Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Hands on equations lite and calculator programs.

I tried the hands on equations lite with some students today and they loved it.  The app has the students watch the video first before they are allowed to try any exercises.  The video shows the students how to balance equations using a real balance so they get the visual for solving equations.  After watching the video they do part b and then part c but part b must be done to unlock part c.  I spoke with one of my students and he loved it.  He said it really helped him understand solving one step equations.  I am going to have them practice again tomorrow for a while.
We were trying to find the value of an angle using the law of cosines.  What I discovered is that in two out of three apps, I have to use acos instead of cos ^ -1 which the third one uses after you hit the shift button.  I also had to have the students make sure they were in degrees not in rads.  Calc made easy uses cos^-1 while freegraphcalc and my script calc use acos.  It was a great learning experience.

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