Observations focusing on classroom discourse, uses of graphing calculators, nature of instructional tasks, and instructor-questioning patterns in a high school algebra course found that the teacher modified his teaching strategies and curriculum to accommodate the teaching strategies and topics that arose from the use of the graphing calculator.…

Presents five lessons to demonstrate how graphing calculators can be used to teach the slope-intercept concept of linear equations and to establish more general principles about two-dimensional graphs. Contains a reproducible student quiz. (MKR)

Presents algebraic and geometric solutions with surprising twists to a word problem involving linear functions and postal rates. (MKR)

Presents a series of simple activities involving generalized two-dimensional motion topics to prepare students to study projectile motion. Uses a pair of motion detectors, each connected to a calculator-based-laboratory (CBL) unit interfaced with a standard graphics calculator, to explore two-dimensional motion. (JRH)

Presents four examples of physics problems that can be solved with a graphing calculator. Problems included deal with motion, harmonic oscillations, sound waves, and blackbody radiation. (JRH)

Discussed are the rationale for, and the benefits accrued from, the use of graphing calculators within all aspects of the secondary mathematics curriculum. Examples are included that highlight specific features of graphing calculators. (JJK)

This paper merges state-of-the-art calculator technology with examples drawn from the Harvard Consortium Calculus Curriculum. A brief rationale for selection of the Harvard project and the TI-85 is provided, and four different mathematical situations are examined using different capabilities of the TI-85. Two short TI-85 programs are given.…

Presents examples of students' work when they are engaged in problem solving and reasoning tasks as they determine how to fill bottles with water to create musical notes by blowing across the tops of the bottles, and as they create mathematical models that represent these notes. (ASK)

Because fractal images are by nature very complex, it can be inspiring and instructive to create the code in the classroom and watch the fractal image evolve as the user slowly changes some important parameter or zooms in and out of the image. Uses programming language that permits the user to store and retrieve a graphics image as a disk file.…

This article describes TI-73 calculator activities appropriate for middle school students. It was found that the use of the calculator allowed for higher-level thinking and a richer exploration of mathematical ideas by students. [Included with this article are "Dice Roll Worksheet" and "Transforming Tree Worksheet".] (Contains 9 figures.)

In this article, we will describe the results of a study of 6th grade students learning about the mathematics of change. The students in this study worked with software environments for the computer and the graphing calculator that included a simulation of a moving elevator, linked to a graph of its velocity vs. time. We will describe how the…

The article discusses the ways that less successful mathematics students used graphing software with capabilities similar to a basic graphing calculator to solve algebra problems in context. The study is based on interviewing students who learned algebra for 3 years in an environment where software tools were always present. We found differences…

The paper concerns the analysis of the role of artefacts and instruments in approaching calculus by graphic-symbolic calculator at high school level. We focus on an element of the introduction of calculus: the global/local game. We discus the hypothesis that the zoom-controls of calculator support the production of gestures and metaphors that…

We present in this paper five case studies of instrumental genesis of number-theoretic concepts and techniques involving multiples, divisors, and numerical decomposition. The pupils, who were 12 to 15 years old, used the multi-line screen display of the graphing calculator to explore numerical tasks related to the "Five steps to zero"…

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…