Use a Calculator to Find Answers to Problems

Students need to learn how and when to use the calculator, but it must not replace learning the meaning of arithmetic operations and the rules used to perform calculations. Calculators are used for complex calculations, when mental calculation would be difficult, and when paper and pencil solutions would be inefficient or too slow. Calculators can be used to determine if the results of computation, done other ways, are reasonable.

Before students can successfully use a calculator to perform calculations and solve problems, they should become familiar with the keys on the calculator and how to enter problems. Use the Talking Arithmetic Tutor program to make problems to practice solving on the calculator. Make sure to get the correct answer with the calculator by following these steps:

1) Show a problem.
Choose Manual or Automatic mode. Show a problem on the screen.

2) Solve the problem.
Have the student use a calculator to solve the problem. Practice entering numbers and operations correctly at the calculator. When the student has the answer at the calculator, get the answer from the tutor. Press Start or Single Step to see how the Talking Arithmetic Tutor solves the problem.

3) Check the answer.
Compare the answer on the calculator with the answer given. (Division with remainders is a bit more complicated.) If the answers are not the same, try to find out why. Check to make sure the numbers were put into the calculator correctly.

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