No, but the buttons did. Buttons are so yesterday. And it’s a thing and not an app; things are so yesterday. Sure, the fact that it still performs its essential function would seem to make it not obsolete, but that’s not really the point is it?
Of course, I’m old enough to remember when having a calculator–any calculator–in math class was not allowed. I did get an HP-41C for physics class, and that was a wonderful thing (I have an emulator for it on my iPhone now).
Wow, are they actually proposing letting students use their personal cellphones on tests? There are multiple good reasons why that’s a dumbass idea, and some of them have no solutions that wouldn’t impinge on the students’ rights. The cost of the TI-83 is scandalous, but test-legal devices must be restricted in some ways.
I know, right? I recall a Congresscritter some years ago raising a stink because the command computers in the Space Shuttle were decades out of date. I remember thinking, those antique computers work. Every circuit and every line of code has been vetted. You want the Shuttle running, what, fucking Windows? Seven lives and several billion dollars lost to a random bluescreen?
YAY HP-15C! Got one in 1982 and I am still using it today.
Reverse Polish Notation. 'Nuff said.
Personally, I have no objection to the continued presence of the TI-83 Plus. None.
No one is forced at our high school, and students are allowed to use an app for classwork. But as mentioned up thread, phones are a no-no during tests. So students can check out a calculator or buy one that can last through college. California’s standardize tests are now online and I believe they have an integrated calculator (I could be wrong since I’m social science and English). However, only specific calculators are allowed during AP calc tests and they don’t have loaners.
I was shocked at the price when I had to buy this for my daughter, but I will say she’s used it in every class since the initial purchase.
My bigger issue with what is going on isn’t this purchase. It’s that the College Board has just become the de facto regulator of our schools in the past few years. The Common Core is for the lowest common denominator (I got a math joke in!) but the College Board is spelling out the entire curriculum for those on the college path.
And I’m sick of it. My daughter is taking so many AP tests that she could potentially test out of an entire year of college (not that it actually will save us any money; it’ll still take her the regular amount of time to graduate). Instead of taking high school classes in high school, she’s taking college classes.
Did I miss something? Are the high school teachers now college professors? I get maybe taking one or two to show you have the chops, but I thought the point of taking college material was to study with college professors. I don’t want her skipping the high school part of her schooling and jumping right to college.
But this is the game that the schools are playing. The more AP classes, the more prestigious your high school is.
Way back in the mid 80s when I as still a mechanical engineering major and taking thermodynamics the professor told us that this sophomore year class was a senior year just before graduation class for him. I shudder to think how much more kids have to cram in now.
oh, right. Yeah that is complete bullshit.
Calculators?!? Harrumph! Back in MY day we used our fingers to calculate. And if we ran out of fingers we’d use sticks. And if we ran out of sticks then we’d say “Screw it!” and go kill something for dinner.
We have been told to expect it will take her 5 years to graduate because that’s how it’s done these days. People with college students say its because the schools don’t make the classes they need to graduate available. I’m not sure these AP classes even do anything toward college graduation - just let you skip some boring Freshman classes.
That was true even when I was in college in the mid-late 1980s. You’d have courses required for your major which would only run one session every other year, and would sometimes be mysteriously cancelled just before term started. And heaven forbid one too many people drop out of your required course before the three week drop period was over because then you could find your class cancelled after you had already started it if the number of enrolled students wasn’t enough.
I teach college chemistry. We ban the use of graphing calculators on exams because of the ease of cheating with them and to make the playing field more even. I would prefer students use more advanced tools, but internet appliances are obviously problematic because them would make cheating so easy.
With the 5 vs 4 thing - a number of ostensibly 4 year institutions are using class availability to force students to come back for a 5th year. Portland State was notorious for it but recently pledged to make all courses available in 4 years, for some hypothetical future class of entering freshmen.
I completed my bachelors in 2 years for 12k at a self paced, non profit accredited online university. It can be done!
I’ve owned HP, Casio, Sharp, and TI graphing calculators. They are all great, they all suck.
Learning how to do math without a calculator is crucial to understanding how the math works in most cases and builds up a level of understanding that no amount of plugging digits into a calculator ever will. Learning to do math with a calculator is crucial to real world applications, checking solutions, and getting solutions quickly.
I think some tests should always be calculator-less to make sure you know the actual math, and others you should be able to use whatever tool you want.
There is so much concern about “cheating” to find the right answer…when really finding the right answer is the important skill and alternative means of finding the answer are just as useful so long as you know the actual math. By “cheating” they mean you got the correct solution by a means they didn’t intend, which is a pretty useful skill in life, imho.
Oh god so much this and I am guy who can’t reliably add 1 and 1 in my head but that is arithmetic not math and that is what a calculator is for.
Personally, I have no objection to the continued presence of the slide rule. None.
Abacus or GTFO.
I could never be mad at this calculator. We spent half our maths classes playing Tetris because of it.
10 years, so $250
