The MOTIS project earned high praise from a visiting senior Texas Instruments (TI) executive who was in New Zealand for the worldwide launch of TI’s next generation of graphing calculator, the TI-nspire™ CAS+.
On her first visit to New Zealand from TI’s Dallas headquarters, Melendy Lovett, Senior Vice President & President of Educational and Productivity Solutions, said her company was delighted to be partnering with the MOTIS project.
“It seems like an exceptional project that allows students a lot of hands-on experience of where the data comes from in the experiments they are doing. I understand that the goals of the project are to increase student engagement, and student understanding of (mathematical and scientific) concepts,” says Ms Lovett.
As part of the whistle-stop trip, Ms Lovett, accompanied by Bobbie Baird and Jay Wong from TI’s Dallas and Singapore offices respectively, visited Wainuiomata High School (WHS) where they met with MOTIS lead teacher, Andrew Tideswell and school principal, Rob Mill. The visitors were also welcomed onto the school’s marae and later taken to observe a maths class using TI graphing calculators.
While Texas Instruments is little known in New Zealand, the company is the market leader in the graphing calculators sector and is the overall brand leader in the lucrative data market in the US. However, Ms Lovett says expanding the market share is not the company’s motivating force.
“We like the fact we have a leading position in the US, but that’s not enough for us. What’s more important is learning about what works in technology in math (sic) and science education, and having that be our headline – ‘Texas Instruments works with educators to understand what helps students succeed in math and science.’”
For Andrew Tideswell, having such high-powered guests visit WHS was an “honour” and a wonderful opportunity to showcase how the graphing calculators are being integrated into the school’s maths and science curriculum. The product launch was also a highlight for Andrew.
“They usually do them in the US first. It’s a real acknowledgement of New Zealand’s growing significance in the education technology sector and MOTIS’ work,” says Andrew.
The new calculator, TI-nspire™ CAS+, was developed with input from computer algebra systems experts from all over the world, including New Zealand. The calculator has greater functionality and allows users to view different representations of a mathematical or scientific concept at the same time.
“The visualisation of math is what we want to take to the next level...we want to give teachers the ability to drag a line around, change a graph and see the data and formula change at the same time. The students can then understand how these representations are related to each other,” says Ms Lovett.
As this stage the uptake of the TI-nspire™ CAS+ within project’s schools is still being worked out, but Texas Instruments’ support and belief in the project is absolutely clear.
“Texas Instruments is honoured to be part of the MOTIS project, and we’re committed to doing everything we can to make the programme be successful,” says Ms Lovett.
