I wouldn't stop with learning to graph using the calculator or in
sketch on paper, however. Given the swift evolution of ray tracing
engines, including in the public domain (i.e. free) such as the
povray product (www.povray.org), I'm in the business of giving
students more control of graphical output generally, using math
to drive the engines.
You can preview my approach via such pages as:
http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/quadshapes.html
http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/calculus1.html
(both pages use povray -- and the quadray papers link to a
lot of public domain object oriented source code).
Students now have the power to work closely with teachers on
creating their own curriculum materials, saved on intranets,
made sharable via the internet (perhaps via registration i.e.
some tuition). HTML, as a kind of symbol manipulation, is
now trickling down to the early grades and will be part and
parcel of what a 21st century gradeschooler will be expected
to master, with an eye towards completing homework
assignments (e.g. by next week, publish a web page on
the Bell Curve, taking screen shots from MathCad and
cut/pasting graphs/equations into your HTML).
Kirby
Curriculum Writer
4D Solutions / Oregon Curriculum Network
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