[Edu-sig] graphical calculator

[Christian Mascher]

Hi,

>>
>> Unfortunately, I'd love to do the same in AP Calculus but Graphing
>> Calculators are required on that AP exam. The students need to use the
>> Graphing Calculator all year to be proficient enough by May.

in my state of Germany the graphical calculator ist just being adopted 
as mandatory in high-school math (last three years).

As much as I like Python, I understand the administration's point that 
PCs/tablets are not an option, because they can't be used in exams (too 
much risk of cheating with WIFI, other installed programs ...).

Schools can choose to use a CAS, but then they get entirely different 
graduation exam questions. Even then, it is most likely they have to use 
CAS-calculators (quite expensive but bought by the students) because 
otherwise the schools would have to keep a whole set of tablets ready 
for the exams and guarantee that only the CAS-program can be used during 
the tests.

My experience with Python certainly helped me to get my head round the 
way _simple_ graphical calculators work with lists quickly. OTOH the 
average math classes here have just 135 min a week and must cover 
calculus, vectors, matrices (to a certain degree) and statistics. Not 
much time to use different tools. Perhaps even not enough time to learn 
to use the more complicated calculators proficiently along the way. So I 
always look for tools which are as simple to use as Python. That might 
rather be the more simpler graphical calculator (versus the high-end 
type which can do so much more but requires months of tool-training).

Just my 2c

Christian
  So, adding
> SAGE/python to the mix there would not be helpful. If only the
> CollegeBoard would allow PC/Tablet based calculators/programming
> languages/CASs, I'd be all over it!


In fact, I just started a
> DonorsChoose project to at least replace my Graphing Calculators
> (TI-83/TI-89) with something more modern (TI Nspire CX CAS):
> http://www.donorschoose.org/calcpage2010?active=true
>
> Sincerely,
> A. Jorge Garcia
> Applied Math, Physics & CS
> http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com
> http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009
> 2013 NYS Secondary Math http://PAEMST.org Nominee
>
>
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