European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday september 12, 1977 modern living the stars and stripes Page 19 v. 4mi t 1 there s still division about what it All adds up to by Louise Cook associated press he pocket calculator is con quering the american classroom overcoming opposition from som parents and educators who fear that electronic wizardry will re place simple mathematical skill. I Don t think you can keep calculators out of the school says Marilyn n. Suydam director of the federally funded calculator information Center at Ohio state University. Retailers in the . Advertised and parents bought Back to school specials not Only for the College student but for his younger Brothers and Sisters. Prices for the simpler models Are under $10.estimates of the number of teachers and schools using calculators in teaching Are sketchy. There Are no real data says Suydam but the numbers Are increase  in a 1976 study for the National Sci ence foundation Suydam estimated that Between 25 and 50 per cent of . Schools used calculators to some degree. The National assessment of educational Progress a project of the education com Mission of the states will include a calculator Section next year in its second full scale test of students math skill at Ages 9, 13 and 17. We have a whole test Booklet using the calculator throughout says Jane Arm Strong math coordinator for the testing group. Using calculators was not even Dis cussed when the group first tested math ability in a 1972-73 Survey. But this year math educators around the country said that calculators were a must. Theri is continuing debate about How to use the calculator and when to introduce it. No one contends calculators should re place things like the multiplication table Oblong division. Parents Are concerned that we re going to Stop teaching any kind of computation says Suydam. I Don t think that fear is founded in  the National Council of teachers of mathematics has endorsed the use of calculators in class. At what age level coun cil president John c. Elsgard says we re Only going to know by trying. My personal belief is that it is possible to let the child use the calculator at an Early age and still insist that he learn the Basic  Elsgard and other teachers say Chil Dren will need to learn fundamentals addition subtraction multiplication division so they understand the principles involved. You need the basics to make the calculator do what you want it to. A typical problem you want to visit friends 460 Miles away. You plan to drive at 55 Miles an hour. How Long will the trip take you need Only seconds to figure the answer with a calculator 8.36 hours. But unless you know the principles of division you won t know which buttons to push and in which order. You won t even know that you have to Divide. And unless you have Learned Decimals and what they mean and How to multiply you won t know How to convert the fraction .36 hours into minutes just Over 21 is. At a higher level says Elsgard who teaches grades nine through 12, he still wants his students to learn How to find the Square Root of a number using paper and Pencil so they understand the concept. Once they have mastered the idea they can use a calculator just As students used to turn to printed tables. Youngsters who were turned off bythe boredom of dozens of repetition problems May gain new interest i mathematical concepts and the uses of numbers. People Are going to enjoy math because the Drudgery is gone says one teacher. Both the National Institute of education and the National science foundation Are considering proposals for research projects into new ways of using calculators. Such projects might include an exploration of whether a calculator can be used to help a child learn to count. Or whether computation of Decimals can be introduced at an Early  says there have been about 20 studies of varying Quality into the effects of calculators on children. Most have entered on whether use of the calculator impairs the child s ability to understand such things As multiplication and addition and Suydam says most of the data looks positive. The achievement level is at least As Good or better As among children who have not been exposed to calculators. Hilli he positive effect of calculators whether they help Chil Dren learn More is unmeasured because their use in the classroom is too new for Long Range studies. But Suydam says. Some evidence is beginning to surface that. You can use the calculator As the first step and then develop the  some educators believe hand held calculators can be used As Early As kindergarten to introduce children to numbers. Others would wait until Junior High or High school. Still others would allow the use of a calculator Only to Check problems and eliminate routine computation they would ban them from tests. Almost All agree however that like it or not there s no Way to Stop the calculators. Even though you Tell the kids not to use the calculator at school they be got the things at Home says Elsgard. A Survey last year by a Market research firm showed that 43 per cent of american Homes had a calculator and that the number is growing. Many families have More than  sources estimate that 1977 sales of four function personal calculators the kind you use to balance your Check Book figure your income tax or add up the grocery Bill will top $300 million. They say that by the end of this year almost 73 million hand held calculators will have been sold. If they All were still in use that would come to about one calculator for every three americans. In her study. Suydam wrote factors which might tend to control the use iof calculators Are Parent and teacher reluctance to allow calculators in the classroom. As teachers and parents use calculators themselves their reluctance is Likely to  she predicted that by 1979 there will be widespread use of calculators in american schools. Will children unfamiliar with calculators be at a disadvantage no says the National assessment in educational Progress Armstrong. It preliminary trials this it or for the age runs full is i a test i i l used Uca tors found that Een  who had never used calculators before could handle them Suchos Siulin Aitch about five minutes of instruct pm. Helen Masterson director of Public in formal Ion for Nap says the trials even though unscientific Pix iced some inter Esting results. The same question was asked twice in the assessment. One ques Tion required a Pencil and paper or old method answer. The same question was used in the calculator exercise. Twenty per cent More students got the question Cor rect with the calculator than they did with the paper and  Elsgard says the calculator also can stimulate slow students because it gives them a Chance to solve interesting prob lems even if they still have trouble with Basic arithmetic. Once they have regained interest in math the students Are More Likely to be Able to learn rudimentary skills. There s nothing better than giving them something that will make them Suc