Re: TI-89 virtue email needed
[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: TI-89 virtue email needed
Should the TI-89 or TI-92+ be used in mathematics classes?
About 20 years ago I was teaching a pre-calculus course to high school seniors.
One of my students, the second smartest person I ever met on this planet,
stopped
me between classes. He said to me something like the following: "That
method for solving exponential equations you showed us today I will never,
and I mean NEVER EVER use. If you have a moment I will show you how you a
better way." He did show me a better way and I told him I will never and I
mean NEVER EVER use that old method again either. That old method involved
working with the characteristic and the mantissa of logarithms. His method
used a calculator. This new method with its' speed, accuracy, and pure
elegance compared to the slowness, the yielding of only four or five
digits, and quite frankly uninspiring older method gave no doubt to me
that things were a changing for the better. He told me that if I wished he
would do the old method for any test or quiz I choose to give. But come a
day when he needed to solve exponential equations out in an applied area he
would use his calculator not my old method.
Going back even further. About 40 years ago when was in 7th grade I was
taught to compute square roots by a method that looked kind of like a
protracted long division problem. I believe it was called Hohner's Method.
I learned it well enough to do the problems on the tests that year but when
it came to 8th grade I forgot it and I had to relearn it. Over the next
summer I forgot it and sure enough in 9th grade we got it again in class. I
relearned again and forgot it again. In 10th grade we didn't have it but in
11th grade we did. I had to relearn it again and forgot it again. My dad
had some math books that had better methods. One method was the "divide and
average" method the other was using a slide rule. I learned those methods
and I haven't forgotten those either.
So what does this have to do with using TI-89 or TI-92+ calculators? The
Key Number method for factoring polynomials, completing the square for
solving quadratic equations, and synthetic division tableaus in polynomial
theory are these the Hohner and characteristic and mantissa methods of
tomorrow? Many of the things we math teachers make you students do will be
a waste of time in light of what can be done with a TI-89 or TI-92+
calculator today. In all fairness to the past, present, and future math
teachers how are they to know what will be important for the future and
what will not be. Personally I don't care if a student uses a calculator or
not or which calculator he/she chooses to use in any of my math classes. If
speed and accuracy are important then by all means use a calculator, the
best calculator you can afford. Today that would be a TI-89 or TI-92+. Why
settle for any thing less?
If I were a student and the teacher would not allow me to use my TI-89 or
TI-92+ in math class I would look for a new teacher. If that's not possible
I guess I would learn his/her methods for the tests and forget them later
and learn the calculator methods for myself and remember them. Does using
one of these calculators give you an advantage over someone who does not? I
think so. That's why I use them. I make alot fewer mistakes when doing work
with them than without them.
Good Luck
Gary Wardall
UWGB Mathematics Dept.
Green Bay, WI
>At 10:07 AM 09/01/98 -0500, GARY WARDALL wrote:
>>From an old mathematics teachers point of view the TI-89 will lead the way
>>how mathematics will be taught/learned in the future.
>
>Would you (or any other mathematics teacher/professor) be willing to write
>a comprehensive e-mail to my AP Calculus teacher extolling the virtues of
>the 89? Despite all of my reasoning she still refuses to allow it even on
>classwork as she says it is "too powerful". Me and a few other students
>have 89's (and/or 92(+/II)'s) and were quite disappointed when we brought
>our 'great new calculator' to school just to find that it was totally
>useless to us (except for the 92's which most of us type class notes on in
>other subjects, but thats beside the point). I sincerely hope that she
>will regard the opinion of another learned mathematics educator more highly
>than she does ours.
>
>--
>Bill Risher Sparr UIN:1952775 ._, . . .
>Lorenai #44 Makra FON:9316484164 |_) o | |
>Overlord n7hq Decius |_) | | |
>mailto://billr1@midsouth.net FAX:9315526807 ^ ` ^ ^ ^
Follow-Ups: