My First MathBootCamps Calculator Guide

Last time that I posted about MathBootCamps, I mentioned my linear algebra study guide about span and linear combinations and the concept of releasing a book a chapter at a time. This has evolved into releasing three different types of downloads on the site:

  • Study Guides – the first example of this is the linear algebra guide. Eventually there will be enough released for each topic to constitute a full review of a course.
  • Calculator Guides – these are focused on tasks associated with the TI83/84 calculator, which is still used quite a bit in high school and college settings. This would probably cover a few books worth of material since there could be full guides for different courses.
  • Problem Packs – the idea here is that for any given post on MathBootCamps, there can be an associated problem pack. These are basically workbooks focusing on a very specific idea.

Finally, I have the first calculator guide finished! The focus of this particular guide is statistical plots such as histograms, boxplots, etc. This seemed like the best place to start for what can eventually be a complete guide to statistics on the TI83/84. It took a bit to get the instructions so that they are easy to follow and to get the screenshots so that they look good and consistent. I also made sure to have another person run through, edit the writing, and try out the steps themselves to catch anything confusing. The audience is students taking stats or first-time stats teachers who are approaching the course using the TI83/84.

calc-guide

The biggest thing I tried to do with this guide was make it so that someone reading it could jump into any section they want without needing to read through all of the previous sections. This inspiration was taken from the “cookbook” style books that are out there for programming.

You can download at the guide here: https://gum.co/nPkOS

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