Amanda Piccolino ’12
Staff Writer

Texas Instruments new TI-Nspire calculator is expected by many to be the vehicle to mathematic success.

Equipped with a touchpad and alpha keyboard, the updated TI is a significant departure from all previous calculators and could potentially become a standardized tool for Staples math students.

At a cost of $159 each, the highend calculators are currently being school provided for three of Nicole Pendolphi’s Algebra 2A classes to pilot.

“Our goal if everything goes well this year is to introduce [the calculator] in other classes,” Pendolphi said.

Very much like a computer, the new TI lets teachers and students create, save, and share documents between each other.

The built in emulator enables Smart Boards to function just like the handheld, turning the class into a collaborative learning environment in which everyone can easily follow along on a large screen.

Some students have already observed that this feature has contributed to a rise in classroom involvement.

“Connecting your calculator to the smart board adds a whole other level of participation to the class,” Rhyse McLean ’13 said.

Another aspect that Pendolphi finds particularly advantageous is that students can display work from their individual calculators onto the Smart Board without revealing their names.

According to Pendolphi, “this will encourage students to take risks in the classroom because participation will be anonymous.”

The “split screen” feature allows students to see multiple visual representations of a problem whether it be an equation, graph, table, or geometric figure.

The math department is optimistic that this new ability will give students a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and essentially make math more applicable to real-life.

“We hope that by interacting with the calculators students will be able to take the learning of the classroom home to better retain the information,” said Pendolphi.

Though many of Pendolphi’s students feel the advanced TIs are a worthwhile investment, some believe they are not worth the expense.

While he admits to having little experience with the new calculator, Sean Christie ’12 thinks students could acquire their math skills just as well from a traditional calculator without a large cost to the school.

“I don’t believe the wireless features or extra graphing tools and such will benefit classes more than the TI-84 did,” Christie said.

Even so, the Nspire is being utilized in classes throughout the department and time will tell if every class will soon work with these calculators.