TI 84 Silver Edition

TI Nspire Handheld

The Framework for 21st Century Learning

The Framework for 21st Century Learning states that in addition to learning academic content, students also need to know how to keep learning and make innovative use of their knowledge throughout their lives.  Texas Instruments provides students with the technology needed to tackle higher level critical thinking and problem solving skills.  It allows students to take on the challenge of real world problems and complicated mathematical models that would not be possible without the technology to crunch the numbers.  Instead of spending the majority of class time on complex computations that involve tedious mathematical calculations, students can collaborate and solve creative problems where the focus is on the developing the framework necessary to arrive at the solution.  Once that framework is developed, students can then use the technology to calculate the solution.

Information and communications technology (ICT) literacy is another component of the 21st Century Learning model that is supported by Texas Instruments technology.  The TI handhelds offer students a variety of technology tools to solve problems.  Students may choose to represent a problem graphically or enter data into a spreadsheet in order to complete a regression analysis of the data.  TI is dedicated to designing products that promote 21st Century Skills and the Nspire handheld is designed with a document model in mind which means that you can save files with several pages of information.  This design feature allows students to make connections between real world data and the mathematics that describes it.  It also enables students to communicate their mathematical discoveries with their classmates.

Nspire software is projected on a SmartBoard to model the technology skills needed to solve problems in Algebra 2 classes at KWHS.

In the screenshots below, senior Willie Hazel collects data during a 'Tootsie Roll Pop' activity where students measure the volume of a tootsie roll pop over time.  Students discover a real world example of the exponential decay model that they had studied in class.   

Last week, students in Algebra 2 examined how to maximize the volume of a box with a given set of dimensions.  They incorporated both Algebraic reasoning and technology to solve this real world problem.