T^3 Worldwide - Teachers Teaching with Technology
Home > Educational Resources
Applications in the Classroom
The graphing calculator has changed and is still changing the way of teaching mathematics all over the world. For students, the TI-84 Plus is not only a tool to check their results but also a very useful assistant to help them approach a problem from different points of view: a numerical, graphical, statistical and/or geometrical approach. More than ever it makes it possible for students to investigate, to explore and to discover mathematical properties. Different approaches to a problem will improve the students’ insight into the material, resulting in an increase of the students’ motivation and commitment.

Graphing Calculator Software Applications (APPS) are pieces of software that can be downloaded onto the TI-83/84 Plus (Silver Edition) as you would add software to a computer to enhance its capabilities. APPS do not only allow you to customize your calculator to meet your class needs, but also to upgrade it from one year to the next. The use of APPS increases the self activity of the students, makes the visualization of problems easier and creates a useful integration of technology during problem solving.

APPS offer new teaching and learning tools, not only for math but also for science, economics, and many other subject areas. Combining the TI-84 Plus family with the Vernier Easy products transforms them into data loggers. Just connect the Easy products to the USB port and the data logging starts automatically.

With this work T3 Europe presents educational examples to show the benefits of integrating APPS in math (and science) education.

Table of Contents

Authors:

Serge Etienne
Koen Stulens
Hildegard Urban
Martin van Reeuwijk
Serge Etienne has been a math teacher since 1978. He publishes many articles in several fields: mathematics, electronics, computer science and pocket calculators. Since 1990 he has taught classes related to computer science. He gives adult education classes in computer science for the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CRA-CNAM) (National French Engineering School). At the end of 1990s he got involved in the design and realization of the JADE software for evaluation of the French Education Department (France). After having taken care of teachers' day release courses for a few years, he now teaches mathematics at FESCH middle school in Ajaccio. Personal website: perso.wanadoo.fr/serge-etienne.
 

Top of Page
Koen Stulens is an educational consultant for Texas Instruments, a T3 instructor in Flanders, Belgium and connected to the Math department of the Hasselt University (Belgium). He is co-author of the books Statistics with a Graphical Calculator and Discover Mathematics with Derive. He has also developed quite a lot of material (Dutch) for doing mathematics with technology for secondary education available via the websites www.scholennetwerk.be and www.t3vlaanderen.be.
 

Top of Page
Hildegard Urban-Woldron has a Ph.D. in Physics/Mathematics from Vienna University, a Diploma from Donau University Krems and an ECHA Diploma from the University of Nijmegen. She teaches Physics and Mathematics in High School classes teaches Physics to future middle school teachers. Additionally, she also lectures in teacher education programs and participates in a Ministry of Education project group for basic education output, education standards and learning and teaching with new media and technology. Her special interests are teaching and learning with new media, didactics of media and physics and special classes for gifted students.
 

Top of Page
Martin van Reeuwijk has been an educational developer and researcher in the field of mathematics at the Freudenthal Institute in The Netherlands for over fifteen years. In the 1990s, he coordinated (together with Els Feijs) the development of the Mathematics in Context middle school mathematics curriculum for American students. Since then he has been involved in projects and contacts in the United States and other countries throughout the world. Martin's major interests are (early) school algebra, assessment, and the use of technology in the learning and teaching of mathematics. He directed various projects in which the possibilities of the Internet (like e.g. java applets) were explored, investigated and developed. Since the early nineties Martin has contributed as an editor to the Dutch TI newsletter, and, together with Monica Wijers, he reviews all the Dutch translations of manuals with educational products from TI.
 

Top of Page