I don't know many college level students (including some of my best ones)
who could manually calculate solutions. Please remember that the algorithm
for square roots is no longer even taught in most school systems. Long
division is probably not possible for at least half the students - unless
you really use simple numbers.
Calculators are a fact of life and I think you're looking for trouble by
banning them. You are trying to evaluate the students understanding of
physics - I don't see how hand calculations facilitate that.
I feel that far more legitimate questions are: Do you allow formula cards,
etc.? I know most of us bemoan the student's lack of ability to estimate,
but on the other hand, it frees us as teachers to stress and evaluate the
concepts when we are not tied to checking students arithmetic when grading
exams. I'm sure there are those who still feel that all subjects should be
taught in Latin. I see requiring hand calculations to be pretty similar.
Bob at PC
-----Original Message-----
From: Forum for Physics Educators [mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu] On
Behalf Of Dan Folmar
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 7:38 PM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Calculators a Distraction?
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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