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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?

#181

Post by __sy__ »

lopmotr wrote: post #113
__sy__ wrote: post #103

Former math TA* here. What if the pb isn't the $100 barebone calculator but the way/medium by which math is currently instructed in the U.S.? To this day, we're still teaching math with pen & paper, and require students to memorize concepts like how to differentiate functions of the form 1/x, x^2...etc. To test proficiency, well we give pen & paper tests and forbid most notes, but we still provide you a calculator be…

> differentiate functions of the form 1/x, x^2...etc. To test proficiency, well we give pen & paper tests and forbid most notes, Maybe it's a US thing, but that sounds horrible. When I was a teacher, we usually allowed notes and always gave them the differentiation formulas as well as every other formula they might need. Why are you guys getting them to memorize a bunch of specific facts that they'll forget after the…

I completely agree. By the way, I'm not convinced it's just a U.S. thing. I went to high-school in France for 1.5 years. I also have some exposure to Japanese high-school math. In both contexts, rot memorization of derivation techniques was at play.

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

#182

Post by toast0 »

egdod wrote: post #118
jedberg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but most test proctors make you clear the memory before the test. In fact, one of the programs my friends and I wrote was one that faked the memory clearing process. This worked because at the time the test proctors didn't really know how the calculator worked so our fake was good enough.

Ha, that’s pretty good. Back when I was in school a million years ago, nobody thought to make us clear the memory before exams. So people just got away with it, as far as I know.

You know. When I was in high school, some of the other students would ask History or English teachers if they could use their calculators on the test. The responses were usually "I don't know why you would want to, but fine with me."

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

#183

Post by echelon »

notJim wrote: post #79
echelon wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a better solution is to have the school purchase all of the calculators and give them to students at the time of the exam. This also would align with driving costs down since schools will not want to pay $100 per calculator for their student body.

So then you'd have to use a calculator you've never used before during a high stakes exam? Doesn't sound good to me.

If the calculators are cheap and standard, the tool is not much different from a pencil. If yours doesn't work you can ask for a replacement.

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

#184

Post by __sy__ »

iscrewyou wrote: post #116
agumonkey wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's true that computers can allow exploratory and multi...dimensional or multi-representations of math concepts in way that can be very very powerful to teach. That said pen and paper is the only thing you need when you think. The current context is mostly absurd because we give useless tools at absurd prices. Make a rpi like pocket calc with a CAS and RPL (hp forever) or even newer ideas like js/glsl canvas.

> That said pen and paper is the only thing you need when you think. Anecdata, I occasionally design with CAD software. Working on details, it's hard for me to draw up(think up) the first draft in CAD. Pen and paper is the only way to get the thing off the ground and running. Basic things require the most basic tools. What i'm trying to say is that you are correct.

Yeah to actually correct my initial comment, I think pen & paper are still very important & powerful. Nothing quite like deriving Euler's formula on blank pages to see the beauty in it :)

But pen & paper shouldn't be the only medium. That's more along of what I meant.

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

#185

Post by mixedmath »

__sy__ wrote: post #103

Former math TA* here. What if the pb isn't the $100 barebone calculator but the way/medium by which math is currently instructed in the U.S.? To this day, we're still teaching math with pen & paper, and require students to memorize concepts like how to differentiate functions of the form 1/x, x^2...etc. To test proficiency, well we give pen & paper tests and forbid most notes, but we still provide you a calculator be…

What are you using "pb" here to mean, in your sentence "What if the pb isn't ..."?

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

#186

Post by SamReidHughes »

lopmotr wrote: post #113
__sy__ wrote: post #103

Former math TA* here. What if the pb isn't the $100 barebone calculator but the way/medium by which math is currently instructed in the U.S.? To this day, we're still teaching math with pen & paper, and require students to memorize concepts like how to differentiate functions of the form 1/x, x^2...etc. To test proficiency, well we give pen & paper tests and forbid most notes, but we still provide you a calculator be…

> differentiate functions of the form 1/x, x^2...etc. To test proficiency, well we give pen & paper tests and forbid most notes, Maybe it's a US thing, but that sounds horrible. When I was a teacher, we usually allowed notes and always gave them the differentiation formulas as well as every other formula they might need. Why are you guys getting them to memorize a bunch of specific facts that they'll forget after the…

To be productive in math you do in fact need to be able to differentiate 1/x and x^2 without a table.

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

#187

Post by boomlinde »

sct202 wrote: post #33

How is there not a giant 2nd hand marketplace of TI graphing calculators for super cheap? Like after 30 years of basically producing a functionally identical product that few people need after college, there should be cheap used graphing calculators everywhere.

I picked up a TI-83 for 10 euros a couple of years ago. I understand that some courses require the newer model, though.

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

#188

Post by lr4444lr »

znpy wrote: post #92
pkaye wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes most of my engineering classes back in college allowed you to use a cheat-sheet. Cheat sheets are way faster than thumbing through a book or notes in a calculator. And most problems required you to show your work. Maybe you could cross-check your results and fix something. The funny thing is to an extent, the performance of the student seems to be inversely proportional to the density of the cheat-sheet. The wors…

> The funny thing is to an extent, the performance of the student seems to be inversely proportional to the density of the cheat-sheet. This brings back the memory of the circuit theory exam. You could bring a cheatsheet but it was mostly useless. The test had very simple numbers (1, -1, 2, 1/2, -i or things like that) because the professor didn't want to be bothered checking complex formulas and the difficulty was m…

You could use the Matrix operations common on standard graphing calculator to cheat through a first semester circuits course, and with a little basic programming make a command line prompt that any idiot could fill in to get the right answers. I don't know if most eng. students realize this at the time they take linear circuits, though.

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

#189

Post by steve_adams_86 »

tfolbrecht wrote: post #157

My question is how has the second hand market not killed it already?

I once helped a girlfriend move and while going through her stuff to organize it, found 3 different scientific calculators that all cost over $100 that she had no intention of keeping. She wasn't an idiot, she acquired them over years of post secondary education and has several degrees - I think people just don't give a damn about them once they're done with them. They disappear into drawers, then another is needed for another course, so they go get another. Then one day they move, realize they have 3, and promptly forget an hour later after stuffing them into an odds and ends box that'll sit in a closet for another 5 or 10 years.

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

#190

Post by OGWhales »

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".

I’ve only had one professor that cleared my memory, that and AP exams. But even then, I would archive my programs so that they wouldn’t get deleted during the memory clear.

I’ve never seen a professor that knew about archived programs.

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