Why can’t we use our Graphing calculators in our Science classes? Many students at
Monte Vista find out that after buying a very expensive graphing calculator they can’t use it in
science class and are left confused and angered as they are required to either have a scientific
calculator or go into a test heavily dependent on calculators without one.

I talked with Atakan Kaya, a junior at Monte Vista who previously took regular chemistry
in his sophomore year with Mr. Taylor.

In the interview, he said, “I feel like it’s unfair not to allow us to use our graphing
calculator because some people don’t have multiple calculators at their disposal.” Atakan later
also said, “ I think they should allow us to use the graphing calculators in chemistry as long as
they delete the history on the calculator then there’s no unfair advantage.”

Although information can be stored on the calculator, it doesn’t take long to reset a
graphing calculator’s memory. Many math teachers have done this before a calculator test to
prevent cheating. This however is not common knowledge and can be complex and intricate to
remember as it’s not always straightforward because of the vast amount of graphing calculators
on the market today. Until there’s a solution that’s easy and doesn’t take much time we’ll have to
stick with scientific calculators on our Chemistry tests.