Calculators Essays -- Essays Papers

Calculators Calculators in the Classroom As the world changes and grows, more things are created to make people's everyday lives easier. One tool that can be used in school to help facilitate math is the calculator. This technology allows students to use a machine to obtain answers instead of using PPA (Paper and Pencil Arithmetic). Like any technology, there is fear on how to best use it to help facilitate growth in students. If the calculator is used properly in the classroom, it can be a beneficial tool for pupils. The calculator enables students to concentrate on math instead of focusing on tedious tasks that are not used in everyday life such as long division. If the calculator becomes a tool that elementary students use more often in the classroom, it will only help them become better students of mathematics over time. One of the many things that prevent the calculator from being more widely used in the elementary school are the many negative myths about calculators and how they adversely affect students in elementary schools. One belief that is held by many parents and teachers is that calculators hinder students’ ability to grow as thinkers. People believe that the calculator is doing the work instead of the students. This idea is absurd. Pupils need to push the buttons on the machine and in the correct order to come up with the right answer (Lambdin, Lindquist, Reys, Smith & Suydam, 2001). In fact the calculator enables the student to use more of their intellect because the machine allows the student to free itself from performing arduous tasks which allows the student to focus on how he or she obtained the answer (Lambdin et al, 2001). Another impediment to using ca... ...ad to be done so the results would be precise. This one experiment involving a tool of mathematics integrated science and math. This is just one way that the calculators can be used to benefit elementary students. If the calculator is used properly in the classroom, it can be a great tool that benefits students and teachers. This machine allows teachers to focus on other school subjects that they would have spent on teaching aspects of mathematics that are no longer used today. The tool is beneficial to the pupil because if it is used properly, it allows the student to spend time on how they came to answer instead of reaching the answer and leaving class because time ran out. As teachers and students use the calculator on regular basis, more people will see that in fact it is a tool that is necessary for the student to grow and not a hindrance.