Filter
Top Products
24
Using the TI-73: A Guide for Teachers
Patterns and
Functions
© 1998 T
EXAS
I
NSTRUMENTS
I
NCORPORATED
Activity
—
Part A
1. Ask students: Look at the row for the number of
blocks. What pattern do you see? (The first number is
3 and then increases by 1.)
2. Demonstrate along with your class how to put the
pattern into the TI-73.
a. Explain that this whole scenario starts with a
1-level tower that needs 3 blocks. So the first entry
is 3.
[ b
b. Ask students: How many blocks do you need for a
2-level tower? (Remember, you are working on
how to get from the original 3 blocks to the 4
blocks in the 2-level tower.)
c. Press \ Y.
Ask the class to tell you what
Ans
means.
(Explain that just pressing \ indicates to the TI-73
that it needs two things to add, so it grabs the
answer (in this case,
3
) that you had in the line
above and calls it
Ans
.)
d. Press b.
Explain that the number of blocks in the 1-level
tower is the first entry and output on the screen
(
3
). The number of blocks in the 2-level tower is
the next output (
4
).
e. Press b again.
Ask the class to explain what happened.
(Because you did not enter a new command, the
TI-73 did the previous command again; but this
time,
Ans
stood for the most current answer, which
was
4
.)
f. Ask students: How would you use the b key
(this technique) to find out how many blocks you
would need for a 10-level tower?
➪
Have students count aloud
as you press b
7 more
times.