Programming for pre-calc class POLL

[Lithium381]

i vote pascal, it's what i used to maybe i'm biased.......it's really structured and easy...but quite powerful

 

[johnjbruin]

Go for VB. It is 'basic' and has the appeal of learning a gui's also which can be a PITA in something like C.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

Took one quarter of Java and find it very good. Can be difficult at times especially those abstract and implement classes - and did I say it's highly dependent upon type of data. Will take another quarter of it soon. Those good old null pointer exception .

Anyone has a good book for a person who already took one quarter of beginning Java?

 

[kalster]

C first
in your next stint use the knowledge of C(programming/algorithm/logic perspective, dont get stuck with the procedural paradigm( and learn OOD/OOP methodology using C++

 

[notfred]

None. You shouldn't be teaching programming in a pre-calc course. The purpose of a pre-calc class is to prepare the students to take calculus. If you run out of pre-calc material, start teaching them limits and differentiation, not programming. If they're interested in programming they'll sign up for an intro programming class on their own.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: notfred
None. You shouldn't be teaching programming in a pre-calc course. The purpose of a pre-calc class is to prepare the students to take calculus. If you run out of pre-calc material, start teaching them limits and differentiation, not programming. If they're interested in programming they'll sign up for an intro programming class on their own.

Small rural school district...
such opportunities (intro comp programming class) don't exist at this time
students in pre-calc have excellent math skills... the students with weak math skills rarely take the course.
I already DO teach them limits in pre-calc. I also teach them the definition of the derivative (lim as h -> 0 of f(x+h)-f(x) all over h ), how to use it, and shortcuts for polynomials (or any case with x to a power), as well as several types of area under a curve problems, including Simpson's method.

The book I use is "Precalculus with Limits" by Larson, Hostetler and Edward, and we are done with every of the 916 pages with plenty of time to spare. For the students, about 1/2 of the information they've already seen... I just go more in depth, require memorization of some of the formulas (they're not required to memorize almost ANY trig identities the first 3 years in math), and work on building more of an understanding and feel for the mathematics, rather than simply a "this is how you do it because I said so."
I particularly have to put a lot of emphasis on logs (and ln's) because students are weak in this area.

Also, any students going into computer science WOULD be in my pre-calc class, assuming they want a stronger math background before graduating from high school. And, in todays age, I feel that at least some familiarity of programming is necessary. It doesn't take too much effort once the basic logic involved is learned to adapt to other programming languages (even programming macros in word or word-perfect so streamline repetitive tasks).

Anyway... I don't know why I didn't think of programming on the TI83's... It was pretty split on the poll, but I think I'll go with basic, then afterward, spend a day or two adapting it to the TI83's.