Tasks | Early Adolescence | Playing with a Graphic Calculator

Tasks - Years 10, 11 & 12

Playing with a Graphic Calculator   by Alan Sadler, Rossmoyne Senior High School

Phase of Development:   Early Adolescence - Late Adolescence

Learning Area/s:	Mathematics
Strand/s	Substrand/s
Algebra	Understand Graphs Represent Variation
Brief Description:	To encourage familiarity with terminology.
Expected Outcomes:	Dependent upon student group: Readily identifies algebraic form or structure in mathematical situations, recognising particular situations as instances of more general ones, and moving smoothly between the general case and specific instances. Plots, sketches and interprets graphs in four quadrants considering local and global features including maxima and minima and cyclic changes.
Context:	Year 10, Introductory Calculus. Simply passing around a calculator as powerful as the TI-92 in class and allowing students to play with it has certainly created quite a buzz with classes I have done it with.
Learning Activities/ Experience:	Take the TI-92, or something with similar capacity into the classroom and allow it to be passed around and played with. I am thinking here of Year 11 Introductory Calculus classes and top pathway Year 10's. Possible focus questions that could be posed: Under the algebra menu, what does expand do? Give some examples. What does factor do? For Introductory Calculus: Use the calculator to differentiate x2 x + 3 x = 4
Resources:	Graphics Calculators