary. Especially now that there is undoubtedly free software to do the same thing and much more. I inherited the calculator from my big sister and my parents were barely able to afford it. Schools need to take into account the feasibility of their requirements when making such ludicrous demands. Or pay for it themselves. Period. Playing into this stupid monopoly was ridiculous in the 90s. It's frankly just a lesson in the stupidity of administrators and teachers today.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#60

Post by frostburg »

Robotbeat wrote: post #36
frostburg wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nice but as far as I know it doesn't have a real CAS despite its processing power.

The TI-89 series' CAS is really impressive, particularly since it was released over 20 years ago with automatic equation formatting and a powerful unit subsystem. The price of this is worth it for the software alone.

Yeah, it's basically the one from the TI-92 from 1995. I have a TI-89ti, but the contemporary HP 50g was better in some ways.
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