Re: TI-89 virtue email needed
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Re: TI-89 virtue email needed
> The interesting thing is to watch the progression. I imagine that
> twenty years ago (or whatever) teacher got upset that calculators
> automated square roots. Now nobody cares, but they complain that
> calculators automate integrals. In twenty more years, no one will care
> about that, but there will be something new that the calculators can do
> that the teachers will be upset by. The abacus was replaced by the
> slide rule was replaced by the four function calculator was replaced by
> the graphing scientific calculator was replaced by...
An interesting topic this one! Here is my views on a thorny subject.
Its true that working out the square root by hand and doing it on
paper is a lot slower than using a calculator, unless they are easy
ones you know from memory. This allows less time to be spent on the
problem at hand, and more time to be spent in learning more advanced
topics. This can be applied to many areas in the sciences.
There is another side to this though, it may not be quite appropriate
to this discussion, but here goes.
I have just finished a book on the life of Richard Feynman, a
brilliant theoretical and practical physicist of the 20th century. He
had a major input in many fields from the first atomic bomb and
quantum physics to even biology. What was evident throughout his work
was the ability to work from first principles if needed. Many examples
exist where he was able to solve a problem that others could not by
being able to tackle it from a different perspective or find small or
large errors in his or others work purely from knowing the first
principles involved. It also allowed him to include or disregard
parameters because of an intimate knowledge of the subject, along with
an arsnel of short cuts and tricks to help in solving a problem.
Just think of the time that would be wasted if people in the future
could not work out 10 * 11 in their head but had to resort to a
calculator every time, an extreame case I grant you.
Maybe the solution lies in showing the student an example of doing
square roots and the such like by hand then from there using the
calculator in the main. If they then show an interest in the "old"
principles and methods it gives them a start point to expand thier
knowledge!
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