Texas Instruments Puzzle Tanks User manual

TEACHER’SGUIDE

TI-73

Permissions

All Sunburst material is copyrighted. However, Sunburst does give the purchaser the

following permissions:

• You have permission to reproduce any student worksheets in this guide for your

classroom use. You should not, however, copy the whole guide.

• If you purchased this program for one computer, you may use it on a single

computer.

• If you wish to use this software on multiple computers, you must purchase the

right to do so from Sunburst. Call and ask for lab pack/site licensing prices.

• You have permission to use lab packs/site licenses within one site. You do not,

however, have permission to divide the package and use the software in more

than one site.

Credits

Designer Thomas C. O’Brien, Ph.D.

Product Manager Paul Kronmeyer

Joan Jacobsen

Project Editor Carrie Gerardi

Programming Saltire Software, Inc.

Software Graphics Carrie Gerardi

Quality Control Gregory Sillins

Desktop Publisher Carrie Gerardi

Editor Emilie Rappoport

TI-GRAPH LINK is a trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated.

Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation

in the United States and/or other countries.

For more information or for a free catalog, call or write:

Sunburst Communications, Inc.

101 Castleton Street

Pleasantville, NY 10570

Toll-free: 1-800-321-7511

Or call collect: 914-747-3310

Visit us on the Web: www.SUNBURST.com

Table of Contents

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Getting Started

Hardware and Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Installing Puzzle Tanks on a TI-73 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Program Description

Welcome to Puzzle Tanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Finding Your Way Around Puzzle Tanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Scoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

How to Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Levels of Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Impossible Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Champion List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Trouble Shooting

Error Recovery Instructions for the TI-73 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas C. O’Brien, Ph.D.

Thomas C. O’Brien is a former professor at Southern Illinois University,

Edwardsville, Illinois. His work in education is three-fold: teacher education,

curriculum development and research on children’s thinking. As a researcher, he

has studied the growth of mathematical ideas in subjects from pre-school to

medical school and law school. As a teacher, he has worked with students from

the seventh grade through graduate school. As a curriculum developer, he has

written twelve math-problem books for children, as well as written and edited

some eighty papers on children’s thinking and education published through the

Teachers’ Center Project.

In addition, Dr. O’Brien has published and delivered some 100 papers on chil-

dren’s thinking, mathematics education, intellectual development and educa-

tional change. His papers and presentations have taken place in the United

States, Canada, Great Britain, Holland, France, Switzerland, Hungary and

Brazil. Dr. O’Brien was named a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Senior Research Fellow-in-Science in 1978. He received his bachelor’s degree

from Iona College, New Rochelle, NY, and his Ph.D. from New York University.

Other Sunburst programs designed by Thomas O’Brien include: Teasers by

Tobbs, Tobbs Learns Algebra, The King’s Rule, The Royal Rules, Blockers and

Finders, Blockers and Finders II, Winker’s World of Patterns, Winker’s World of

Numbers, More Teasers by Tobbs, Teasers by Tobbs with Integers and Label Land.

INTRODUCTION

Suppose you have the following problem:

You have two tanks, one of which holds 5 quarts and the other 6.

You have an infinite supply of Wonder Juice and a holding con-

tainer into which you could pour the contents of the tanks. You

must use the original tanks — the 5 and 6 — to make 11 quarts

of Wonder Juice.

Easy. Fill the 5 and the 6 and empty them into the holding tank.

Why do a problem like this? Such a problem calls for children to develop and/or

apply addition skills and to view addition in its very essence. Addition is not

reciting responses from memory. Addition involves combining things.

Here’s another problem:

Suppose you have the same 5 and 6 tanks and this time you need

2 quarts of Wonder Juice. Not so easy, is it? You could fill the 6

and pour it into the 5, thus leaving 1. Save the 1 in the holding

container. Then empty the 5. Can you finish the problem?

This isn’t an exercise in addition facts. What is it? It’s problem solving, one of

the most important abilities one can have.

Problem solving takes place when one reassembles (or creates) actions and ideas

to achieve a goal in a new situation. We are all problem solvers every day, and

we are all more or less successful at problem solving. But problem-solving abili-

ties are too important to leave to chance and the random experiences of every-

day life. Problem solving needs special attention.

Much of the school curriculum purports to promote problem solving. The

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics chose problem solving as its issue

for teachers to pursue in the 1980’s. Present-day school children will live most of

their lives in the twenty-first century. What new issues will they face? No doubt,

facts will be important to them, but they’ll meet novelty and challenge and

opportunities presently unknown to us. (Some of you are old enough to remem-

ber when Dick Tracy’s wrist radio was unspeakably futuristic. Do you remember

— it’s just over 35 years ago — when a man on the moon was unthinkable? Can

you think back to the time when a computer in a private home was not so com-

monplace?)

A major aspect of life is novelty — dealing with new situations for which you’ve

not been programmed. What do you do? You create your own solutions. You

become a problem solver. Problem solving is, and should be, a major objective

in schools and the home.

But problem solving in math textbooks is often falsely named. “Problems” in

most math textbooks aren’t really problems. They are computational exercises

disguised in words: “Two boys each ate 4 hamburgers....” Such activities are triv-

ial so far as problem solving is concerned, and they are trivial from the point of

view of utility. I haven’t had to solve a “word problem” in the last thirty years of

my adult life, but during the same time, I have met and solved dozens of prob-

lems every day.

What does problem solving involve? Hofstadter says it nicely in Godel, Escher,

Bach: • to respond to situations flexibly;

• to take advantage of fortuitous circumstances;

• to find similarities between situations despite differences that may

separate them;

• to synthesize new concepts by taking old concepts and putting them

together in new ways; and

• to come up with novel ideas.

Puzzle Tanks then, is concerned with problem solving in the Hofstadter sense. It

is concerned with children’s ability — and willingness and confidence — to

make sense out of a situation and devise alternatives to reach a goal. The con-

struction of alternatives, not the repeating of pat formulas, is what thinking and

problem solving are all about.

About PuzzleTanks

How does Puzzle Tanks create a good educational environment?

It deals with issues that are important. Problem solving is important.

It enables the student to be active — to invent ideas, to try them out and, if

necessary, to revise them. The very nature of Puzzle Tanks is that players invent

solutions and revise them. Mistakes, by the way, are okay. (Can you conceive of

an infant learning to walk without lots of falls at the beginning?)

It adds diversity. At each level of Puzzle Tanks, what worked for the last problem

is unlikely to work for the next. Further, every individual problem has many dif-

ferent solutions. There is no such thing as “the one right way.”

It has a wide variety of entry points and a high ceiling. Puzzle Tanks starts with

very simple problems, such as the 5 + 6 = 11 task described earlier, but the

higher level problems have stumped some very bright, well educated people.

Thus, Puzzle Tanks puts kids in real problem-solving situations with real lifelong

payoffs.

INTRODUCTION

GETTING STARTED

Hardware and Software Requirements

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE FOLLOWING ITEMS:

•TI-GRAPH LINK™ computer-to-calculator cable. If you do not

have a TI-GRAPH LINK cable, call Sunburst, or order the cable

online at the TI Accessory Store (www.ti.com/calc/docs/store.htm).

• Connecting TI-GRAPH LINK cable adapter, 9-pin to 25-pin, if

needed.

• Computer with Windows® 3.1x or Windows® 95/98 installed. (A

Windows NT® version will soon be available.)

•Puzzle Tanks software for the TI-73 on disk.

• A TI-73 calculator.

THINGS TO CHECK BEFORE YOU BEGIN

To make sure the batteries in your TI-73 are in good working condition, turn on

your TI-73. If there is a low-battery message on the screen, turn the TI-73 off

and follow the battery replacement procedure in Appendix C of your TI-73

Guidebook.

Before you load Puzzle Tanks into your TI-73, verify that sufficient free space

exists in your application memory space by entering 2nd MEM, 3:Check APPs.

The first line indicates the number of free spaces available. Most applications

will take up only one space. See the Memory is Full instructions in the Trouble

Shooting Section for details about deleting applications.

Installing PuzzleTanks on a TI-73

1. Make sure the TI-GRAPH LINK cable is firmly connected to the calculator

and the computer and the calculator is at the home screen.

2. Start Windows and close all desktop applications that may be running

(another running application could interfere while Puzzle Tanks is updat-

ing your TI-73).

3. Select Run from the File menu (Windows® 3.1) or Run from the Start

menu (Windows® 95). In the Run dialog box, type

C:\directoryname\ti73puzz.exe (where directoryname is the directory to

which you downloaded the Puzzle Tanks file) and then click OK.

4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

IMPORTANT:DO NOT interrupt the installation process. If any errors are

encountered during the installation, follow the instructions. Error Recovery

instructions are also described in the Trouble Shooting Section of this guide.

NOTE:

The TI-73

may briefly display

a “Defragmenting”

message. This

simply means the

calculator is

preparing for

downloading.

This manual suits for next models

Table of contents

Other Texas Instruments Software manuals

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Titanium TI-89 User manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-86 - ViewScreen Calculator Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-86 - ViewScreen Calculator Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Titanium TI-89 Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI InterActive! User manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments DSP/BIOS Real-Time Analysis (RTA) User manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition User manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments -83 Plus Silver Edion User manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-73 Explorer Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Cabri Geometry II Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments -83 Plus Silver Edion Quick start guide

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-73 Explorer Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-73 Explorer Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Derive 5 Reference manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Manual

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-GRAPH LINK 2 Manual

Popular Software manuals by other brands

COMPRO

COMPRO COMPROFM manual

Muratec

Muratec OFFICEBRIDGE ONLINE user guide

Oracle

Oracle Contact Center Anywhere 8.1 installation guide

Adobe

Adobe 65007312 - Photoshop Lightroom Programmer's guide

Avaya

Avaya NULL One-X for RIM Blackberry user guide

HP ProLiant BL420c user guide

PS Audio

PS Audio PowerPlay Programming manual

Brady

Brady LOCKOUT PRO 3.0 Administrator's guide

Avaya

Avaya Interaction Center user guide

Novell

Novell GROUPWISE 8 - INTERNET AGENT manual

Oracle

Oracle Application 9i Configuration guide

Acer

Acer RDM user guide

Canon

Canon Vixia HF21 instruction manual

Canon

Canon ZR950 instruction manual

Samsung

Samsung Auto Backup user manual

Polycom

Polycom Vortex EF2201 Application note

Brocade Communications Systems

Brocade Communications Systems Brocade 8/12c user manual

Novell

Novell SP2 - S release note