Re: TI-89 and AP Test


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Re: TI-89 and AP Test



Mike McCarty <jmccarty@sun1307.spd.dsccc.com> wrote in message
776cav$7da$1@relay1.dsccc.com">news:776cav$7da$1@relay1.dsccc.com...
>When I taught Statistics at the University of Texas at Dallas back in
>the mid to late 70s, I permitted the use of calculators on tests. In
>fact, I told the students that they would *need* one for the final. I
>told them that all work must be shown. That short circuited those who
>had calculators which would do linear regression etc, because they
>would have no work to show. But in any case, the tests were designed to
>test student's mastery of Statistics, not computation. When I taught
>Calculus, I did not even have to prohibit calculators. The tests were
>such that a calculator would not have been a help, and the students
>didn't even try to use them. Answers were expected to be *correct*. If
>I asked a question which resulted in the answer sqrt(2), first I would
>not accept 1.414 (incorrect answer), and second, a calculator wouldn't
>help anyway, since only at the *end* would it show that the result was
>sqrt(2), and who would ever punch that up on a calculator to find out
>its numerical value for a *calculus* test? It would just be *extra*
>effort (engineers always complain that mathematicians hide behind an
>integral sign and call it a solution; *they* want numbers!). The hard
>part was deciding whether to integrate or differentiate, performing the
>operation, and then doing some trig or algebraic manipulations to get
>solutions.
>
>That said, however, I must also point out that calculators these days
>are getting to where they can perform algebraic, trig, and even some
>calculus operations. These I would forbid in a calculus class.

    You would forbid trig functions?  I do think, however, that, since the
TI-89
can do symbolic integration, it shouldn't be allowed on the AP test since the
test is about whether you understand how to integrate and differentiate
functions.

--
--Daniel Giaimo
Remove nospam. from my address to e-mail me. | dgiaimo@(nospam.)ix.netcom.com
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