Wednesday, August 20, 2008

New Skills

I was at a math workshop today, and from a participant I learned a great calculator skill that left me saying, "where have you been all my TI-83/4/silver edition/titanium life?".

Suppose you're graphing, and suppose you simultaneously want to see the graph and the table screens. Well: mode > G-T, and poof, when you hit graph, voila, split screen. Then you can toggle between the 2 parts by hitting the "table" or "graph" button, and then you can do whatever you want on that part of the screen.

Also, you can split the screen horizontally (mode > horiz ...) and then you can show the graph and either the main window or the lists or a table, etc.

Ooh, aah.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:48 AM

    I never knew this either! And I've been using a graphing calculator since 8th grade!

    Thanks...now I've learned something for the day!

    -MathTeacher44

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  2. Anonymous11:14 AM

    Pulled out my calculator to try it. Oooh, ahhh. And why didn't we know this before?

    Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Anonymous5:37 PM

    I concur -- oooooh ahhhh! I can't believe that I never knew that. I'm almost inspired to pull out the TI83 manual and see what other gems are there.

    I know that on my TI-85 I had a lot of functionality that I have no idea how to do on the 83... Like modular arithmetic, using the solver capability, and a polynomial solver (e.g. enter the coefficients of a 6th degree polynomial, and it will solve it for you).

    Okay, I'm officially inspired! GEE WIZ!

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  4. Anonymous8:25 PM

    Whew! I'm not the only one that was left out of the loop. Oh well, I guess when we're "ready" for the learning, it will come ... or something like that.

    Ms. Cookie

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  5. Anonymous5:17 AM

    The casio classpad is the algebraic calculator with graphical capabilities that I use - it works well in a similar mode (equation / graph splitscreen). You can even link one to the other, so any changes you make to one effect both. How good are the T-I machines?

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  6. Anonymous8:49 PM

    The TI calculators are great, but I guess it's what you're used to. Every school I've taught in, uses TI, so that's what I'm familiar with.

    Ms. Cookie

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  7. Anonymous3:51 AM

    Guess so. I'm getting a lot out of reading your blog, despite being a reasonably experienced teacher. Thanks! I'm from New Zealand, by the way.

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  8. Anonymous9:15 PM

    Super Cool. Are y'all on break right now in NZ.... no, I guess you'd be in the middle of your school year.

    Ms. Cookie

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  9. Anonymous2:35 AM

    NZ nearing the end of school, Ms Cookie. Oldest students have six weeks - two this term, four next - of school left, then exams. Younger ones have five more after that.

    But I make time to read your blog whether I'm working or not!

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  10. Anonymous2:49 PM

    Wow! TRACE in this mode is way cool, too. The table moves along with the point on the graph!

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