zlacker

You don't need a graphic calculator for high school. Hundreds of millions of kids in China and India graduate without one and do just fine. Differential calculus is now 400+ years old and generations of humans have done fine without a graphing calculator.

>>shriph+(OP)
It really does help though. As an understandability tool it is invaluable and can enable students to explore and gain intuitive understanding of concepts much faster.

>>shriph+(OP)
Yes, but the tests effectively require them. For AP Calc there are what I called the "definite integral button" questions where you just have to identify that an integral is needed and plug in to your calculator, if you did it by hand you would take more than the intended time for that problem and get behind. Same for AP Stats, there wouldn't be time to run all the averages and deviations by hand. It's testing whether you know how to use the tool/what to tell your calculator to do. There's a calc inactive section on Calc that is basically what you are saying, but without the calc active section the scores would probably go way down.

>>morphe+Y1
My experience with AP Stats was that it was more like "AP Calculator" because a good 80% of the test was about entering numbers into my TI84's lists and then picking the right stats functions to run. My textbook had more calculator tutorial than theory.

>>shriph+(OP)
> You don't need a graphic calculator for high school.

Well, you need one if the instructor makes it a requirement, which my kid's high school does. They're actually tested on linear regression, but they don't know how to compute sum of least squares: they know how to type a list into their calculator and run the least squares function. It's on the exam, and if they don't have the TI graphing calculator with that exact function programmed into it, they fail the test.

>>comman+p7
Insane. What on earth is even going on in these school districts? Why don't they just ask TI to set the math curriculum next?

>>shriph+(OP)
Go you, speaking truth to power!

Or, you know, not. It's a settled thing, and has been for a long time.

I'm too old to have been part of the TI cohort, but I had one of the early graphing calculators in high school (1987 or so), from Casio, and let me tell you having the ability to quickly graph a function is actually SUPER USEFUL, especially in an experimental/learning environment.

So maybe stop whining that "millions of kids" elsewhere or in the past didn't have one, because it's completely irrelevant.

>>eat_ve+03
I mean, that's a pretty accurate description of Statistics as a field.

>>comman+p7
What! They use a machine learning technique without understanding how it works, just type the numbers in and trust the answer and get rewarded ... sounds like it is preparing them for the real world!

>>morphe+Y1
Even some of the cheaper Casios (non graphing) will let you calculate indefinite integrals and stats:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FX-991EX-Advanced-Scientific-Calcul... (£20)

Pretty sure most of my physics degree class used an FX-83.

>>comman+p7
Isn't it your duty as a parent and citizen to push back against that nonsense?

I'd LOVE for your kid's 0 test score to go viral on social media and get kilobucks of revenue from the 15 minutes of fame to pay for college.

>>shriph+a8
School should just replace the final exam with one question: What is the confirmation code on the receipt from your $100 TI Education Verification?

>>excali+x8
For statistics, that's okay, though. The whole point of statistics is doing stuff with 20, 50, 100 or more item datasets and trying to make sense of them.

For calculus, that's not so good. To have any intuition about calculus you need to be really proficient at algebra and graphing--by hand.

When you apply calculus in engineering and physics, sure, use the calculator. But when it's just calc, it really needs to be structured to be able to be done by hand.

>>gowld+Ui
How does that help anyone other than the parent and the social media networks?

>>joshvm+fe
I have yet to find a scientific calculator that can solve indefinite integrals; I don’t think the one you posted does. Even my personal favorite, the fx-115 ES PLUS doesn’t because that would usually require a full CAS, which most calculators stop at.

>>saagar+8u
Some HP calculators do (at least above the 49G, I am not sure about the 48). The HP prime is based on Giac/Xcas.