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Re: banning calculators



On the other hand....someone on one of the lists I read, maybe even this
one, pointed out that techniques like the Calculus, are really
'technological' shortcuts for doing 'hand' calculations. This is another
way to view the calculator. However, if we go that way, the math
preparation classes would have to spend a lot more time trying to convey the
CONCEPTUAL meaning of all the various operations that the calculator can do.

Such is the case with Calculus. I have students who can spit out
integrations, can find derivatives just fine, but when asked what an
integral really is are at a complete loss--well eventually someone says
'area under the curve'--but no one sees that it is a tool to take an sum of
infitessimal quantities and therefore are stymied by the task of _setting
up_ integrals for force/field/potential from continuous charge
distributions. Of course I get nasty and ask ONLY for the setup of the
integral in tests--since once out of calculus class we all learned that all
forms that can be computed analytically are cataloged in the CRC or
equivalent, and those that can't be found need to be done numerically by
computer techniques. The point here is that MUCH MORE time needs to be
spent in the calculus classes dealing with the meaning and use of the
techniques and MUCH LESS time worrying about how to integrate every function
known to man!

Done with rant...

Rick

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Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

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www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
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----- Original Message -----
From: "SSHS KPHOX" <kphox@MAIL.CCSD.K12.CO.US>


PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu writes:
If it were up to me they would be banned. =20
Course this would further inflame my students...
Tina

Maybe not banned, but available with the voter registration card or with
the first legal drink. As much as I appreciate and use their power, I have
often claimed that the calculator is the greatest contributor to cerbral
atrophy in students since TV. Both tools do have their place, however.

Ken Fox