Instruction
Math Department Calculator Statement
Students need to know how to use a calculator when necessary to complete numerical computations. It is therefore not recommended to exclude calculators from a class entirely. However, an instructor may choose to limit the use of calculators on quizzes or exams in certain situations. For example, in Math 104 the instructor may desire to test students on performing arithmetic with fractions, integers, or decimals by hand on one exam and then allow calculators on subsequent exams.
Instructors may decice what types of calculators are acceptable or required in their courses. They may want to coordinate their choices with other instructors teaching at the same site. Instructors are strongly encouraged to prohibit the use of models such as the TI-89 and TI-92 since these can perform symbolic manipulations. Recommended basic scientific calculators include those in the TI-30 and TI-36 series. Recommended graphing calculators are TI-82, TI-83, TI-83 plus, TI-85, and TI-86. If graphing calculators are used in a course, the instructor should consider using a textbood which demonstrates features of the graphing calculator. Contact the mathematics department faculty for specific recommendations.
Instructors should be aware that allowing calculators on exams and quizzes requires posing questions at a higher conceptual level in order to test the student beyond what the calculator can compute. For example, if a student is using a calculator, a problem asking ao add together two numbers is too simple. To make this problem more conceptual, it could be rewritten as a word problem so that the student must conclude, on his own, that finding the sum is the appropriate course of action. When students are using graphing calculators, questions that simply ask students to graph a function are too simple. Students should be asked questions for which the graph of the function might aid them (such as, what is the domain), but not for which the graph is the sole answer.