While some of my colleagues here at NTID believe strongly in having
students "develop a feel" for plotting points by actually setting up axes
on a sheet of graph paper and marking down points with given (or determined)
coefficients, and some still have students carry out the plotting of (say)
a parabola point by point, I myself have not touched graph paper (nor asked my
students to) for some years now. The explorations that can be carried out with
a graphing calculator (which we require of all our students), combined with the
experience and insight to be gained from producing an acceptable _sketch_ (on
plain paper) of what one sees in the calculator window -- a report of what
_ought_ to be showing if the calculator could produce a perfect graph --
together allow me to get at all the areas of understanding that I used to
depend on the use of graph paper to develop in students.
In fact I now find the use of graph paper (or the use of lined
notebook paper functioning as "half-graph" paper) to be _limiting_. I find it
much more satisfactory to have students practice setting up approximate (but
fairly accurate) scales of their own, and estimate positions of points and
shapes of curves "by eye", rather than having them automatically follow the
blue lines.
But I've always been the radical in this department! Every department
needs one, but also needs a degree of control. I've had to retreat in the past
from positions I've taken and experiments I've tried, and in general am happy
to bow to wisdom from my colleagues. Perhaps I have gone off the deep end here
again. What is your take?
RWW Taylor
National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester NY 14623
>>>> The plural of mongoose begins with p. <<<<
P.S. I have no financial stake in this issue, having long ago sold off
all my stock in graph-paper-printing comapnies. :-)}
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