Re: Programmable Calculator Policies

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>]

> These days programmable calculators have gotten really sophisticated.
> The TI-82 allows one to store text notes and equations while the TI-92
> can solve equations symbolically and even find integrals symbolically.
>
> Some students have made it their business to try to use these features in
> my high school honors as well as AP classes.  In my opinion, such
> activity is plain dishonesty and a sheer waste of time that could have
> been used for real studying.
>
> I now have a policy of erasing students' calculator memories before
> tests or to do without the calculator if the students scream.  In
> addition, as much as possible, I try to make test questions that do not
> require the use of a calculator.
>
> What are some of your comments or policies concerning programmable
> calculators?  I would like to hear from both high school and college
> instructors.

The solution to this problem is blindingly simple. I am surprised that
it is not adopted by all schools.

At Cambridge University students are allowed to use only one kind of
calculator in examinations, a relatively inexpensive (less than 15
pounds) scientific. The university buys these in quantity and sells them
to the students. I have been trying to get my university to adopt this
policy for two years, and I believe that headway is being made. We will
buy a calculator and paint the top of it orange. Only these calculators
may be used on examinations. Students would perchase these calculators
at the beginning of their university "careers" (an appropriate term,
since most students here now require more than four years to complete
their programs - and that is a bigger problem than calculators).

Powerful scientific calculators are now so inexpensive that some
prescribed textbooks cost ten times as much. If we require the students
to purchase a textbook for each course, it is certainly reasonable to
require the purchase of a calculator for much less to be used in many
courses. The student who can afford an expensive TI or hp can certainly
absorb the overhead of having two calculators. My wife and I have five
or six scientific calculators scattered about the house, a great
convenience.

Leigh