Ah, yes, the old TI-1.
I was required to use the TI-2, a graphing slide rule.
Second-year algebra can certainly be taught without a graphing calculator… but your daughter’s teacher apparently isn’t exercising that option. The thing is, if they’re giving out exams that assume all the students have graphing calculators, she’ll need one to pass her exams.
The school lent us graphing calculators for a couple of months back when I took second-year algebra. The questions on the exam for that month asked only calculator-specific questions (like figuring out y-intercepts on a graph to 5 decimal places, or the intersecting point of two graphs to 5 decimal points… things you needed to use the T-83’s functions to figure out in a reasonable amount of time.)
So anyway, if your daughter doesn’t have the calculator she’ll be at a severe disadvantage. I agree that it isn’t fair for the school system to expect you to buy the most expensive model. I don’t think they’ll let people use the T-89 on the SATs because those calculators can integrate and differentiate functions algebraically and do a whole host of other fancy things, so they’d give students too much of an edge on the math SAT II’s (the math subject tests.)
TI?? ::spit::
I stuck with the trusty HP-48. No one ever asked to borrow it twice, because no one could figure out how to use it. 
Graphing turned out to be pretty useful in calculus, but not quite so useful in algebra - although we did graph a few inequalities. The ability to store functions/programs to automate repetitive tasks was helpful in algebra, though. We were sometimes expected to find decimal answers with the quadratic formula, and it was nice to just type in A, B, and C and hit a button, instead of doing the same calculations over and over.
A graphing calculator is also a decent investment for the future. She may be able to get by with a cheaper scientific calculator in algebra class, but in calculus or college math, the other functions (graphing, matrices, programming) will come in handy. And some features, like the financial functions, have use outside of school.
Getting a TI-89 as a high school SOPHOMORE is just a bit much. I mean… gah! The thing does symbolic integration! However, I’ve had a TI-86 since Algebra II and it’s been incredibly useful. I’ve been glad to have it. Of course, we were always forced to learn HOW to do the elementary functions first, and to show that on early tests and homework, but after that, using a calculator allowed us to do more problems and more complex problems, because we didn’t have to screw around with all the little details. If our teacher wanted to test us on an advanced concept, but the problem he wanted to use involved a bunch of tedious work in something we’d mastered months ago, or it involved an integral that couldn’t be done by hand, of COURSE we were expected to use our calculators. Otherwise we’d have about one problem on a test!
Yeah, but did you have the extra datalink cable to the abacus? 'Cause no slide rule was really cool without one of them.
I had to have a TI-83 for my sophomore Chemistry class in high school. A few students had TI-89’s, but they were the ones taking the advanced math classes. I certainly didn’t need a TI-83 for Algebra - the only time I used my TI-83 for a math class was senior PreCalc.
Mainly, though, we used the data cables to swap games and play them during class. My batteries died, though, and I lost all my games… 
My girlfriend is now using my TI-83 for her college Calc class, so it might not be a bad investment for your daughter, but I am surprised the school’s asking for such an advanced calculator for an Algebra class. May
Argh… to continue…
Maybe they’ve implemented the TI-89 into all of the math and science classes, and they want students to invest in the calculators early on and then be able to use the same calculator all through high school and, presumably, through college?
First off in the SD’s quest to fight ignorance…
The TI-89 IS permitted on the SATs.
The only reason the higher models are not permitted is becuse they have a QWERTY keyboard. It was just really annoying me that so many people are saying something untrue
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/testday/calc.html
That’s the link to the college board’s website about the use of calculators suring the SATs. Thank you.
Kitty
My word! Graphing calculators. What is the world coming to?
For first year of Engineering I was required to have a Log-Log Duplex Trig or Deci-Trig slide rule and know how to use it. Fortunately between the accompanying mfgrs. manual and a nifty little paper back written by one of the profs. with lots of short cuts and tricks life wasn’t too difficult. The price in 1941 was comparable with the T89 allowing for inflation.
I later acquired a copy of Bruhn’s 9? place (or was it 15 places) table of logarithims and a Brunsvega “sausage mill” calculator which was all the rage in the scientific community pre WW-I. Can’t find the book but still have the mill.
Fairy Pricess - thanks. Like I said, this was kinda sprung on us, and EVERYONE we talked to - parents and teachers alike - consistently said 83 yes, 89 no. I guess I would need to look into the ACT, or any other tests she might need to take.
I would have no problem with my kid getting this calculator if she were in some sort of science/math concentration. Or if she were in an AP science or math class. But as a sophomore, math is her only non-honors class. She is a hardcore band geek, most interested in a career involving music. Her next favorite classes are French, English, and History, with Science and Math (and PE!) bringing up the rear.
This type of thing makes me wonder about what drives certain technological “advances.” Just because these nifty calculators exist, textbooks are rewritten to reflect the “latest” developments. Which results on passing a significant cost on to the parents.
It certainly would be better - IMO - for the school to purchase a few of them, and if they think it is important to learn, renting them out for a several week-long graphing calculator unit. Fortunately, I can afford the $90-150 - though I would prefer to spend it on something else. I have to think there are families out there for whom this would really be a tough expense.
Heck - she’s also taking driver’s ed this semester. Is the school going to tell me I need to buy her a car? 
Thanks, Kitty . I didn’t realize it was allowed on the SAT. I’ve looked an see that it’s now allowed on AP calc exams, too. Back a few years, the reasons for excluding the TI-92 (and others) was more complicated than the QWERTY keyboard. The undesireable features (symbolic algebra/calculus, IR transmission between calculators) were only on the ones with QWERTY keyboards. The TI-89 was thus excluded because it had at least the symbolic algebra capabilities.
College use of graphing calculators varies greatly from school to school. My undergrad calc classes incorporated Maple into the classes and graphing calculators took a back seat. You could use them on exams - but they weren’t very helpful and work had to be shown. Where I am now (big University), I don’t know about the math classes, but the chemistry department doesn’t allow them. The physics department does allow them - but many students don’t use them anymore. I know of another medium sized state University where all of the math classes are VERY heavy into calculator use. They then have non-calculator skills tests to ensure that people learn to do something by hand.
I think it’s kind of arrogant for the teacher to assume that you have $150 lying around the house that you don’t know what to do with. Beyond that, a souped up graphing calculator for high school is nuts. For high school, what graphing is done could be done with more educational benefit with graph paper. Pick x, compute y. Repeat till you see the shape. Connect the dots. What a lot of kids learn is just the cookbook for having this particular model display graphs that they don’t understand.
REAL math and engineering majors wouldn’t be caught dead with ANY TI product. For us, it’s Hewlett-Packard or Not Exactly.
New textbooks are certianly not a requirement for using calculators. Most current texts do include calculators, though. I don’t know of any schools that ran out to buy new books just for this - but rather when they replaced the current textbooks, they opted for ones that integrated calculators in a particular way. If there’s one thing I learned in your school supplies thread, though, it’s that there’s WAY more variation in school management / policies than I ever thought possible.
As for the second point, I’m coming at this from the teaching / no kids side of things … so my opinion may be null and void. But this method is exactly what most math / science educators don’t want. ‘Properly’ integrated into the class, there is no graphing calculator unit and very few Special Calculator Acitivies. Learning to identify when a piece of technology is useful (without there being a little calculator icon next to the problem) is a big part of it.
Graphing calculators? Ridiculous.
I got my BS in electrical engineering with nothing more than a plain ‘ol Casio non-graphic/non-programmable calculator. In fact, I’m getting my MSEE 10 years later and I’m still using the same calculator.
Even in my work I don’t use a graphics calculator. That’s what Excel and MathCAD are for…
I’ve owned both the 83 and the 89. I’d buy her the ti-89. The Ti-83 has a softer learning curve, but the 89 is so much superior once you learned how to use it. So much so, that I can’t stand using an 83 anymore. In anycase, if she ever takes calclulus or becomes any sort of science major in college, she’ll most definitely need it, and an 89 will last pretty much forever. It simply does everything. If she doesn’t, then she can simply hand it down to your next youngest child.
cost really shouldn’t be a factor between the calclulators. the 89 is immensely superior, and the 30 dollar difference between the 83 and 89’s street prices(120-90 = 30) is well worth the future-proof protection.
However, considering that she is in an ALGERBRA course… she simply doesn’t need a calculator this powerful. In fact, she should be able to do all the material in algerbra in her head, with maybe a scientific calculator for tricky fractions. If you do decide to get her the calculator make sure she doesn’t rely on it like a crutch.
Gah… so many commas… must not post when so… tired…
Must… not make… run on sentences.
You know, I used to own a TI-92 (which was mentioned earlier in this thread). It had a QWERTY keyboard and everything. I don’t think they make them anymore, largely because of that QWERTY rule on standardized tests. The TI-89 has the same guts and software as the 92, but no Qwerty.
The TI-92 was intensely cool. I got out of math just as they were coming out with the TI-89, so I never bothered to “downgrade”, but let’s just say this:
The TI-83 or TI-86 should more than suffice. The 89 has been around for roughly 5 years and is still top of the line - your kid won’t ever need anything better, and probably wouldn’t be able to find anything better. The 83/86 is enough; the 89 is more than enough and still quite useful.
I’ve owned a number of graphing calculators in my life. I usually didn’t use them to do anything that I couldn’t have done on a $2 8-function and, very rarely, something that would be much easier with a $10 scientific. The only real benefit of the graphic calculators was the large display area allowing you to put in all of an expression before evaluating it… less likely to make a mistake.
For security reasons, the place I’m working now does not allow electronic devices with the ability to store text to be carried into and out of the building without escort and special authorization. In short- no graphing calculators at all. I have a TI-36X and I’m getting along fine, though I’ll usually do things at least two times to make sure I get the same answer and didn’t press the wrong key somewhere along the way. Some people have the TI-30(X?) which has a two line input/output display… so you can put in the whole expression. People have grown dependent on the feature, so it’s pretty funny when the whole expression is longer than the display memory of the calculator and they don’t know what to do.
As a student I always thought the graphing calculators were a waste of money, and still do, but the ability to play tetris or write programs in class (go multiplayer calculink DrugWar) was a big selling point for me, so I usually had one.
They usually are faster (computational speed wise) than cheaper calculators, but since people are inclined to spend an extra minute formatting the entire expression to get it all in there, it probably evens out- unless, like I said, you’re using that $150 calculator like a solar 8-func.
Well, this will shock the hell out of the purists and young-uns alike, but I’ve had TI-83 since 7th grade.
We used it a lot back then (granted, that class was was so advanced that I’m in Junior level Trig/PreCalc and still haven’t got as far as we were in that class) and I still use it a lot now. Like it’s been said, if you know the quadratic formula, write a program and plug in A, B anc C. It’s a time saver, but in some cases, some students do become dependent quickly.
If you’re making the choice, find out if your sophomore knows the math already and won’t suckle at the calculator teat.
It was said earlier in the thread: if the teacher writes the exam expecting that you have the calculator specified, and you don’t have that calculator or similar, the odds are that you would fail or not have nearly enough time to complete the test. Calculating intersections and intercepts in Algebra-2 is possible by hand, but it takes a long time. The calculator helps tremendously.
Are they worth the money? Mine has been. I’ve been using it for 5 years of math and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It runs smooth and has helped me in Biology and Chemistry also. Great machine.
The Ti-83 was a god sent for my AP Physics class. Without it I would have to had listen to the teacher for 45 minutes. I played the kid in front of me in Bomberman every day. One day during a particular heated match I slammed my calculator down and said damnit in the middle of class. Good times.