5 ms·

As a reformed math major (that is, I've forgotten all my schooling), I think its worth debating whether or not there is even any value in having middle school /

by melq 7y ago

As a reformed math major (that is, I've forgotten all my schooling), I think its worth debating whether or not there is even any value in having middle school / high school students use these calculators in the first place, let alone requiring them. In my hastily formed opinion, I think students might be better off learning without them. What does the average 7th grader need a CAS for?

vkou 7y ago
Nothing. There's not a single operation that you learn between grades 7 and 12 that requires anything more than a scientific, non-graphic calculator to perform.
- Avamander 7y ago
  Indeed, however a non-graphing calculator and a non-graphing calculator have differences, I personally would not want to live without calculation history and enter-calculation-then-calculate system (instead of the one where every symbol you press instantly applies it to the number you have on screen, I have no clue how these two are officially called). Point being that we'd end up with a certain list of allowed calculators even if they're not graphing because they're simply not the same and some are much faster and nicer to use.
  - afiori 7y ago
    A friend of mine had a old reverse polish notation calculator at home. I would like a resurgence of them :)
- RandallBrown 7y ago
  You don't think graphing equations is an important function for any math done by kids in grades 7-12?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - triceratops 7y ago
    Isn't that what graph paper is for?
  - vkou 7y ago
    I think that knowing how to graph y = x^2 + x is a far more important skill than knowing how to punch it into a graphing calculator. "Oh, it's a parabola... Plus a slanted line. It's going to look like a parabola for large, and small values of x, but it's going to have an odd behaviour around the origin, where x^2 ~=~ |x|. If I compute the approximate values of y, when x = -3, -2, -1, -0.75, -0.5, -0.25, 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2 and 3, it's going to give me a great approximation of what the graph looks like." Those values are, to a rough approximation, 6, 2, 0, -0.2, -0.25, -0.2, 0, 0.3, 0.75, 1.3, 2, 6, and 12. Given that 'connect the dots' is part of the kindergarten curriculum, I don't think that connecting those data points should be that much of a challenge for the average grade 8 student. Now, compare that to the 'skillset' of plugging the formula into a TI-83...
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      > Oh, it's a parabola... Plus a slanted line. > If I compute the approximate values of y, when x = -3, -2, -1, -0.75, -0.5, -0.25, 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2 and 3, it's going to give me a great approximation of what the graph looks like. FWIW, this was almost completely useless to me in visualizing the parabola. If I was doing this by hand, it's easy to find the roots and glance at the leading coefficient to figure out what it'll look like.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

by melq 7y ago

vkou 7y ago

Nothing. There's not a single operation that you learn between grades 7 and 12 that requires anything more than a scientific, non-graphic calculator to perform.

Avamander 7y ago
Indeed, however a non-graphing calculator and a non-graphing calculator have differences, I personally would not want to live without calculation history and enter-calculation-then-calculate system (instead of the one where every symbol you press instantly applies it to the number you have on screen, I have no clue how these two are officially called). Point being that we'd end up with a certain list of allowed calculators even if they're not graphing because they're simply not the same and some are much faster and nicer to use.
- afiori 7y ago
  A friend of mine had a old reverse polish notation calculator at home. I would like a resurgence of them :)
RandallBrown 7y ago
You don't think graphing equations is an important function for any math done by kids in grades 7-12?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- triceratops 7y ago
  Isn't that what graph paper is for?
- vkou 7y ago
  I think that knowing how to graph y = x^2 + x is a far more important skill than knowing how to punch it into a graphing calculator. "Oh, it's a parabola... Plus a slanted line. It's going to look like a parabola for large, and small values of x, but it's going to have an odd behaviour around the origin, where x^2 ~=~ |x|. If I compute the approximate values of y, when x = -3, -2, -1, -0.75, -0.5, -0.25, 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2 and 3, it's going to give me a great approximation of what the graph looks like." Those values are, to a rough approximation, 6, 2, 0, -0.2, -0.25, -0.2, 0, 0.3, 0.75, 1.3, 2, 6, and 12. Given that 'connect the dots' is part of the kindergarten curriculum, I don't think that connecting those data points should be that much of a challenge for the average grade 8 student. Now, compare that to the 'skillset' of plugging the formula into a TI-83...
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    > Oh, it's a parabola... Plus a slanted line. > If I compute the approximate values of y, when x = -3, -2, -1, -0.75, -0.5, -0.25, 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2 and 3, it's going to give me a great approximation of what the graph looks like. FWIW, this was almost completely useless to me in visualizing the parabola. If I was doing this by hand, it's easy to find the roots and glance at the leading coefficient to figure out what it'll look like.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]