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Graphing Calculator for college


TCB
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My dd has to use a graphing calculator for parts of her Calculus course and the old TI -84 Plus that she has been using is malfunctioning. She is applying to do civil engineering and I thought we should maybe go ahead and get the recommended calculator for that but I am having trouble finding which calculators they recommend. Does anyone have any recommendations for me, for a good calculator that an engineering student would use?

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You may need two calculators for college - something like a TI-graphing calculator, and then a no-frills scientific calculator for exams where the graphing calculator is not allowed.

Engineering students tend to use engineering software rather than ever fancier calculators for assignments these days (DD's school gives them all student licenses to MATLAB), so a TI-8X series should be fine even for college.

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5 hours ago, TCB said:

My dd has to use a graphing calculator for parts of her Calculus course and the old TI -84 Plus that she has been using is malfunctioning. She is applying to do civil engineering and I thought we should maybe go ahead and get the recommended calculator for that but I am having trouble finding which calculators they recommend. Does anyone have any recommendations for me, for a good calculator that an engineering student would use?

I graduated from civil engineering using only scientific calculators. I found these recommendations.   

https://ncees.org/exams/calculator/
“To protect the integrity of its exams, NCEES limits the types of calculators examinees may bring to exam sites. The list of approved calculators is reviewed annually.

The following calculator models are the only ones acceptable for use during the 2021 exams:

  • Casio: All fx-115 and fx-991 models (Any Casio calculator must have “fx-115” or “fx-991” in its model name.)
  • Hewlett Packard: The HP 33s and HP 35s models, but no others
  • Texas Instruments: All TI-30X and TI-36X models (Any Texas Instruments calculator must have “TI-30X” or “TI-36X” in its model name.)”

https://www.unb.ca/fredericton/engineering/depts/civil/current-undergrad/calculators.html

The list of permitted, or “standard” calculators is given below. They are all in the price range of $11 - $30. 

In any Civil Engineering examination, midterm, or test, a student must not have in their possession any electronic device except an approved (“Civil standard”) calculator, unless such device is specifically permitted, in writing, by the instructor.

The term “electronic device” includes calculators, cell phones, PDAs, iPods, CD players, etc.”

ETA:

https://www.cee.msstate.edu/calculator-policy/

The CEE Calculator Policy simply states,

When taking examinations in classes offered by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, students may only use calculators that are approved by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) for use in taking the Fundamental of Engineering Examination (FE).”

The list of approved calculators and the ABET policy are available here.

The only calculator models acceptable for use during the 2017 exams are as follows.

Casio: All fx-115 and fx-991 models (Any Casio calculator must have “fx-115” or “fx-991” in its model name.)

Hewlett Packard: The HP 33s and HP 35s models, but no others

Texas Instruments: All TI-30X and TI-36X models (Any Texas Instruments calculator must have “TI-30X” or “TI-36X” in its model name.)”

You may reference the NCEES website for these guidelines.”

http://www.cive.uh.edu/sites/cive/files/files/calculator_policy.pdf
“ Calculator Policy for Undergraduate CIVE Courses
Only calculators approved by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) for use in the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) and Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exams can be used during exams, tests, and quizzes in CIVE undergraduate courses. The approved calculators are:
 Casio: All fx-115 and fx-991 models (any Casio calculator must have “fx-115” or “fx-991” in its model name)
 Hewlett-Packard: HP 33s and HP 35s
 Texas Instruments: All TI-30X and TI-36X models (any Texas Instruments calculator must have “TI-30X” or “TI-36X” in its model name)”

https://www.engr.colostate.edu/~pierre/ce_old/classes/CIVE261/calculatorpolicy-1.pdf
”Policy for Calculator Use in Exams Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Paul Heyliger
The recommended policy of the CEE Department is to require use of NCEES-approved calculators during all in-class exams and quizzes. These calculators possess most operations used in undergraduate mechanics problems, are inexpensive, and will be required when students take the FE examination during their junior or senior year. The approved list may change each year, and can be found at the NCEES website:
http://www.ncees.org/Exams/Exam-day_policies/Calculator_policy.php
It is recommended that instructors clearly outline this policy in their syllabus and give a current listing of the approved calculators.
Use of this policy will be at the instructor’s discretion.”

Edited by Arcadia
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23 hours ago, TCB said:

My dd has to use a graphing calculator for parts of her Calculus course and the old TI -84 Plus that she has been using is malfunctioning. She is applying to do civil engineering and I thought we should maybe go ahead and get the recommended calculator for that but I am having trouble finding which calculators they recommend. Does anyone have any recommendations for me, for a good calculator that an engineering student would use?

At my dd#1's college (which is mostly engineering, comp sci, & nursing majors), no 100 & 200 math classes allow calculators to be used on exams and heavily discourage their use for homework. They use MATLAB on some assignments, though.

Of course, the students do have graphing calculators.

Unlike high school calc classes, it seems to be completely normal to discourage calculator use in 4 yr U calc classes. Fyi.

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On 10/24/2021 at 9:39 PM, Arcadia said:

 Texas Instruments: All TI-30X and TI-36X models (any Texas Instruments calculator must have “TI-30X” or “TI-36X” in its model name)”

I'm a fan of the TI-30 multiview myself - it only has basic scientific calculator functions but it has a scrollable history that  makes it easy to spot key-ing errors and to reuse previous results. Both my kids used that as their high school calculator. The future engineer got a graphing calculator when she moved on to a community college class that recommended one.

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