Calculator lessons: the fx-CG50 and the TI-84 Plus CE

Free lessons that teach the graphic display calculator itself, not a maths topic: how to set it up, find your way round its menus and use it quickly and accurately in an exam. Choose the calculator your students use. Both series cover the same skills in the same order, so a class with both calculators can work through them side by side.

Casio fx-CG50

Twelve lessons that teach the Casio fx-CG50 itself: setup and exam mode, Run-Matrix memory, graphs and G-Solve, the Equation menu, SolveN, tables, calculus, finance, statistics, distributions, and matrices and complex numbers.

  1. Setup, exam mode, angle mode and Ans
  2. Run-Matrix: storing values and avoiding rounding errors
  3. The Graph menu: View Window, Zoom and Trace
  4. G-Solve: roots, intersections, maximum and minimum
  5. The Equation menu: polynomials and simultaneous equations
  6. SolveN, Solve and the Solver
  7. Tables of values, sign changes and sequences
  8. Derivatives, integrals and areas
  9. Sequences, series and finance (TVM)
  10. Statistics: lists, 1-VAR, 2-VAR and regression
  11. Distributions: normal, binomial, Poisson, tests and intervals
  12. Matrices, Markov chains and complex numbers

TI-84 Plus CE

Twelve lessons that teach the TI-84 Plus CE itself: setup, the home screen and memory, graphs and the CALC menu, PlySmlt2, the Solver, tables, calculus, finance, statistics, distributions, and matrices and complex numbers.

  1. Setup, the mode screen, angle mode and Ans
  2. The home screen: storing values and avoiding rounding errors
  3. Graphs and changing the view: Y=, WINDOW, ZOOM and TRACE
  4. The CALC menu: value, zero, maximum, minimum and intersect
  5. PlySmlt2: polynomials and simultaneous equations
  6. The Solver: any equation, and finding a parameter
  7. Tables: checking, sign changes and sequences
  8. Derivatives, integrals and the derivative graph
  9. Sequences, series and the TVM Solver
  10. Statistics: lists, 1-Var Stats and LinReg
  11. DISTR: normal, binomial, Poisson, tests and intervals
  12. Matrices, Markov chains and complex numbers

What every lesson has

An objective, the exact key presses with a picture of the screen after every step, “your turn” tasks for students to check their understanding, exam efficiency tips, a worked exam-style example, 4 to 6 practice tasks with answers, the common mistakes, a 1-minute quick check and a 55-minute teaching plan. Every page is free, needs no sign-in and prints cleanly.

For one skill at a time on any of these calculators, see Calculator skills, topic by topic. For lessons on the maths topics themselves, see the free IB Maths lessons.