Important/Cool HP Prime Stuff

[Tim Wessman]

Hello,

NCTM in Boston was quite exciting due to the extremely high level of excitement shown by a huge number of educators. I thought I would pass on some cool stuff. First, it was publicly announced by the College Board that HP Prime was approved for College Board exams.

Quote:Beginning with the 2014-15 academic year, the HP Prime graphing calculator is approved for use on College Board tests that allow or require a graphing calculator. These include the PSAT/NMSQT, the SAT, the SAT Subject Tests in Mathematics, and AP Exams in Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, Chemistry, Physics 1, Physics 2, Physics C: Mechanics, and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism. (Note that some tests permit a calculator only on certain parts.)

Permission is granted on the basis of the HP Prime models reviewed by ETS, College Board, and College Board Test Development Committees in mathematics and science. The HP Prime hardware does not include any prohibited feature, including a QWERTY keypad as part of hardware or software, a stylus or pen-input device, or wireless communication capability (without a visible external peripheral used in the context of classroom-directed technology).

Note that this approval begins with the PSAT/NMSQT in October 2014, the SAT and SAT Subject Tests in Mathematics in October 2014, and the AP Exams in May 2015.

Second, there were two talks I really liked given at the NCTM conference that had very nice reception from those in attendance. The first, Cool Math from Cool Graphs, deals with some very interesting uses of the advanced graphing in the classroom, and the second, Conjecture and Proof in Geometry, deals with geometry use around quadrilaterals. I thought I would share these as they are quite interesting. I especially liked the adv graphing one.

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[eried]

Great news! Congrats

[parisse]

Actually, the geometry document misses the ability to make a proof with the Prime, it explains only how to make conjectures. When the author takes exact coordinates, he could have emphasized that the computation for the test is done exactly, which mean that the result is a proof, but only valid for that particular choice of coordinates.
You can make a general case proof with sliders having numeric value for the display but where all computations are done symbolically.
Really sad, because that is the main difference between the geometry app on the Prime and all geometry applications on other calculators: you can make proofs with the Prime while you can only make conjectures with other calcs.

[parisse]

And the graphing document could be improved by factoring with the CAS factor command instead of doing it by hand, especially if the hand-made factorization has a mistake inside (implicit differentiation, missing square for x) :-)

[Mic]

WOw, we can see in the 2nd document screenviews of the new Geometry application from the next firmware !
Symbolic view displays the geometrical elements with 3 columns now.

[jebem]

Excellent news, Tim!
I see that a lot of work has been done by HP and its business partners, while maintaining a low profile, required to achieve success in this business.
I stand my view about the HP-Prime: it is a great machine.

[Alberto Candel]

That is great news for the HP Prime!
I am looking forward to the new Geometry App.
Thanks

A.

[Eddie W. Shore]

Congratulations Tim! It is nice that the HP Prime is getting recognized.

[mcjtom]

Would it mean that for AP science (physics) exam, HP Prime can be used as it is (i.e. without any restrictions of Exam mode)?

Cheers!

[peacecalc]

Hallo prime fans,

I even tried the suggested factorization with my good ol' HP 50g and I get:

\[ (X-(Y+1))\cdot (X+2\cdot\sqrt{Y})\cdot (X-2\cdot\sqrt{Y}) \]

which is of course only correct for y greater or equal zero.

Greetings
peaceglue