[Phys-L] Re: Calculators a Distraction?

[Herbert H Gottlieb <herbgottlieb@JUNO.COM>]

You should be very happy that your students are using calculators
to  do their problems. They will be using calculators and computers
later in college and for the rest of their lives thereafter.

The earlier they learn to use calculators and computers,
the better prepared they will be to compete in the
calculator-computer society of their future.

However, it is always a good idea to train them to check
their final calculations using rounded off approximations
in their head to see if their calculator answers are in the
right ball park ... and make sense.

Herb

On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 16:38:28 -0800 Dan Folmar <djfolmar@YAHOO.COM>
writes:
> I'm a fairly new teacher; and I'm currently teaching Applied,
> General, Honors, and AP physics at the high school level.  One thing
> I've observed regarding students' performance on tests is that they
> rely too much (or at least more than I would like) on their
> calculators.  Lower level students will punch some numbers in, hit
> enter, and write down any answer that looks reasonable.  Higher
> level students (particularly, AP students) can avoid writing down
> the steps of their solutions (and writing out the units and showing
> me their thought process) by letting their programmable calculators
> do most of the work.
>
> I'm interested to hear the group's opinion on giving "no calculator"
> tests.  These tests would still include difficult problems; however,
> the actual calculation pieces would work out so that the work could
> be done manually without too much additional time.  Alternatively,
> solutions would be written in terms of fundamental units rather than
> numbers.
>
> Also, if you have experience with these types of tests, do you have
> any advice on developing appropriate questions?  Do any online
> sources exist for these?
>
> Thanks,
> Dan Folmar
> Springfield H.S., Delaware County, PA
>
>
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Herb Gottlieb from New York City
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