This is a task that can be used by anyone who has a Casio calculator. It works for a Casio fx-83, fx-85, fx-991, etc (the old models and the new ClassWiz versions).
It should be suitable for anyone in Year 7 to 10 and involves using the FACT command and exploring what it does.
The lesson has been set up as a series of questions, on a worksheet.
The focus here should be on the thinking that you do. This isn’t a task where you only need to get the right answer to each question.
In most questions you are encouraged to do four things:
- Think about the question and what might be going on.
- Make a prediction as to what the answer might be.
- Then to type it into the calculator.
- Think about what the calculator shows, compare it to your prediction and try to make sense of what is going on.
If you only type things into the calculator you will only be doing stage 3 on the list – and this is the stage that involves no mathematical thinking!
Download the questions here:
What does the ‘FACT’ key on a calculator do – worksheet
