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Re: Graphing by Hand

Raymond A. Rogoway wrote:


Question: Is there any value in teaching graphing by hand anymore?
I did it up to last year but things went so much faster and easier this
year when we went directly to computer graphing.

Dave Simmons responded:

I always begin with at least one graph by hand lab. We are doing uniform
acceleration this week with the tape timer. I tried it with the CBL and it
worked great--fast too. But, based upon what we've done in class and what
I've seen on homework, I think they need to do some hand work.

My students look at a graph on their calculators and too often forget about
units. For example in an introductory lab using the CBL on d-t graphs the
students were surprised that graphs for fast and slow motions were
identical. (Actually the brighter ones were surprised, the rest just missed
the point altogether.) The program does a zoom-fit for every set of data and
thus the scale changes every time. Bottom line is they really did not
understand what they were seeing.


We just did our first "formal" graphing exercise in lab yesterday. The
number of students who were absolutely clueless about how to place data on
a graph was so large (>50% - and these are College students) that I believe
abandoning the exercise would be a mistake.

They need to know what the graphs are before they learn a set of keystrokes
which make the graphs for them. IMHO.

BTW - we do move quickly to computer-generated graphs, but insist that they
interpret the graphs rather than simply print them and say "gee, that's
pretty!"
George Spagna **********************************************
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Ashland, VA 23005-5505 * ^ *
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phone: (804) 752-7344 * Universe before Big Bang *
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e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu **********************************************
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