In a classroom environment in which continual access to graphing calculators is assumed, items that have been used to assess students' understanding of functions often are no longer appropriate. Describes strategies for modifying such items including requiring students to explain their reasoning, using calculator-active items, analyzing graphs and…

Describes an activity in which students are given a set of designs and are required to use their electronic grapher to reproduce the designs. The activity reinforces students' understanding of lines and of the formula for a linear function. (MKR)

Focuses on three activities using the TI-92 graphing calculator that examine the relationship between the intensity of a light source and its distance from a measurement point, properties of a sound wave, and the relationship between the time elapsed and the temperature of a cooling substance. (ASK)

This paper presents two mathematics activities that model functions studied using the Calculator Based Ranger (CBR) software for TI-82 and TI-83 graphing calculators. The activities concern a bouncing ball experiment and modeling a decaying exponential function. (ASK)

Extends O'Callaghan's computer-intensive algebra study by using his component competencies and the process-object framework to investigate the effects of a graphing-approach curriculum employing the TI-82 graphing calculator. Concludes that students in the graphing-approach classes demonstrated significantly better understanding of functions on…

Illustrates how to connect mathematics to real-world problems. Describes the calculator-based laboratory system which collects data from the real world and transfers it to graphing calculators. Presents an activity that emphasizes elliptic integrals. (ASK)

A proposal for teaching how to graph functions is presented on the basis of the teaching theory of didactical situations implemented by the French author Guy Brousseau. The proposal is aimed at students in 12th grade in high school (USA) or in a freshman calculus course. The TI-92 graphic calculator was used as a teaching aid. (Author/ASK)

Presents an activity that utilizes a digital camera to capture a stream of water from a faucet to study quadratic behavior using graphing calculators. (ASK)

Presents an experiment to design a precalculus topic that would help prepare students for limits in differential calculus. Emphasizes the topic to enhance the interpretation of graphs and to be applicable in both technology-based and traditional precalculus courses. Uses graphing calculators to help students observe the results of their…

This book contains an interactive calculator and worksheet program designed to teach the graphing of some of the functions that appear in high school mathematics courses. The graphs of linear, exponential, and logarithmic functions are explored as well as other functions. Activities focus on the graph that appears as a standard part of algebra…

Describes approaches taken with concepts associated with exponential functions by using graphing calculators to provide students with concrete meaning for the sometimes abstract concepts involved and to link students' learning with their existing knowledge. (ASK)

This paper documents how eight high school students in a precalculus class enhanced with graphing calculators think about functions. Three models of thinking about functions emerged from students' function images observed over a period of 9 months. In the graph model, students believed that functions are essentially graphs; in the equation model,…

This yearbook focuses on the role of technology in school mathematics. Chapters are replete with classroom-tested ideas for using technology to teach new mathematical ideas and to teach familiar mathematical ideas better. Chapters included: (1) "Using the Graphing Calculator in the Classroom: Helping Students Solve the "Unsolvable" (Eric Milou,…

This paper has two goals. The first is to present a model of the acquisition of a concept image of function. Theories describing the objectification of function are outlined through two different but related paths, and both stem from the conception of function as a process. The first path to objectification involves the generalization of the…

The concept of function is central in mathematics and grows in importance as one progresses in depth and breadth of understanding mathematics. Results from national assessment progress reports indicate that the majority of students do not comprehend the concepts of function and graphing. Technology has the potential to improve the understanding of…