Showing posts with label ti-nspire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ti-nspire. Show all posts

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Teaching Math 5H: Quarter I Week 1 First Week Back!

Teaching Math 5H:
Quarter I Week 1 First Week Back!
9/1/2014 - 9/5/2014

I don't usually do a day by day rundown of the week, but here goes nothing!

MONDAY: Labor Day (nothing to report)

TUESDAY: Superintendent's Conferences where we spent all day in meetings except for the last 2 hours of the day when we finally got to set up our rooms. I spent those 2 hours moving 100 textbooks, arranging and tweeking 25 PCs, finding 25 chairs and placing 6 tables. Then I found that my SSH server's RAID drive crashed, so I had to setup openSSH on an alternate server I used to have for FTP. That's OK since I don't need the FTP server much anymore. I use the SSH sever for my AP Computer Science students to login from home and finish their Java projects. I share files with my students through Edmodo. I upload my files on DropBox, SageCell and YouTube aka my cloud!

WEDNESDAY: First Day of Classes
The first day of every quarter starts with the "Ceremony Of The Seats" (new seating assignments). The students come into a dark room except for the PC monitors and the SmartBoard. On the SmartBoard I'm playing an MP3 of the sound track to "A Beautiful Mind" over VLC. Since this isn't an MP4, VLC adds some wild special effects on the SmartBoard so it's all cool. Then I walk to each seat and call each student using my SmartPhone as a flashlight as if I'm an usher in the Movie Theater. It's all very dramatic. Then we hand out books and book cards, go over the syllabus and fill out some biographical forms. Sorry, there's no instruction the first day of classes.
YOUTUBE: Since it was Wednesday, after all, I had to show a FILK or two! So, at the end of the period I snuck in our own student made Frozen and then the infamous Mathmaticious!

THURSDAY: Lesson 101 Intro to TI-nSpire
Finally, we say goodbye to Hal (TI-89) and play around with the KARMTI emulator on each PC as we don't have all our TI nSpire CX CAS Graphing Calculators from DonorsChoose as yet. The students are still trying to get some FREE Google Gift Cards from Codecademy!
TECH NOTE: I was ScreenCasting Lesson 101 from the front of the room at the SmartBoard using SmartNotebook with my USB Mic attached to the SmartBoard. This was all well and good until the keys on the emulator started sticking. So, I had to go to my PC in the back of the room to use a standard keyboard and mouse instead of the SmartBoard for input on the emulator.

FRIDAY: Lesson 106 Implicit Graphs
I used to do a whole UNIT1 on preCalculus Review. Now I just sneak in a few of those lessons before UNIT2 on Limits. These UNIT1 Lessons are mainly an intro to the calculator and review of a bit of Algebra and Trig. We play around with Function, Parametric, DiffEqu and Polar modes all in the first few days of class!
TECH NOTE: I was ScreenCasting Lesson 106 from the back of the room at my PC with the USB Mic attached to the PC to fix the problems I listed in the last technical note. I still had a problem late in the ScreenCast when xournal, the pen app I was using, started drawing random lines all over the SmartBoard whenever I put the stylus down on my tablet. I was using xournal instead of SmartNotebook and a DROID Tablet over WiFi instead of the SmartBoard like the old days when all I had was a PC Projector. Maybe I'll try using SmartNotebook with the Tablet on Monday to see if that's a bit better. The problem with this setup is that when I use SmartNotebook with aconv, my ScreenCaster, and SplashTop (to connect the tablet over WiFi) then SmartNotebook is a bit laggy.
UPDATE: Today is Monday and I recorded ScreenCast 107 as above. I got a lot of lag between writing with the stylus and seeing what I wrote on SmartNotebook. So, I moved every thing back up front next to the SmartBoard. I attached an extra USB keyboard and USB mouse as well as the USB Mic directly to the SmartBoard. Luckily there's 3 USB ports! So, Tuesday I'll record ScreenCast 201 from the front of the room using the SmartBoard with SmartNotebook which worked well the first day (101). When I need to use the nSpire emulator, I can now use the keyboard and mouse at the front of the room to avoid the sticky keys! Neither will I need SpalshTop nor the Tablet. I still have the standard keyboard and mouse on the teacher/smartboard PC at the back of the room.

NEW AP Calculus BC + nSpire SCREENCASTS: 
YouTube desciptions include links to handouts and notes if you need them.



Teaching Math 5H:
Hal Must Die - No More TI-89!
Quarter I Week 0 August Preparation
AP Calculus BC is switching gears this year. We're leaving our TI-89s behind for the first time in 20 years! We will go forth and conquer with our new TI nSpire CX CAS Graphing Calculators! We've been running project after project on Donorschoose and nearly have a class set of nSpires to loan out. 

We used to call the TI-89 "Hal," hence the title of this post: Hal Must Die - No More TI-89! It shouldn't be a tough transition, however, as the 89 and the nSpire are very similar Computer Algebra Systems aka CAS. However, the nSpire has a nicer color, hi-res, bright interface and a document system to save our work. It also has the LUA programming environment, but I think we'll stick to TI-BASIC when writing programs for Calculus class!

Whenever I change textbooks or technology, I have to rerecord the course for YouTube. So, I'll record AP Calculus BC all over again with a bunch of new screencasts featuring the nSpire! This was the first course I ever recorded, so it's about time.

Here's a taste of the nSpire (not my video):


Here's a taste of the TI-89 (this is mine):

Well, that's all folks!
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Friday, May 30, 2014

CIS(theta) 2013-2014: MAY Meeting - TI nSpire CX CAS! (LAST POST THIS SCHOOL YEAR IN THIS THREAD)

CIS(theta) 2013-2014 
DropBox

LAST POST THIS SCHOOL YEAR IN THIS THREAD:
MAY Meeting - TI nSpire CX CAS!
We changed gears this month as my DonorsChoose project was finally funded with the help of Google Gift Cards from Codecademy. We got a class set of TI nSpire CX CAS Graphing Calculators. The only problem was getting a good emulator for Linux. This year we had replaced VTI with TILEM (TI-83) and TIEMU (TI-89). Next year we'll be using SageCell in preCalculus instead of the TI-83 and the TI nSpire CX CAS in Calculus instead of the TI-89. See my new DeskTop in the ScreenCast above using KARMTI.

Hope you had fun clustering with us this year. Have a great Summer, see you next year! 



April Meeting - MPI4PY
We played around with the pelicanHPC DVD and our mandelmpi.py program trying to zoom in on different regions of the Mandelbrot boundary:

mpiexec -n 4 --hostfile ~/tmp/bhosts mandelmpi.py


March Meeting - openSSH
We decided to install a native openMPI stack over our Ubuntu OS on all the hard drives in our cluster and skip using the DVD. The idea is to login from home and ssh to any node to login on the cluster as needed! We took our queue from from the 2011-2012 CIS(theta) team summary. We already covered steps 1-3. We're on step 4, installing Public Key Authenticated SSH!

InstantCluster Step 1: Infrastructure - Power, Wiring and AC
InstantCluster Step 2: Hardware - PCs
InstantCluster Step 3: Firmware - Ubuntu
InstantCluster Step 4: Software Stack I - openSSH
  1. Install openSSH-server from http://packages.ubuntu.com
  2. Create a the same new user on every box of the cluster
  3. login as the new user, we used 'shadowfax'
  4. If you have no .ssh directory in your home directory, ssh to some other machine in the lab; then Ctrl-d to close the connection, creating .ssh and some related files. 
  5. From your home directory, make .ssh secure by entering:
    chmod 700 .ssh
  6. Next, make .ssh your working directory by entering:
    cd .ssh
  7. To list/view the contents of the directory, enter:
    ls -a [we used ls -l]
  8. To generate your public and private keys, enter:
    ssh-keygen -t rsa
    The first prompt is for the name of the file in which your private key will be stored; press Enter to accept the default name (id_rsa).The next two prompts are for the password you want, and since we are trying to avoid entering passwords, just press Enter at both prompts, returning you to the system prompt.
  9. To compare the previous output of ls and see what new files have been created, enter:
    ls -a [we used ls -l]
    You should see id_rsa containing your private key, and id_rsa.pub containing your public key.
  10. To make your public key the only thing needed for you to ssh to a different machine, enter:
    cat id_rsa.pub >> authorized_keys
    [The Linux boxes on our LAN, soon to be cluster, have IPs ranging from 10.5.129.1 to 
    10.5.129.24 So, we copied each id_rsa.pub file to temp01-temp24 and uploaded these 
    files via ssh to the teacher station. Then we just ran cat tempnn >> authorized_keys 
    for each temp file to generate one master authorized_keys file for all nodes that we could 
    just download to each node's .ssh dir.]
  11. [optional] To make it so that only you can read or write the file containing your private key, enter:
    chmod 600 id_rsa [optional] To make it so that only you can read or write the file containing your authorized keys, enter: chmod 600 authorized_keys
InstantCluster Step 5: Software Stack II - openMPI
InstantCluster Step 6: Coding I - Quadrature
InstantCluster Step 7: Coding II - Mandelbrot
InstantCluster Step 8: Coding III - Mandel Zoom
InstantCluster Step 9: Coding IV - POVRay
InstantCluster Step 10: Coding V - Blender
InstantCluster Step 11: Coding VI - 3D Animation

February Meeting - mandelSEQ.py 
We finally figured out how to write a single core version of the Mandelbrot program in python!
Next we have to figure out how to add MPI4PY functionality to this program writing mandelMPI.py and run it on all 96 cores!
During our March meetings we'll setup a native MPI stack on our Linux boxes. We are following the MPI4PY examples from this manual:



Midterm Week II
Tweaking the SmartBoard User! 
After setting up Legolas as a Student PC, I added the passwd protected user Shadowfax to Legolas with "sudo adduser shadowfax" in the terminal. Don't forget to "sudo chmod 700 /home/*" so your files are secure when legolas is logged in! Now, Shadowfax will be my Teacher user (see video above). Further, I'm tweaking this Teacher user for SmartBoarding, ScreenCasting and Mirroring:

SmartBoard = 
Xournal or SmartNoteBook
ScreenCasting = 
avconv or Screencast-o-matic
Mirroring = 
SplashTop or TeamViewer

Then, I followed these steps:
(1) Install JRE as a FireFox plugin using the zip file and instructions given here. I wanted to update to the lastest JRE so that Screencat-O-Matic (SOM) could work again for ScreenCasting. I also wanted JRE for Keepvid, but this site won't allow JRE 1.7 as it's considered a security risk. You may want to install 1.6 instead. I got SOM working fine, but I'm still using avconv as it renders an MP4 file on the fly. I used SOM for the last screencast I made. That video was only 16 minutes long but SOM took over 8 minutes to render a 55MB file! By comaprison, the video above was recorded with avconv and is about 20 minutes long but took no time to render after I stopped recording! However, the MP4 file size was nearly 150MB.
(2) Download the latest 32 bit version of SmartNotebook for Linux from SmartTech. Be careful to install the DEB files in this order of dependency: smart-common, xf86-input-nextwindow, nwfermi, smart-activation, libudev0, smart-gallerysetup, smart-hwr, smart-languagesetup, smart-product-drivers, smart-notebook. 
2a) note: xf86-input-nextwindow and
libudev0 were installed using the Ubuntu Software Center (USC). 
2b) note: when you first execute your newly installed SmartNotebook, you will need a product key!
(3) Install Chrome from here. I need Chrome for the ESchool gradebook.
(4) Install Ubunutu-Restricted-Extras from the USC to get flash and to enable libdvdfree4 for DVDs and VLC among other things.
(5) Install VLC from the USC to play back MP4s and DVDs.
(6) Install libav-tools from the USC to use avconv instead of ffmpeg for ScreenCasting.
(7) Install TeamViewer or SplashTop from the USC to mirror the desktop to a tablet aka Kindle Fire HD an 9" Droid tablet with an HD multi-touch screen. In Ubuntu 13.10 you need to install python-appindicator from the USC for SplashTop to execute. Mirroring apps are great for controlling your Desktop and SmartBoard remotely from a tablet! It's your choice, but I'm using TeamViewer right now as I have to pay for SplashTop due to the high school's network setup. At the college, the network is set up in such a way that SplashTop is free to use.
(8) Install Xournal from the USC to be used instead of SmartNotebook as needed.
8a) note: when I use SmartNotebook in combination with either screencaster plus TeamViewer, the system is very laggy.
8b) note: when I use Xournal in combination with either screencaster plus TeamViewer, the system response is better!
8c) note: last Summer, I found SplashTop to be a little more responsive than TeamViewer.
8d) note: the following work together
BlueTooth or USB mic
avconv or SOM
xournal or SmartNotebook
teamviewer or SplashTop
WiFi Droid tablet or SmartBoard.
8d) note: in Linux, I prefer
BlueTooth mic
avconv
xournal
Teamviewer
WiFi Droid tablet.
8e) note: on the road, ie Windows, I use
USB mic
SOM
SmartNotebook
SplashTop
SmartBoard or PC Projector.
8f) note: on the road, last Summer, I used
USB mic
SOM
xournal
SplashTop
PC Projector.
8g) note: in Linux, right now, I use
BlueTooth mic
avconv
SmartNotebook
SplashTop
WiFi Droid tablet or SmartBoard.
9a) to use avconv instead of SOM with a USB Mic, use this script: 
#!/bin/sh
cd ~/
avconv -f alsa -i plughw:1,0 -f x11grab -r 30 -s 1600x1200+0+0 -i :0.0 -vcodec libx264 -preset ultrafast -threads 4 -y 00avonc.mp4
9a) to use avconv instead of SOM with a BlueTooth HeadSet, use this script: 
#!/bin/sh
cd ~/
avconv -f pulse -i default -f x11grab -r 30 -s 1600x1200+0+0 -i :0.0 -vcodec libx264 -preset ultrafast -threads 4 -y 00avonc.mp4


Midterm Week
Reinstalling the Teacher PC!
First, I reinstalled my Linux box as a student station with the new 32bit Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamader as follows (see screencast above):
(1a) download latest ISO and burn a DVDs
(1b) install DVD with plain vanilla defaults
(2) edit eth0 connection
(3a) edit system settings/network/proxy
(3b) edit system settings/appearance
(3c) edit system settings/brightness
(3d) edit system/settings/printers
(4) edit sources to main in USC
(5a) sudo apt-get update
(5b) sudo apt-get upgrade
(6a) USC install WINE and TIEMU
(6b) add TI89 and TI92 ROMs to TIEMU
(7a) download, extract and install TilEm
(7b) add TI83 and TI84 ROMs to TilEm
(8a) download and extract SAGE.lzma
(8b) echo "alias sage=$HOME/Desktop/SAGE/sage" >> ~./bashrc
(8c) source ~/.bashrc
(9) all we left on the desktop was the SAGE directory, a short cut to TilEm and our handy dandy Trig Table (see below)
(10a) to use TilEm, the students just click on the short cut
(10b) to use TIEMU and SAGE open a terminal and type "tiemu" or "sage" on a command line. I also added a VERY complicated bash script for this:
#!/bin/bash
tiemu

January Meeting
Testing out code!
We searched the web for MPI tutorials and found some code to try out on our 96 cores. Take a look at our sample code in the DropBox link above. We compared serial vs. parallel samples of the same task, whether it be Quadrature or Fractal! Using the pelicanHPC DVD we have compilers for mpicc, mpiCC as well as mpif77. I don't know if we have mpif90. We can also use mpi4py without compiling! 

mpif77 = FORTRAN77
mpif90 = FORTRAN90
mpicc = C
mpiCC = C++
mpi4py = python

When we compiled, for example, FORTRAN77 code we used the mpif77 compiler on both the serial and parallel versions:
mpif77 -o fpi-serial fpi-serial.f
mpif77 -o fpi fpi.f

then to execute said code:
./fpi-serial
mpirun --hostfile ~/tmp/bhosts -np 96 ./fpi

If you want to test your code off the cluster and you have, say a quad-core, you can do:
mpirun -np 4 ./fpi

What's nice about mpi4py is that you can just execute your code:
mpirun -np 4 01-hello-world.py

Here's a promising site for sample *.f and *.c code!

Next meeting we are going to write our own mpi4py code to generate Mandelbrot Fractals!


December Meeting
Firing on all cores!
Today we booted up the entire LAN using the pelicanHPC 64bit 2.9 with mpi4py DVD! We finally got up to 24 nodes with 96 cores and nearly 50 GFLOP/s!! Great job guys!!! Now we have to decide if we are going to install a  native MPI stack. We also need to research sample MPI code online to learn how to program the cluster in FORTRAN77, C, C++ and python. We used the code above, which estimates pi using Reimann Sums and arctan(x), to stress the cluster. BTW, we don't have 100 cores as my PC is on another logical subnet and its only dual core anyway.
To compile:
mpif77 -o flops flops.f
To execute
mpirun -np 96 --hostfile ~/tmp/bhosts flops


November Meeting II
Firing up the cluster for the first time!
We are trying to figure out if we can use a bootable Linux CD to boot up the cluster or if we want to add an MPI stack with public key authenticated sshd to our Ubuntu Desktop. So, we downloaded the pelicanHPC ISO, burned a DVD and got 17 compute nodes or 68 cores running at about 35 GFLOP/s! 

Hey, that's not too shabby, just 13 years ago, top500.org reports that all you needed were 50 cores running at 55 MFLOP/s to make the list of one of the 500 fastest clusters in the world! We may even get up to 50 MFLOP/s if we get all 100 cores up and running. 

So, we're looking at pelicanHPC, BCCD and ClusterByNight for MPI. We used to run clusterKNOPPIX, BCCD and Quantian with openMOSIX. Too bad openMOSIX isn't supported anymore. It was so easy to code for MOSIX. In C or C++ all you had to do was use the fork() function to start a new process. openMOSIX ran in the Linux Kernel. Whenever your processes came close to using 100% of you CPU, MOSIX would automagically  send one of your forked jobs to another processor. When we started using MOSIX, we only had one core per PC, so that meant send the job to another PC on the LAN. In those days (late 1990s) we managed to run 100 cores anyway by taking over 4 PC Labs on my floor at school....

November Meeting I
Last Linux Install Fest!
We finally got the new 64bit Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamader installed correctly on all student PCs. I'll upgrade my station at a later date. We got this down to a science: 
(1a) download latest ISO and burn 8 DVDs
(1b) install DVD with plain vanilla defaults
(2) edit eth0 connection
(3a) edit system settings/network/proxy
(3b) edit system settings/appearance
(3c) edit system settings/brightness
(3d) edit system/settings/printers
(4) edit sources to main in USC
(5a) sudo apt-get update
(5b) sudo apt-get upgrade
(6a) USC install WINE and TIEMU
(6b) add TI89 and TI92 ROMs to TIEMU
(7a) download, extract and install TilEm
(7b) add TI83 and TI84 ROMs to TilEm
(8a) download and extract SAGE.lzma
(8b) echo "alias sage=$HOME/Desktop/SAGE/sage" >> ~./bashrc
(8c) source ~/.bashrc
(9) all we left on the desktop was the SAGE directory, a short cut to TilEm and our handy dandy Trig Table (see below)
(10a) to use TilEm, the students just click on the short cut
(10b) to use TIEMU and SAGE open a terminal and type "tiemu" or "sage" on a command line.
(11) I'll add TilEm and TIEMU to the start-up menu. I was going to add "sage -n" too, but I don't want FireFox hogging all my Desktops at bootup!

October Meeting II
Linux Install Fest Again!
I downloaded 8 copies the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop 32bit ISO: 13.10 Saucy Salamander. Then I burned 8 DVDs and reinstalled the Linux partition on the second row of 8 PCs in our classroom. The geek squad did all the tweaks this time! 

We are having a massive problem with VTI running under WINE. It's so slow as to be unusable. We have to figure out a solution. Maybe 13.04 is better? Or maybe I can get WINE's direct ppa and use their latest version?

Another problem is that we have a SAGE directory on the Desktop extracted from the latest compiled version of SAGE. In there we have a SAGE bash script. I usually make it executable and students can just click it to run SAGE. In 13.10, the script will not execute, the script just opens in gedit even though I made the file executable. I even ran "which bash" to see if bash moved (it did) so I could update the #! line but still no joy!

How about an alias like:
echo "alias sage=$HOME/Desktop/SAGE/sage" >> ~/.bashrc

then:
source ~/.bashrc

October Meeting I
Linux Install Fest!
We downloaded 8 copies the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop 64bit ISO: 13.10 Saucy Salamander. Then we burned 8 DVDs and reinstalled the Linux partition on the first row of 8 PCs in our classroom. I did all the tweaks the following day.

Next week I'll reinstall the 2nd row and the Geek Squad will do all the tweaks. I like to keep the Student Stations very simple. So, we will only tweak as follows:
(1) configure Network (eth0, proxy)
(2) configure Appearence and Brightness 
(3) configure Printers
(4) sudo apt-get update (after setting sources to main).
(5) sudo apt-get upgrade
(6) install WINE
(7) copy VTI to the desktop
(8) extract SAGE to the desktop

September Meeting I: 
Administrativa!
(1) Wreath of the Unknown Server: We visited our first ssh server, Colossus, which is still in the switch room though dormant. I set it up for the first time in 1995 running Slackware Linux. Colossus ran for 12 years straight, 24x7 never having to shut down, reboot or even have anything re-installed!

(2) Display Case Unveiled: We took down a ton of fractal prints and ray tracings from Room 429 to the 2 cases on the 1st floor near the art wing. We decorated both cases as best we could and left before anyone saw us. Must have been gremlins.

(3) Recruiting: We decided that we have more than enough qualified CIS(theta) members for this year's Geek Squad, so we tabled that topic.

(4) Planning: We have to wait another 2 weeks 10/4 at which point Ubuntu 13.10 Desktop Edition should be available for a mini install fest. After that, we may use bootable cluster Linux CD distros such as BCCD and pelicanHPC to learn MPI using C++ or Python. We also talked about installing an MPI stack on each hdd along with public key authenticated ssh. We would like to make a fractal zoom animation.

(5) Summary: This year's CIS(theta) team is off to a good start. Shadowfax, our 100 core cluster, is in good hands!

==================================
What we are researching VIII (Apr): MPI4PY

Lisandro Dalcin



==================================
What we are researching VII (Mar): MPI4PY

Lisandro Dalcin


==================================
What we are researching VI (Feb): MPI4PY

Lisandro Dalcin

==================================

What we are researching V (Jan): MPI
pelicanHPC, BCCD, ClusterByNight
==================================
What we are researching IV (Dec): MOSIX
clusterKNOPPIX, BCCD, QUANTIAN
==================================
What we are researching III (Nov)
Fractals, PovRay, Blender
==================================
What we are researching II (Oct)
MPI, PVM, MOSIX
==================================
What we are researching I (Sept)
Thomas Jefferson High courses
http://academics.tjhsst.edu/compsci/parallel
Thomas Jefferson High paper
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~rlatimer/techlab07/BWardPaperQ3-07.pdf
Thomas Jefferson High ftp
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~rlatimer/techlab07
Thomas Jefferson High teacher
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~rlatimer
==================================
Daily Attendance:
CIS(theta) 2013-2014: Taty absent

BiWeekly Topic:
CIS(theta) 2013-2014 - MPI4PY! 

Monthly Reading:
Chapter 8: Building Parallel Programs (APR)
Chapter 7: Building Parallel Programs (MAR)
Chapter 6: Building Parallel Programs (FEB)
Chapter 5: Building Parallel Programs (JAN)
Chapter 4: Building Parallel Programs (DEC)
Chapter 3: Building Parallel Programs (NOV)
Chapter 2: Building Parallel Programs (OCT)
Chapter 1: Building Parallel Programs (SEP)
==================================
Membership (alphabetic by first name):

CIS(theta) 2013-2014: BryanS, CheyenneC, DanielG, HarineeN, RichardH, RyanW, TatianaR, TylerK

CIS(theta) 2012-2013: Kyle Seipp

CIS(theta) 2011-2012: Graham Smith, George Abreu, Kenny Krug, LucasEager-Leavitt

CIS(theta) 2010-2011: David Gonzalez, Herbert Kwok, Jay Wong, Josh Granoff, Ryan Hothan

CIS(theta) 2009-2010: Arthur Dysart, Devin Bramble, Jeremy Agostino, Steve Beller

CIS(theta) 2008-2009: Marc Aldorasi, Mitchel Wong

CIS(theta) 2007-2008: Chris Rai, Frank Kotarski, Nathaniel Roman

CIS(theta) 1988-2007: A. Jorge Garcia, Gabriel Garcia, James McLurkin, Joe Bernstein, ... too many to mention here!

==================================
Well, that's all folks!
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Sunday, March 30, 2014

Goto DonorsChoose.org! Hurry, run, don't walk!




Recently, I received an email from DonorsChoose about a Google Challenge for my students on Codecademy! Kindly allow me to explain:

(1) DonorsChoose is like KickStarter for teachers. You can propose a project for your classroom, say some new textbooks. Then anyone who likes your project can come along and donate to your cause. When you make a teacher account on DonorsChoose, you start with 2 points worth $1000 each to select items from their vendors. DonorsChoose has several school materials vendors, but recently added Amazon so you can get just about anything you need! If your project is funded, you can get your points back plus 1 more if you send out a thank you package to each of your donors.

(2) Codecademy is an online school of sorts. It has tons of free courses for students to learn programming. This challenge has the students complete a short introduction to Computer Science learning JavaScript, http://www.codecademy.com/donors-choose

(3) Google is offering $100 gift cards for DonorsChoose to female students that complete the Codecademy course. I get an extra $500 bonus gift card for each group of 4 students that complete the online course. The challenge encourages girls to learn Computer Science.

I'm trying to raise the money to get a class set of TI Nspire CX CAS Graphing Calculators as described below.

Please contribute to my project (text below). If you want to donate, go the link below and use promo code 100WOMEN to double your donation!
http://www.donorschoose.org/calcpage2010

My Students: Everyday, in Calculus class, the first thing we do is take out our homework, notebook, textbook and calculator. Many questions can be done analytically and verbally. However, the graphing calculator has become a focal point in class since many problems now require a graphical and numerical approach.
I have been teaching Calculus to gifted students at my High School every year since 1993. Many of my students take the AP Calculus BC exam each May and do very well. As a result, some of my students go on to major in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics at some of our nation's top Ivy League and Technical Colleges.
I try to keep in touch with my students after graduation to see what professional and career goals they may have met over the years. I am happy to report that I have found that some of my students have gone on to become teachers, professors, engineers, doctors and scientists in their own right.
I am very proud of my students, I am privileged to be their teacher and I have been blessed with the opportunity to help them fulfill their dreams.
This project is all about helping my students succeed in my class, in their college majors and in their chosen professions or careers to the best of my ability and to the best of their ability. Will you please help?
My Project: For as long as I can remember, we've been using the TI-89 Graphing Calculator. This calculator was state of the art in the early 1990s, but now it's time for a change!
The TI Nspire CX CAS is a more modern graphing calculator with several advantages:
The Nspire has a high resolution color screen making our graphs much easier to view, manipulate, color code, and label. Both the 89 and the Nspire include a Computer Algebra Systems aka CAS. This means that they can actually handle Algebra and Calculus expressions symbolically. However, the Nspire has many more such functions available. These calculators are actually programmable computers. The 89 uses a form of BASIC combined with graphing and CAS functions. The Nspire also has a new language called LUA which is perfect for GUI programming on the calculator. The Nspire is a lot like a laptop PC in that it has an operating system, file directories and several apps. Using these apps, we can save our work as documents.
The best technology for teaching and learning Calculus is a PC or Tablet running a CAS. However, the TI Nspire CX CAS has many of the same features. Also, since the AP Calculus exam requires the use of a Graphing Calculator, using the Nspire will give us access to the best of both worlds. We can still solve problems numerically and graphically. However, now we can check all our work Algebraically as well. With the Nspire I will be able to prepare my students for the AP exam and for college too! 

HTH, 
A. Jorge Garcia

Generally Speaking,
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