One of the frustrations that many professors have is that some students come into their upper level classes without a good grounding in how to use the calculator for basic scientific and financial calculations.
"In some cases the students aren't using calculators at all in the fundamental business courses," laments one professor of finance at a major state university. "I simply don't have time to do remedial calculator instruction," says another.
Many professions require the use of the calculator long after a student has graduated. The calculator remains a viable tool for professionals who need the portability and convenience that a calculator provides. In fact, students need to have proficiency on the calculator in order to take many of the engineering, surveying, financial and real estate tests.
HP to the Rescue
If you're having some of the same problems, send your students to www.hp.com/calculators/segments/students. They'll find tutorials, on-demand animated instruction and schedules for interactive virtual courses on how to get the most out of scientific, graphing and business calculators. The courses are geared to HP's extensive line of calculators, but all calculator users will find valuable information such as easy-to-learn concepts behind the calculations.
Emulation as a Teaching Tool
If you're an educator who teaches with a calculator or who wants to do some remedial teaching using a powerful classroom tool, point your browsers to www.hp.com/calculators/emulators. You'll find software emulators for most of HP's calculators that permit you to project a working calculator model on the screen using a standard computer and a digital projector.
Teachers are finding that students understand how to use their calculators much more quickly when they can follow the teacher through the routines of solving problems.
"With the emulator, I can effectively show my students step-by-step investment analysis, calculation routines and simulations that make the teaching of financial math more enjoyable," says Professor Alusio Ambrosio, who teaches administration courses at the Superior School of Advertising and Marketing in Rio de Janeiro. He uses an HP calculator to teach his students concepts on their HP 12c Platinum financial calculators.
Professor Ambrosio recommends that students be taught the theoretical concepts and basic theories behind the calculations first so that they don't just learn to solve the problems mechanically on the calculator.
He says he's found that his students' responses to learning with the HP calculator emulator have been superior to any other method.
Emulators are available at no cost to any qualified educator, including training instructors at companies and institutions and can be downloaded or ordered on CD. Just apply on the Web site.
Emulators are available for:
- Finance - HP 10bII, HP 12c Platinum, HP 17bII+
- Scientific - HP 33s
- Graphing - HP 39g+, HP 48gII,HP 49g+
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