This site is a collection of some basic math calculators that are helpful for early college students.
This is a collection of different numerical ‘calculators’, some with a very specific purpose (e.g. writing a given integer in Roman numerals, finding a square root) and others more general. The calculators are built as separate web pages, and so can be used from a browser. They are not intended to be used together. Rather, one can be used where it matches the calculation or application you want to teach (for example, calculating the calories a body uses in a day).
Type of Material:
Simulation
Recommended Uses:
Individual practice, in-class assignments, homework, group activities.
These could be used in many teaching contexts at different points in the learning process:
let learners ‘play’ with a new mathematical concept experimentally before they are introduced to the underlying calculations;
use the calculator to quickly complete calculations that are needed while learning more complex/higher order skills;
encourage students to use the calculator to check their answers for teacher-assigned questions or practice questions they make up for themselves.
Technical Requirements:
Any browser.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The purpose of this site is to help users in learning to solve basic math problems, and some calculators include lots of instructions and explanations.
These calculators are not primarily intended for learning from directly. Their main purpose is to reduce the cognitive load required to engage with other learning materials.
Target Student Population:
High School, College Lower Division
The target population varies according to the chosen calculator and usage. The general calculators (basic and scientific) could be used anywhere a standard calculator is wanted. The more specific calculators (e.g. Temperature Converter, Quadratic Formula Calculator, Loan Payment calculator) are most likely to be of use for roughly ages 8 to 16.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Basic algebra
Some text explanation is included with many of the calculators, but users will benefit from having some prior understanding of how to interpret the inputs and outputs of the specific calculator (e.g. the concept of a ‘random number’ for the random number generators).
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Users can choose the calculator they want from the provided collections of calculators. Those calculators can also help users in scientific basic computing for basic math and physics classes.
The more specific calculators are good for focusing on a single concept, rather than learners being confused or distracted by other functionality.
The scientific calculator has various physical constants built in.
Concerns:
It will be great if the site can offer some advanced math calculators in the near future.
At the time of writing, the ‘Math Function Grapher’ does not seem to be working.
Without seeing the underlying code, I cannot be certain the calculators are all doing the correct calculations, but the ones I tried seemed to be correct.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
This site can help students to check their answers when they do their assignments for basic math courses such as college algebra.
The webpage with links to the calculators sets out clearly how and why calculators should be used (or should not be used) in a teaching context. The calculators provide the option of removing the need for manual calculations in situations where those would hinder (rather than contribute to) the intended learning.
Concerns:
Depending on context, students might need some guidance in how to use the calculator before they can use it independently.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The calculator is easy to use, and all users can use this site easily without issues.
The interface for each calculator is generally a simple combination of text boxes and click buttons, making them easy to use for most (but not all) users.
Concerns:
The design of the calculators is generally clean, but some are visually clearer/more engaging than others.
The adverts on the webpages, when I looked, were more attention-grabbing than the main content, which could distract some students. Some of the calculators are most relevant to age groups where it’s not ideal to have adverts showing.
The naming of the inputs is not always completely intuitive, especially if you are not already familiar with the material, but text instructions are provided.
Creative Commons:
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