The Evolution of the Texas Instrument Graphing Calculator
We all remember the panic of arriving to a math test in high school and searching frantically for our trusty TI Graphing Calculator among the crumpled papers and leaky pens at the bottom of our backpacks. While deep down we knew, the calculator was sitting on our desk at home. The horror! Mashable published a brief history of the infamous Texas Instruments Graphing Calculator’s role in American Education here:
The education model
TI has remained one of the classroom’s top products by providing a full support system, according to Peter Balyta, president of TI’s worldwide Education Technology division. He’s worked at the company for 14 years, nabbing the presidential title in February 2014.
“If you were to come in our building today, or any of our offices around the world, you would see actual teachers somewhere,” Balyta tells Mashable. He means that TI is dedicated to providing educators with resources on how to use TI technology properly.
The education department offers teachers all over the world the opportunity to receive “professional development” through TI’s T3 program, which the company started 25 years ago. Balyta describes professional development as a training session on how to “effectively use our technology when teaching math and science … to create an engaging environment around some difficult-to-teach concepts.”
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Open Hardware is In, New CircuitPython and Pi 5 16GB, and much more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
