Featured Apps:
PrettyPrint and Symbolic from Detached Solutions
Download in PDF format
For some time now, I have prepared
my quiz questions on my TI-83 Plus ViewScreen™
calculator, then simply walk in and project them on the front wall, usually on
a clear space above the board. This leaves me free to move around, check
students’ work and help where needed. Naturally, I have found the Notefolio™ app to
be invaluable for this purpose. I can quickly and
easily type my questions on the computer using Microsoft Word® and then send the file directly to my calculator via
the link cable. More recently, I can now plug in my TI Keyboard and type directly to my calculator. What could be
simpler?
One limitation I have found, however, concerns mathematical notation. With some of
my classes, I would like to be able to present their questions using correct
mathematical forms and, until recently, this has been very limited on the
83-series calculators. At least, that was the case until I discovered the
wonderful free apps from Detached Solutions
Software (http://www.detachedsolutions.com). These amazing people have been busily
writing a growing list of high quality apps for a range of subjects for the 83 Plus and 83 Plus Silver Edition calculators, including two very nice
mathematical apps which work seamlessly together called PrettyPrint and Symbolic.
These are must-have apps for any teacher of high school mathematics.
PrettyPrint, as the name implies, is a
very simple but effective mathematics text editor: enter your mathematical
expression into the entry field or pick it up directly from the ans variable (the answer to the last
calculation on the home screen) and it is automatically transformed before your
eyes into correct mathematical formatting.
Symbolic, once installed, adds an extra
menu “behind” the MATH menu,
activated by pressing the MATH
button twice. Once installed, three new submenus are made available: Trig (which adds 12 reciprocal and
inverse trig functions), Calc (which
adds symbolic derivative and arclength functions) and Algbr (offering, among other things, a symbolic Simplify command and a Pretty command, which links in with the PrettyPrint app).
Both these apps work with “string” variables, which means that it wants them between
inverted commas. One option is to store the expression directly to one of the
built-in string variables found under the VARS
menu (option 7: String). Consider the example shown, where an expression is stored
as Str1, presented in correct format
to students, then input directly into the derivative function, and the result
then displayed in pretty print format. This is powerful mathematics which can
be immediately appreciated by students. There is no question that providing
full 2-dimensional formatting of algebraic expressions makes it easier for our
students to recognise and digest the
mathematics they are learning.
The real beauty of this partnership, however, occurs I believe when they are linked
using simple BASIC programming. I have linked my five quiz questions into a
simple program in which the work can go on “behind the scenes” and students
simply see the correct output for each question as I call it up. The
ingredients of the program are not complicated. The result however is quite
clear.
It takes only a few minutes to edit the program to put in new questions each day.
I am ready to roll as soon as I walk in, and the questions are clearly and
correctly displayed for my students to copy down and work out. It makes an
enormous difference to be completely organised when I walk into a lesson, and
to have my students busy working from the word go. I have been using short quizzes now
for some twenty-five years, and I have never found a better nor more efficientsystem.
Other apps from Detached Solutions include
a free Calendar, a 3-D grapher (Graph3), an amazing
Dictionary and Word Games app (called DAWG)
and Omnicalc, which adds so many
features to your 83Plus you will
wonder how you survived without it! These and other apps will be previewed and
featured in future brief articles like this one.
Email
me at steve.arnold@tpg.com.au for a
copy of my quiz program and visit http://www.detachedsolutions.com
to download the FREE apps available there.
For comments & suggestions, please e-mail
Steve Arnold.
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