Fall in Love with Polar Graphs: Top 4 Ways to Turn Heads with the TI-84 Plus
We get this question a lot from students and teachers: How do you draw things like hearts and flowers on your TI graphing calculator? In honor of Valentine’s Day, we are here to share the love and teach you how to turn your TI calculator into a love note. You’ll have your classmates swooning wit...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2018/february/polargraphlove
Field Goal vs. Ice Cream: The Ultimate Game Day Matchup
Four seconds left in the big game, and the score is 27-28 — you’re behind. A 50-yard field goal wins the game. Your task is to use a mathematical model to demonstrate kicking a field goal to win the game. Wait … are you more into the celebration and all the hoopla (I mean all those snacks and ...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2022/thebiggame
Oklahoma Students Make Their Mark Learning to Program with Rover
John Honeycutt, the only science teacher at Keota High School in rural Oklahoma started the semester determined to develop his students’ leadership skills. He assigned the junior class a special project where they would work in pairs on a “proof of concept” that they would later demonstrate to t...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2018/february/seeroverdraw
Robotics for the 21st Century | Texas Instruments
You may be aware of the reference to the three R’s, which refers to the three basic skills taught in school: reading, writing and arithmetic (usually said as “reading, writing and ’rithmetic”). How about adding another “R” to that list? Robotics! Robots (and smart machines) are all around us. In ...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2022/roboticsweek2022
Python Modules Have More Fun | Texas Instruments
Since Python programming was first released to the world on the TI-84 Plus CE Python and the TI-Nspire™ CX II graphing calculators about a year ago, I think it’s time to dig a little deeper into the power of modular programming on these remarkable platforms, and discover why using modules...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2022/python-modules-have-more-fun
TI’s Path to STEM Projects Are Now Available in Python
TI’s Path to STEM Projects are a great way to get kids interested in electrical engineering. The best part: These projects were designed for teachers and students with no coding or engineering experience. Texas Instruments has offered the “Path to STEM Projects” for several years. Each of t...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2022/pathtostem
Summer of STEM: Breaking Board Paradox
Put a paint stick on the edge of a table with a little less than half the length hanging off the table‘s edge. Now, karate chop it. Did it break? Of course not. It just flew off the table, still intact. Now, do the same set up – this time laying a large piece of newspaper across the part of the ...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2018/june/breakingboard
Which TI Calculator for the SAT® and Why?
Just about every TI calculator is approved for the math test calculator portion of the SAT® exam. And, I encourage you to know how — and when — to use your calculator. Here are some helpful tips to help you prepare you for the test: Bring your own calculator — calculators are not provided, an...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/which-ti-calc-sat
Virtual-Ice-Breakers
Icebreakers are important parts of any learning environment — they encourage students to participate from the start of class, allow students to get to know one another, and perhaps teach you a thing or two about your class. But with many schools across the country starting virtually, getting to ...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/virtual-ice-breakers
Monday Night Calculus: Your Questions, Our Answers
Calculus connoisseurs Tom Dick and Steve Kokoska are ready to call the Monday night action! For the 2021–22 school year, Texas Instruments (TI) has once again teamed up with former AP® Calculus Chief Reader Steve Kokoska and former Test Development committee member Tom Dick to provide l...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/mondaynightcalculus
A first-of-its-kind STEM strategy charts path to help educators
In a first-ever undertaking of its kind, four of the nation’s key education leadership groups have partnered to define a strategy for improving and advancing STEM learning for all students. Over the past year, Advance CTE, the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics (ASSM), the Council o...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2018/october/a-first-of-its-kind-stem-strategy-charts-path-to-help-educators
Leveraging CAS To Explore & Teach Mathematics, Part 2
... I post, CAS isn’t only a way to find the answers, CAS can be leveraged to explore and teach concepts in the math classroom. In this follow-up post (part 2), I intend to present ideas for how CAS can be utilized to benefit the algebra II classroom. Finding a lowest common denominator In my a...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/leveragecas_pt2
Art in Chemistry
For years we’ve heard that students have multiple intelligences and that we should do whatever possible to help them display their learning strengths using varied instructional strategies. While chemistry can be an abstract and quantitative science, there is much room for students to display the...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2018/october/art-in-chemistry
A Teacher’s 5 Words That Changed My Life
When I was asked to share my story for International Women’s Day, I immediately said “yes.” I didn’t know what I would share, just that I had to say “yes!” This year’s theme — Choose to Challenge — had a simultaneous effect. It touched my soul because we have the freedom to make choices. It san...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/intlwomensday
Ingenuity-takes-flight
Have you heard of the “The seven minutes of terror”? Sounds a bit like a horror movie, doesn’t it? And, actually for NASA, it is almost as nail biting! Feb. 18, 2021, was an important date for NASA. After an almost seven-month journey, and a landing often called “The seven minutes of terror,”...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/ingenuity-takes-flight
Get Out and #SpreadMathLove
Whether you’re ready to dive into outdoor activities or just want to dip your toes in the water, geocaching is a great, safe way to spring into this post-quarantine summer. If you’re not familiar with geocaching, it’s essentially the world’s largest, constantly running treasure hunt. To play,...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/geocaching
Summer of STEM: Disappearing Cups
How do you make a foam polystyrene cup disappear? Put it in an organic solvent such as acetone! Important note: Doing the project in a well ventilated space and using gloves are smart ways to avoid unnecessary exposure to acetone. Only use enough acetone to cause the cup to dissolve. Follow your...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2018/july/disappearing_cups
5 Tips for a Healthy, Happy Exam Week | Texas Instruments
It’s here. Exam week. We’ve all been there — you’ve studied hard all year, put in the time, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like enough. Especially when you’re studying for multiple exams at one time, how do you keep yourself healthy and calm? Vanessa Vakharia, known as The Math Guru, has been i...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2018/december/5-tips-for-a-healthy-happy-exam-week
Going Back to School With Stations
At the middle school and secondary levels, the first day of school typically consists of teachers introducing themselves, going over the syllabus and students completing get-to-know-you activities or ice breakers. I’ll admit, I have also used a similar format until I realized that this doesn’t sh...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/backtoschool_stations
Professional basketball star donates TI calculators to his former high school
Juniors at Riverside High School in Durham, North Carolina, will have new Texas Instruments graphing calculators for the ACT next week, thanks to former student and current professional basketball player, T.J. Warren. The 6-foot-8 forward for the Phoenix Suns returned to his hometown and high sc...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/2017/february/tj-warren-donates
How a TI Calculator and a Few Special Teachers Added up to an Engineering Career at TI
One of my earliest memories is of me in the car, at the age of four, playing electronic math drill games on my Little Professor. For many years, my primary car entertainment was seeing how many answers I could get right in a row. I could have never imagined that today I would actually work as a...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/eweek2021
The Long Road to My STEM Career
I took the long way around in my career path. Literally. I was born in Hong Kong, about 7,500 miles from Iowa City. Growing up, I didn’t have much encouragement to follow a STEM career path. My first assignment in junior high trigonometry class was to memorize a three-by-three grid of the relati...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/adawoo
Engage Students With This Real-World Earth Day Activity
How many straws are used in the U.S. every day? If they were connected, would they wrap around the Earth at the equator? If so, how many times? In one year, would the length of straws reach the moon? What is the volume of this plastic for one year? How deep would it be on a football field? The a...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/earthday
7 Reasons Why Python on the TI-Nspire™ CX II Graphing Calculator Is a Must-Have for Your Classroom
This month marks the release of the latest update for the TI-Nspire™ CX II family. This update (version 5.2) includes support for Python, a significant feature that strengthens the use of TI-Nspire™ CX II graphing calculators and software in math classes. Educators can now connect coding in ...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/7-reasons-why-python-is-a-must
Top 5 Tips for Transitioning to Virtual Teaching
As we enter into this new frontier of virtual teaching and learning, I had the opportunity to connect with Richard Snow, an expert in distance learning and a T³™ National Instructor, for some guidance. Snow was the first educator to use TI graphing calculator emulator software while teaching stu...https://education.ti.com/en/bulletinboard/distance-education