Hey! I have held off from writing about graphing calculators for awhile! Summer is a good time to bid on calculators at Good Will. (Frankly, I have had good luck with TI 83 and TI 84 calculators I bought from Good Will, but not those from eBay or Amazon. Try to bid on those which power on and do NOT have any screen marks.)
Why do I like TI 84 models? They are compatible with Vernier’s EasyTemp probes and EasyLink interface. You can connect the EasyTemp probe directly to the TI 84 graphing calculator. The calculator comes with the EasyData software preloaded on the calculator. The EasyLink interface allows a student to connect other Vernier probes, such as the pH probe to the calculator; not all probes connect. Mainly I use the temperature and pH probes for Chemistry classes. I love that my kiddos can use digital probes.
The probes, like the TI 84 calculators are sturdy. One caveat: when the probes are connected they eat batteries. BTW the EasyData software loads on the calculator automatically when a probe connects. It recognizes the probe, too. I think the EasyData quick guide is fairly clear. You might have trouble locating the data collected; it saves data in the STAT file. Most of the time, the teens just record the data from the screen.
The reason I like the TI 84 so much is that my kiddos have a fancy digital thermometer or pH probe right in their hands. We do some calculator exercises in Math and Chemistry, too. I want the home-school students to be familiar with graphing calculators before they go to college.
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