Do calculators help or hurt students to learn mathematics in high school?

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A Broken Calculator Has Its Uses
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Lesson Plan
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ET630
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This project is designed to help open the eyes of high school math students. By now you have completed several years of complex mathematics. Most recent of which is AP Statistics. Throughout the year you have used the calculator to make calculations easier. For example, we looked at how long it would take to find the standard deviation of a set of numbers by hand and how quickly we could get that number with the TI-Nspire.

This project you will conduct on and offline research. You will be researching whether or not calculators actually helped you to learn math. Do not decide quite yet.

First go to A Broken Calculator Has Its Uses, and read this article. After reading this article, think about whether you think calculators help or hurt students learning math

The product

You will write a 3 to 5 page persuasive paper. In this paper you will pick whether or not calculators help or hurt students learning math. You will need to find at least 6 sources for this paper. At least 2 sources must go against your stance. You will need to refute the arguments made against your stance. To help you with determining the usefulness of the websites you may come across I have attached a site evaluation guide. You will need to complete an evaluation of every source used. Do not forget to use some of the online databases. See me for the passwords if you forgot.

Timeline

How long will this project take? You are going to be allowed 2 weeks to conduct online research in class. You are expected to find 3 sources at the end of the first week of research and the other 3 after the second week of research. That is a little less than 1 good source a day, so take you time. After the two weeks of research you will be analyzing your sources arguments. Your paper will be completed and turned in on that Friday. The grading rubric is also posted on the right.






Web page created by: Jeffrey Starr

Last Update: July 12, 2010

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