Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!cernvax!chx400!ugun2b!ugobs!bartho
From: bartho@obs.unige.ch (PAUL BARTHOLDI)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Handheld for school use..?
Message-ID: <446@obs.unige.ch>
Date: 23 Nov 89 09:31:51 GMT
References: <3154@harrier.ukc.ac.uk>
Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland
Lines: 36

In article <3154@harrier.ukc.ac.uk>, dl1@ukc.ac.uk (D.Langford) writes:
> My daughter is 12. She's been using a - very basic - solar calculator ...
> 
> Her teacher has advised a pretty limited Casio Scientific, suggesting ...

Having three mathematicaly oriented children about the age of your daughter,
and a wiffe teaching math to similar age students, although living under 
a different 'climate', here would be my experience :
1. all calculators they had desapeared for some reason (broken, stolen, lost
   or ...) before 2 years.  things seams to improve when they enter high 
   school (15 here).  So make a choice for NOW, and expect to buy an other
   one, better and bigger, in some near future (1-3 years)
2. considering both Texas, Casio and HP of similar power, we have found the
   Casio the more robust, the Texas the most breakable ('large' statistics
   with my wife students for both Casio and Texas, very small with HP).
3. children (and parents) are at first afraid of RPN, but usualy get used
   to it very rapidely, specialy of they are 12, but you may have to help
   her because most of the teacher and students will probably have infix
   calculators.  From experience, when they have understood the way to use
   them, they make less errors with RPN, specialy for complex operations.
4. if you want to make a nice gift to your daughter, keeping open the choice
   for a more professional calculator when she will be in a more mature
   environment, then i would choose either an HP22 or an HP32.  I find them
   very easy to use, powerful but simple, with a nice and didactic 'solve'
   function that helps a lot looking at equations.  The main difference is
   that the HP22 is an infix calculator, while the 32 is an RPN (postfix) one.
   The 22 has a set of preprogrammed functions that are, in my opinion,
   just gadget.  The 32 has also a 'integrate' function that your daughter
   will probably not use for the next two years.  Both have good statistic
   functions, that mathematicaly oriented children love to play with ...
   Both are some how programmable (much better with the 32, but the 22 is
   definitely easier to write simple equations)

I hope this may help you and your daughter.  Good luck !         Paul

  Paul bartholdi - Observatory of Geneva - CH-1290 Sauverny - Switzerland.