30 Calculator Programs

30 Calculator Programs

ISBN 0-9541020-3-7

By Alan Graham and Barrie Galpin

PHOTOCOPIABLE

Short programs
This is certainly not a book of clever and complicated programs for teachers to dazzle the class with!

On the contrary, these photocopiable worksheets, help pupils to create their own short programs and show how they can be gradually built up from the bare bones of a skeleton version to something more sophisticated.

This book is a companion to our very successful 30 Calculator Lessons for KS 3. It has been written to motivate, challenge, entertain and enlighten students aged 11 and above.

The new book provides another 30 plans for lessons, each consisting of a page of teacher notes and two more of student handouts. Once again, these were written specifically for the Texas Instruments TI-83 or TI-83 Plus calculators - but is totally compatible with the newer TI-84 calculators.

Each of these lessons is based on a simple calculator program that students are encouraged to create for themselves.

Don't worry, it's not like this!

Why programs?

As a teacher of algebra, how successful have you been in helping your students to gain a good understanding of the idea of a variable? If your experience has been anything like ours, the answer may be, not very!. A major difficulty in the teaching of algebra is that it can easily appear to students to be just a mindless manipulation of symbols to no good purpose. The power and purpose of algebraic thinking in clarifying and solving problems can be a crucial missing link for the majority of students.

A simple program to keep darts-scores

From our own experience working with students aged 11 and above, the great pay-off with getting them to create simple programs on a graphics calculator is that they can experience, directly and easily, algebraic letters working for them as variables in a micro-world of their own making.

As well as the algebraic benefits there are many other good reasons to include simple programming in your teaching: here are some of them.

By creating their own short programs pupils can:

use their maths in a purposeful way to achieve a meaningful goal,

learn some useful programming skills,

understand the way in which letters are used as variables,

think logically and create programs for their own use and re-use,

investigate concepts for themselves,

apply maths to everyday problems and situations and across the curriculum,

play games and generally have fun with maths,

engage in mathematical modelling and gain a better understanding of what modelling is,

experience success, motivation and a sense of personal empowerment.

Some features of this book

Modules: There are 30 modules, each one based around a short program, which students will create for themselves on a graphics calculator.

Handouts and teacher pages: Each module consists of handouts for the students, together with a page of teacher notes.The handouts are divided into a series of activities that give the instructions for creating and using the programs.The teacher pages provide an introduction to and a justification for the use of the program, indicating the key mathematical ideas.There are comments on the activities and, where appropriate, solutions and suggestions for extension work.

Skeleton programs: Although a calculator program can include many commands that make it easy to use, it can often be pared right down to a skeleton of essential commands.In this book we help students to create very short skeleton programs (perhaps two or three lines only) and then flesh them out and fine-tune them later.

Handy hints for programmers: There is a short section giving advice on the basic calculator skills of how to create, execute and edit a program.There is also a list explaining the most useful commands that are used in programs.

A typical bronze level skeleton program

The calculator: This book is written for the Texas Instruments TI-83 or TI-84 family of calculators: if you are using a different model of calculator, the modules will need to be adapted. For example, some activities include a list of the keys presses needed and, throughout the book, the text is illustrated with screenshots showing what you may expect to see on your calculator screen.

Bronze, Silver and Gold: The modules and programs have been presented in three levels. In general the bronze modules deal with lower level mathematics, require simple programming commands only and are strongly supported in terms of the provision of detailed key sequences. As students gain programming experience and move on to silver and then gold modules, the levels of mathematical and programming sophistication increase, as does the expectation that the students will take greater initiative and independence.

Display produced by silver program BLOBS

An introductory program: The first module, FLIP, is aimed at students (and teachers!) who are creating a program for the first time. The activities include detailed instructions and are paced very gently. We recommend that those new to programming start here.

The fun factor: We hope you and your students have fun creating and using the programs. To help this along we have sometimes included quirky titles for the activities and make frequent use of calculator cartoons drawn by Steve Smith.

Gold level program DOTTY produces this response
when a randomly plotted dot falls inside the quarter circle.
An estimate for pi emerges eventually.

What calculator skills are needed?
The lesson outlines assume a very basic level of competence with the calculator, particularly for the teacher. Teachers who are not confident users of the calculator will find that a copy of Calculator Maths: Foundations plus will help them acquire all the basic calculator skills that they will need for these 30 lessons.
The other books in the Calculator Maths series are also a useful complement to this one, with lots more activities for use at Key Stages 3 and 4.

What so the programs do?

Click here to see the contents of the book.

How much does it cost?

30 Calculator Programs costs £30 - but is freely photocopiable within school.
There is a special offer for OU students.

What size is the book?

The book is A4 size and it contains 108 pages.

How can I obtain a copy?

You can order by phone, email or post. Click here for details.

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30 Calculator Programs	ISBN 0-9541020-3-7
By Alan Graham and Barrie Galpin	PHOTOCOPIABLE

Modules: There are 30 modules, each one based around a short program, which students will create for themselves on a graphics calculator. Handouts and teacher pages: Each module consists of handouts for the students, together with a page of teacher notes.The handouts are divided into a series of activities that give the instructions for creating and using the programs.The teacher pages provide an introduction to and a justification for the use of the program, indicating the key mathematical ideas.There are comments on the activities and, where appropriate, solutions and suggestions for extension work.
Skeleton programs: Although a calculator program can include many commands that make it easy to use, it can often be pared right down to a skeleton of essential commands.In this book we help students to create very short skeleton programs (perhaps two or three lines only) and then flesh them out and fine-tune them later. Handy hints for programmers: There is a short section giving advice on the basic calculator skills of how to create, execute and edit a program.There is also a list explaining the most useful commands that are used in programs.	*A typical bronze level skeleton program*
The calculator: This book is written for the Texas Instruments TI-83 or TI-84 family of calculators: if you are using a different model of calculator, the modules will need to be adapted. For example, some activities include a list of the keys presses needed and, throughout the book, the text is illustrated with screenshots showing what you may expect to see on your calculator screen.
Bronze, Silver and Gold: The modules and programs have been presented in three levels. In general the bronze modules deal with lower level mathematics, require simple programming commands only and are strongly supported in terms of the provision of detailed key sequences. As students gain programming experience and move on to silver and then gold modules, the levels of mathematical and programming sophistication increase, as does the expectation that the students will take greater initiative and independence.	*Display produced by silver program BLOBS*
An introductory program: The first module, FLIP, is aimed at students (and teachers!) who are creating a program for the first time. The activities include detailed instructions and are paced very gently. We recommend that those new to programming start here.
The fun factor: We hope you and your students have fun creating and using the programs. To help this along we have sometimes included quirky titles for the activities and make frequent use of calculator cartoons drawn by Steve Smith.	Gold level program DOTTY produces this response when a randomly plotted dot falls inside the quarter circle. An estimate for pi emerges eventually.