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TUTORIAL

**//Texas//** **//Instruments//**

The main Texas Instruments website for Cabri Jr. Professional Development.

Texas Instruments (TI) is a web site that focuses on the learner as a mathematician. It works with mathematics educators in the K-16 system and beyond, to help them develop in their charges, the love and appreciation for the discipline of mathematics. This is done mainly through the use of its many mathematical tools such as the TI – NSpire technology, TI Navigator systems, NSpired learning school, science tools, multiple software, and its ever popular, graphing calculator systems that made the company known worldwide. The graphing calculator which is widely used by many educational institutions, capture the many facets of the mathematics discipline. Geometry is one such facet. In geometry, the graphing calculator uses the Cabri Jr software that is programmed in its TI - 84 Plus version. Below is a screen shot of this version. [|TI – 84 Plus displaying Cabri Jr]

The Cabri Jr software enhances the learning concepts of geometry. These concepts include drawing and calculations. In other words, pictures and text. This represents Mayer (2009) temporal contiguity principle where people learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively (p. 148). One of the highlights of this workshop is allow the participants (mathematics teachers) to learn how to use the Cabri Jr to aid in the understanding of geometry concepts, inclusive of diagrammatic representations, so that they are able to demonstrate to their respective geometry students, the need to use technology in learning geometry and therefore improving their performance in mathematics. This is a cognitive approach to learning. The following tutorial of screenshots will serve as a guide to the teacher-participants as they explore the use of Cabri Jr. in geometry.

In getting started, each participant will have a graphing calculator and access to the Texas Instrument web site that displays the TI-84 Plus Cabri Jr application. Working in pairs, the participants will read and follow the guide as displayed in the screenshots below.

After discovering the Cabri Jr application, as seen in the screenshot above, participants will now turn their attention to using the remainder of the screenshots to demonstrate with the graphing calculator, the strategy used to construct a circumcised circle to a triangle.

















Upon the completion of this tutorial, each participant will discuss with their partner the advantages and disadvantages of using Cabri Jr to teach geometry. During this discussion, notes will be taken by each participant of the discussion of what their partner said so that a share out of ideas would be done during the professional development.