This article discusses the impact of a year long professional development on high school mathematics teachers' concerns regarding the implementation of graphing calculators in their classrooms. Teachers' concerns were assessed at the beginning and end of the yearlong professional development using the Concerns Based Adoption Model Stages of…

The most recent amendments to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; 2004) and the regulations of the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) emphasize teaching general education curriculum to students with disabilities whenever possible. As a result, the majority of students with mild disabilities are educated in the general classroom,…

Reviews tasks and techniques to help students develop an appropriate instrumental genesis for algebra and functions to prepare for calculus. Focuses on the potential of the calculator to connect enactive representations and theoretical calculus. Discusses strategies to help students experiment with symbolic concepts in calculus. (Contains 32…

Introducing any new initiative into teaching involves professional development and training. This paper investigates the reactions of three teachers to the introduction of graphics calculators into their department. Each teacher was followed through one academic year. They were interviewed formally on two occasions and also met informally with the…

Many popular mathematical software products including Maple, Mathematica, Derive, Mathcad, Matlab, and some of the TI calculators produce incorrect graphs because they use complex arithmetic instead of "real" arithmetic. This article expounds on this issue, provides possible remedies for instructors to share with their students, and demonstrates…

Building physical models relative to a concept can be an important activity to help students develop and manipulate abstract ideas and mental models that often prove difficult to grasp. One such concept is "time". A method for helping students understand the cyclical nature of time involves the construction of a Time Zone Calculator through a…

The velocity of sound in a gas depends on its temperature, molar mass, and [lambda] = C[subscript p]/C[subscript v], ratio (heat capacity at a constant pressure to heat capacity at constant volume). The [lambda] values for air, oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and carbon dioxide were determined by measuring the velocity of the sound through the gases at…

Discusses the use of calculators as a way of helping people to develop basic math skills. Suggests using calculators to check answers, to perform calculations rather than working them out on paper, and as a tool to accelerate learning. (JOW)

Little is known about how best to teach mathematics to students with learning disabilities. This study explored the performance and self-reported calculator use of 13 sixth-grade and 15 seventh-grade students with learning disabilities educated in either standards-based or traditional mathematics curricula on multiple-choice and open-ended…

This paper reports on a study of 22 preservice teachers enrolled in a first-semester mathematics teaching methods course. Course activities included participation in two separate field experiences in neighboring school districts. The methods class placed considerable emphasis on the use of advanced digital technologies in the teaching and learning…

Covers a project conducted by the Freudenthal Institute in which observation of student behavior supported the premise that the graphics calculator can stimulate the use of realistic contexts, the exploratory approach to mathematics, a more integrated view of mathematics, and more flexible behavior in problem solving. (AIM)

This paper provides an instrumental account of precalculus students' graphical process for solving polynomial inequalities. It is carried out in terms of the students' instrumental schemes as mediated by handheld graphing calculators and in cooperation with their classmates in a classroom setting. The ethnographic narrative relays an instrumental…

An eighth grade algebra class used graphing calculators to simulate ecosystems. One simulation introduced mathematical chaos. The activities exposed the students to nonlinear patterns and modeling. The rate-of-change investigations related the ideas of intercept and slope to the changing equilibrium. The chaotic model intrigued them and was useful…

This article offers an engaging application that adds meaning to the binomial theorem. (Contains 8 figures.)

This paper extends the discussion of the critical line approach using three risky stocks as described in Haugen's Modern Investment Theory, 4th edition. A dynamic presentation of the concepts involved in finding the efficient set, using two EXCEL spreadsheets and an HP-12C hand-held calculator, is provided. This dynamic presentation will enable…