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Earlier this week, Texas Instruments announced a fall series of free webinars for educators. The series is a part of their T3 program (Teachers Teaching with Technology). The webinars are about an hour long each and are going to be available on demand after their original broadcast. You can get a certificate of attendance that might be applicable towards professional development hours in some states. Looking at the schedule of T3 Webinars, Texas Instruments continues to make the drive towards moving from the TI-84 platform to the TI-Nspire platform.

World’s Largest Proof Wins Prize

By Tech Powered Dad in Fun stuff

September 14, 2011

I need to start this story with a disclaimer. While I learned a bit about groups during my abstract algebra class in my junior year of college, that class was definitely very abstract to me. In other words, I’m unlikely to be able to answer any questions in the comments for this one. That said, the story of one of the men behind the world’s largest proof on the New Scientist is an interesting one.

TI-Nspire OS 3.1 Released

By Tech Powered Dad in news

September 7, 2011

Just got off the phone with a customer service representative at Texas Instruments headquarters in Dallas. I was trying to get help for a problem with press-to-test mode that’s plagued several of my students’ calculators already this year. Basically, taking the calculator out of press-to-test mode can, in some cases, cause a bootup error (you will know it if you see it by a triangle with an exclamation point). I’ve seen this happen three times so far this school year, always to older grayscale Nspires on OS 3.

HP-12C Special Edition and HP-15C Re-Release

By Tech Powered Dad in news

September 1, 2011

UPDATE: (9/1/11) I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t tough waiting for confirmation on this story. When I originally reported it all the ay back on April 17, I assumed I’d barely beat the rush of posts on other blogs and message boards. Instead, for the first couple of months, I was out there by myself, as there was no news whatsoever. Today, however, I’m pleased to say official confirmation has finally come from HP, pretty much exactly as I originally reported it, other than a delay on the timeline.

Free Casio Prizm Contests on Facebook

By Tech Powered Dad in News

August 31, 2011

Casio is sending students back to school with a couple of cool contests on Facebook that offer the opportunity to win cool prizes, including the Casio Prizm graphing calculator. The first is the Casio Prizm Sweepstakes. Simply like this page on Facebook, and you’ll be entered to win. The winner gets a graphing calculator kit autographed by Mythbusters Kari Byron and Grant Imahara, most likely signed during their special appearance on behalf of the Prizm at the NCTM meeting in Indianapolis.

And Then There Were Two?

By Tech Powered Dad in featured

August 21, 2011

Will an HP exit leave TI and Casio as the last graphing calculator makers? Last week’s announcement that HP was shutting down WebOS may have significant consequences in the mathematics community. The original shock was that the TouchPad has been eliminated from HP’s plans just a couple of months after its launch, with a national advertising campaign still going on (at least as of this weekend). But read beyond the headlines at all, and you’ll realize that this announcement was far more significant.

McGraw-Hill “This Is My Math” Art Contest

By Tech Powered Dad in fun stuff

August 17, 2011

Textbook publisher McGraw-Hill is sponsoring a contest with $174,000 of prizes on the line called, “This Is My Math.” Starting on September 15, teachers of K-5 students can submit their students math artwork. Notably, the artwork must be submitted in digital form. The kids have a chance to explain their artwork, which is a pretty significant factor in the judging–40%. Contest entries must be submitted by October 29. Beginning on November 11, the public can vote on their favorite entries.

Google Doodle Celebrates Fermat’s Birthday

By Tech Powered Dad in featured

August 17, 2011

Fermat’s famous quote, paraphrased in a 21st century context Google is celebrating Pierre De Fermat’s birthday with one of the trademark Doodles. The Doodle features a blackboard with Fermat’s Last Theorem. If you’re not familiar with the story of Fermat’s famous theorem, it’s a good one. To oversimplify, Fermat claimed in one of his notebooks that if you took the Pythagorean theorem and substituted larger integers than two for the exponents, there were no “non-trivial” integer solutions to the problem.

Born Bad at Math? Beyond the Media Hype

By Tech Powered Dad in featured

August 12, 2011

The Huffington Post is just one of numerous media outlets reporting on a Johns Hopkins research study about number sense in pre-schoolers. Essentially, the study showed that even though the kids hadn’t learned much in the way of in the way of formal mathematics, it was possible to measure their number sense abilities already. Further, those with better number sense also scored highly on tests that would predict the kids’ future mathematics ability.

Sesame Street Gets Math Focus for Season 42

By Tech Powered Dad in news

August 10, 2011

Wipe that shocked look off your face, Big Bird. It turns out that Sesame Street, the children’s show probably best known for encouraging reading skills is getting a increased focus on mathematics and science for the upcoming season. According to an article on the Examiner.com, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, the Count (of course), and the rest of the gang will be embracing the STEM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in season 42.

Texas Instruments Announces Free Webinars for Fall 2011

World’s Largest Proof Wins Prize

TI-Nspire OS 3.1 Released

HP-12C Special Edition and HP-15C Re-Release

Free Casio Prizm Contests on Facebook

And Then There Were Two?

McGraw-Hill “This Is My Math” Art Contest

Google Doodle Celebrates Fermat’s Birthday

Born Bad at Math? Beyond the Media Hype

Sesame Street Gets Math Focus for Season 42

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