Using Spreadsheets in the Mathematics Classroom: Loan Repayment Schedules and Compound Interest

Educational Technology and the Future of Mathematics Education

“…How effective the spreadsheet is in supporting the problem-solving process, when compared to more conventional methods, is still problematic. Spreadsheets have been used successfully in a number of practical math applications ranging from statistical analysis to linear algebra (Arganbright, 1984;Fylstra and King, 1981;Beamer, 1987). However, approaches using the spreadsheet have been applied in the normal classroom without the intention of assessing their effectiveness in a formal research design, but rather as an ad hoc endeavor.…”

Using the Secant Method to Approximate the Roots of an Equation

“…Itisboth efficientand understandable to precalculus students.In addition to selecting the numeric method, the technology on which to implement the method also must be selected. This article proposes using electronic spreadsheets for the following reasons: (a) designing a spreadsheet often is easier than writing a computer program to perform the same task (Beamer, 1987); (b) the program and output can be viewed concurrently, unlike BASIC or Pascal programs where listing the program is quite different from running the program; and (c) spreadsheets can workwith many formulae andvalues at a time, unlike calculators.…”