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First Steps with TI-Nspire
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Se v en Intr oductor y T utorials f or the
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire About this document This document includes seven introductory tutorials to take new users through many key features of TI-Nspire™ maths and science learning technology. This technology includes both handhelds and computer software, providing teachers the flexibility to meet different classroom needs. However, the primary focus of these tutorials is the handheld device. All activities are equally applicable to the computer software but screen shots and key presse
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Contents TI-Nspire Keypad Layout .................................................................................................. Page 5 Tutorial 1 .......................................................................................................................... Page 6 TI-Nspire Documents: basic ideas • Memory • Battery Life • Documents, problems, pages, applications and home screen • Use of / key and keyboard shortcuts • Home Screen • Scratchpad • Docum
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 5 ........................................................................................................................ Page 35 Geometry • The Plane Geometry and Graphing views • Lines, segments and rays • Construction of parallel lines • Drawing and labelling points on objects • Construction of shapes • Selecting and grabbing screen objects • Making measurements and storing as variables • Attributes which change the appearance and lock screen objects Tu
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire TI-Nspire CX Keypad Layout Start by spending a few seconds looking at the layout of the keypad. © 2012 Texas Instruments Education Technology Page 5
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 1: TI-Nspire documents Tutorial 1 TI-Nspire Documents This first tutorial introduces some of the key features of TI-Nspire™ learning technology, in particular the structure of TI-Nspire documents, with different applications operating on different pages. The various menus are introduced, as well as creating and navigating around documents. The tutorial assumes that you are using the TI-Nspire handheld device and the tutorial begins by drawing a compariso
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 1: TI-Nspire documents Battery Life The TI-Nspire™ CX handheld comes with a rechargeable battery, which should be charged for at least six hours before first use. The built-in rechargeable battery does not need to be removed from the handheld in order to recharge it. The handheld will still work and can be used while it is charging. With use of 2 hours per day at the default brightness level the battery should last for up to 10 days. The handheld comes wi
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 1: TI-Nspire documents The Home Screen When you switched on a calculator you expected to see what was called the Home Screen and you’d be able to start carrying out calculations right away. But the TI-Nspire handheld is different in this respect too. Press c, the home button, a black key at the top right of the keypad. You should see a screen similar to this. Navigate to the various icons on the Home Screen using the large square Touchpad on the ke
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 1: TI-Nspire documents What is quite different from the computer is that within one document you can have multiple pages or problems that can make use of the different applications. The spreadsheet on one page of a document can interact seamlessly with calculations done on a calculator page and graphs drawn on another. You can also have more than one different representation on one page. This use of multiple representations is one of the many things t
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 1: TI-Nspire documents Scratchpad Because there are some occasions when you really just want to carry out a quick calculation or draw a quick graph the TI-Nspire includes a feature called the Scratchpad. The scratchpad is designed for those casual throw-away calculations that need to be done from time to time, but are not worth keeping in a full document. To access the Scratchpad press ». This opens a calculator page for performing quick calculati
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 1: TI-Nspire documents If the handheld has been used previously you will see a dialog e is often used to move to and box asking you if you want to save the document that is highlight different parts of the screen currently open. Unless you want to save your previous work press e or ¢ to move the highlight to No. To confirm this choice press ·. Navigating Documents When the document opens you may see a screen similar to the one shown on the left. Fo
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 1: TI-Nspire documents Scroll downwards with the Touchpad and you will see all the problems in the document. If you move the highlight onto Problem 2, say, and press ¡ the pages of that problem will close up. Pressing · or /¤ takes you back to single page view on the page currently selected. Each page of a document contains one (or more) of the TI-Nspire applications. As a reminder, these are the same applications that can be accessed from the Home scr
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 1: TI-Nspire documents Contextual Menus Return to the Home screen, and select 2: My Docs… to access the document browser. Notice that within the document browser new folders may be created or folders renamed. Items that are grey, rather than black in a menu cannot be chosen in the current environment. For example, on the screen on the left, option 3: Save As… is unavailable. Pressing d will always close down a menu or dialog box. To save a document
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 1: TI-Nspire documents Then open a document in the browser and press b again. It is important to realise that b will always provide access to the features of the current environment. For example, within the Notes application, this menu offers only the available options for that application (as shown to the right). There are a number of tools that are available for managing documents when you choose the use the Document menu by pressing the ~bu
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 2: The Calculator Application Tutorial 2 The Calculator Application At the heart of TI-Nspire is the Calculator application, the workspace for numeric and algebra operations. This tutorial introduces some of the key features of the application, starting with a new blank document. This document will be saved, used again and added to in subsequent tutorials Basic operations First create a new blank document by pressing c and choosing option 1: New Doc fr
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 2: The Calculator Application A History Lesson You will have noticed that, as new expressions are entered, previous ones scroll off the top of the screen. The TI-Nspire handheld will remember a history of up to 99 expressions and these can be recalled using the up key on the Touchpad. Press and hold £ and see the way the highlight flicks back through previous expressions and results. Stop at some point in the history and press ·. You should see either th
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 2: The Calculator Application Templates Many of the handheld’s keys provide templates to enable you to enter a range of mathematical expressions. For example, in this tutorial you have used the keys /q for square roots and l for powers. In both cases a small box appears in the expression inviting you to enter values. Some care is necessary when entering more complex expressions using such templates. For example, try entering √3+√5. In order to move out
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 2: The Calculator Application Getting Set The mode settings for a document can be changed using the document settings dialog box: press c521 or ~721 or Click on the icon then press 21 With dialog boxes it is important to remember that you need to press e to move through the various options. Document settings dialog box Notice that here the first box is outlined bold, showing that Display Digits is selected. Press ¤ to see the range of option
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 2: The Calculator Application Some Algebra The calculator application allows you to define variables as single numbers, functions, lists, matrices and even strings. There are three equivalent ways to store a variable. You can use /h (store), or /t(Ï) or Define Define can be typed letter by letter, followed by a space or alternatively it can be entered from the Catalogue: press kD to find it. Notice also you can: • display multiple val
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™ First Steps with TI-Nspire Tutorial 2: The Calculator Application The Calculator Menu Press b and look at the extensive system of menus and submenus available in the Calculator application. If you used the TI-83 or TI-84 graphical calculators you will be familiar with many of these expressions. More details can be found in the Getting Started Guide. This screen shows a simulation of 100 throws of two dice and uses commands from the Probability and Statistics sub-menus. To enter randIn
