Posted on 06/08/2005 11:34:09 AM PDT by JZelle
RICHMOND -- Texas Instruments is replacing 160,000 school calculators in Virginia after an observant sixth-grader discovered a function that would have given students an unfair advantage on standardized tests. The state's education department asked Texas Instruments two years ago to disable the function that converts decimals to fractions because students are required to know how to do that with paper and pencil on statewide tests. But in January, Dakota Brown, 12, a student at Carver Middle School in Chesterfield County, figured out that by pressing two other keys on his approved TI-30 Xa SE VA, he could change decimals into fractions anyway.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Just responding to this post.
You should just have one of your eyes checked.
Have the other one striped.
Real cool.
I would have beaten that kid to a bloody pulp after school.
Maybe I am old fashion (46), but how is anyone going to learn to use their brain when getting educated when they have a machine do it for them? Just bugs me that they are using calculators to take a test, these things are not everywhere in real life.
Wow, bragging about how you were a bully in school...nice.
The problem is that by the time a kid is 12 he should have enough understanding of the mechanics that a calculator is an appropriate tool. If they're not beyond the basics by then, they're at a permanent disadvantage.
I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who went to a public school in the 1970s in a system that was pretty mediocre. We were doing algebra in grade 5 and trig in grade 7.
Didn't anyone tell you that topic drift can be fun?
I always have a calculator near me. I have a TI-83 in my backpack, and there's one on my cell phone and PDA. I think for today's kids, they are everywhere in real life.
I think calculators are not the issue, the problem is with the curriculum. I was a math whiz in school and as soon as calculators became affordable I concluded that long division was the most useless skill that any human could possess. Whether one is using a calculator or a series of mechanical steps the result is the same but in either case you walk away with absolutely no understanding of how numbers work or why they are a pretty handy invention.
IMNSHO I think math teachers in the early grades should get rid of both pencils and calculators and just hand out a slide rule to every kid. They'd learn a lot more about the nature of numbers that way.
And another thing...
I learned far more about mathematics by reading the book that came with my old TI-30 (it had an LED display) than I ever learned in math class. The five pages on how to use the trig functions explained more about geometry than four years of high school math.
My high school physics teacher made us use the slide rule, even though pocket calculators were cheap and available by then (late 70's). UGH. the good ole days.
Mr. Uloth, is that you?
Yes, and it amazes me how they can't figure out simple calculations without the stupid calculator.
Why bother learning to approximate when you can get the exact answer with the touch of a button.
I've got two kids going through virginia schools, and I haven't figured out yet what they mean about needing to convert decimals to fractions with "pen and paper".
IF they aren't getting lcd, they just put the correct size 10**N number in the denominator.
If they then have to reduce it, the kids don't know how to do division, they use the calculator, so I presume they would still use the calculator to reduce the fraction. Maybe they would write down intermediate results, but with a calculator I don't know where pen and paper come in.
Obviously ANY calculator will convert fractions to decimals.
Why are schools buying calculators in the first place?
Simply more corporate welfare.
I guess that depends on how liberal the definition of "unreasonable" in the 4th Amendment of the BOR.
Don't know how your courts interpret in, but in Canada the consensus has been that a vehicle can be commandeered when there is an imminent threat. It's generally interpreted along the same lines as any other use of force, and the police are responsible for any damage.
Honest, yes, perhaps a character flaw that will not serve him well. Now, why didn't anyone in charge of approval verify this calculator?
Good point, I hadn't considered that this scenario happened in Canada.
Well, not to get in any transborder digs here (OK I lied, doing it is fun), property seizures in an emergency are taken very seriously here and tend to be regarded as a use of force, subject to similar limitations that are imposed on the use of force against persons. I would be inclined to guess that any US jurisdiction that allows cops to taser schoolchildren and allows Drug Warriors to take houses away from little old ladies would have any problem with a cop taking a car to chase somebody.
Matrices are great for solving simultaneous equations with multiple variable. Very time consuming the long way.
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