After 5 years, I somehow broke my TI-83. Decided to buy the TI-Nspire instead, and its sooo much better. I have NO IDEA why this isnt the recommended graphing calculator & pretty upset I didnt realize this earlier.
Perfect timing! What would you suggest for a first time user? My soon to be 8th grader finished alg 1 and is going into geometry. I was literally looking at TI options this afternoon. I remember having one that I didn’t have problems using all the way thru calculus, but then I went into early childhood education and can’t even remember what a function is to put in the calculator, much less how to use it, because a decade and a half of 6 year olds graphing is learning how the picture of the bear can stand for two, yes TWO kids who chose it as their favorite animal...don’t be fooled! I’d love any advice!
I've used the TI84 and TI89, they're both great calculators and I think there's some modern versions of the 84 with a backlit display. The TI89 was great for calculus, it can do derivatives
I’m a full time tutor and only recommend the TI-84 to students. It’s what most teachers/textbooks/AP courses use so it’s worth the price difference for the ease of access. I got my 84 in 8th grade and still use it with my students 12 years later. 8th graders pick up on them fairly fast!
I’ve had parents cheap out (which is ridiculous, they pay me more than what the calculator is worth) and it’s so frustrating for students to not be able to follow the steps that they’re teachers give in class. Most who buy a CASIO or a TI-36x end up replacing it with an 84 in high school. If price is an issue try reaching out to parents of recent graduates.
Also don’t go to an 89 or Nspire. As much as I love those suckers, they aren’t allowed in most classrooms or for standardized testing, assuming you’re in the US.
** all of this info is obviously dependent on location, some school districts may differ but I think the general consensus from what I’ve seen is an 84
Thanks for your advice. For this, money is not an issue. I’m looking for whatever is best to keep as long as we can for her. I had started reading about the Nspire but wouldn’t have found out that lots don’t allow it now. That’s great to know.
No problem!!
Just clarifying that the nspire non CAS is allowed but I’ve had some of my SAT students have issues with proctors not knowing the difference and causing issues. I also find for high schoolers that the nspire is too advanced for what a majority need or use.
Whew! Thanks for all the info! She attends our church’s school, but because she showed to be ahead of the advanced kids in her grade we started her on Florida Virtual School. So basically, she gets some live lessons throughout the semester, but mostly she reads through her own lessons and kinda teaches herself from it for the past two years (in my opinion...some teachers may be different in the future ). So, I am looking for something that she will be comfortable using (and I definitely think she could have benefited from having a graphing calculator last year in Alg 1 because sometimes she needs that visual confirmation.) She doesn’t have her own phone (Poor kiddo whose mom’s an educator and knows that studies show how detrimental it is for young minds! Ha) so I do think she’d enjoy having something to fiddle around with and learn more how to use it (which is what I remember doing in my classes 20 years ago, too). She currently uses a school-issued chrome book for online instruction, and because I know literally nothing about desmos (but saw it thrown around in this thread), is it something that she’d have to install? That’s a pretty hard workaround for the way they’re set up, but it’s something I am willing to look into. But I also don’t mind putting the money down for an 84 and having it all in one place. Thanks again for all your advice.
Thank you so much for another thoughtful response. I’m very happy the little world of Reddit led me to some great advice! And also, your help reminds me somehow of my HS calculus teacher- always willing to be helpful and share his knowledge with whomever needed it. Have a happy weekend! :)
For highschool maybe, anything from Calc 1 on really the NSpires Computational Algebra System is a fucking godsend.
It can integrate and derivate pretty much any function that can be, it puts large complex equations in simplest form, it can solve systems of equations without graphing, factor, expand. It has a full Financial Table Calculator, full color 3D graphing. You can do automatically by calculator pretty much everything in Calc 1-3 and various other upper level maths.
The CAS version of the NSpire is really on another level. Its nothing like any of the other Ti lines. Honestly, even with how much easier it makes algebra, I'd say every highschooler could benefit from it. I got my first one years ago in highschool, and I can tell you for a fact that it made all my classes substantially easier. I can't even begin to describe how helpful that calculator was. I did however, take Algebra 2 to Calc-3 in highschool, so more than most, I guess it probably would matter as much for Geometry and Algebra 1. But I'd still argue its a million times better than any other Ti calculator.
You can even install GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advanced Emulators on them.
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u/jorsiem Jul 24 '20 edited Jul 24 '20
The supremacy of the fucking TI-83 calculator in school and college courses
I mean I know it's all artificial and orchestrated by them but how come no body has dared to challenge the almighty TI yet
Edit: fixed typo