TI Nspire CX Graphing Calculator

Wow! Are you nerd enough to get excited about a calculator? Apparently I am.

At BlogHer ’12, Texas Instruments invited me to a hands-on demo of their newest graphing calculator, the TI Nspire CX (and gave me one I re-gifted to my college kid.) Now, I have to admit that my college days were PRE-CALCULATOR (I know, I know) but my kids did use the TI-84 graphing calculators in high-school, so I had some familiarity with the Nspire’s predecessors. And I’ve long been a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fan girl, so this product demo was right up my alley.

The Nspire CX is designed for middle school, all the way through to college, and approved for use on all the college entrance exams, including the SAT, ACT, PSAT, AP, and IB. The best way to describe it is to get rid of the calculator model, and think of it as a handheld calculator-sized color computer. In addition to traditional graphing exercises, it can be used to add interactive testing to a classroom. I’ve never been a teacher, but I can see how this product could really help engage all kinds of students, not just those who already love math and the sciences.

I’m not going to try to do the product justice here, so here are some sites where you can learn more. First is TI’s Education Technology site. Next, be sure to visit Math Nspired and Science Nspired for classroom activities. And last, TI asked me to tell you about a special classroom deal going on until Nov (see the attached PDF) and the bring-Mayim -Bialik-to-your-school contest.

So tell me, what kind of calculator did YOU use in high school and college?