About The Calculator Pad

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What is The Calculator Pad?

The Calculator Pad has been on our website since 2010. It's been our version of the end-of-the-chapter problems. We included 25-35 problems of varying difficulty on each topic. And for each question, we included an answer that could be revealed by the click-of-a-button, kind of like looking at the answers to the odd-numbered problems in the back of the textbook. And we also accompanied all problems by an audio-guided solution that explained with some detail how to approach the problem. But now,  ...

All.
That.
Has.
Changed.

Yes! That was the Legacy Version. Version 2 has arrived and everything just got a whole lot better.

 

What is Version 2?

Version 2 of The Calculator Pad was introduced in August of 2022 as an automated, problem-delivery and grading service.  Version 2 includes more than three times as many problems as the Legacy version. Unlike the Legacy version, numerical values in the Version 2 problems will be randomly-generated. An answer field will be provided so that students can have their answers evaluated. Feedback to answers will be immediate and multiple opportunities to correct those answers are provided. Most problems are accompanied by one or more help resources - an audio-guided solution, a web page, or a YouTube video - allowing students an opportunity to learn more about the underlying principles and about how to approach such a problem. Problems in Version 2 will be organized into relatively short problems sets consisting of 4 to 10 problems. Scores on those problem sets will be posted at the top of the page. Whether a problem is correct or incorrect will be clearly indicated. Answer values submitted on previous attempts will be asccessible. But there's more ...


 

Do You Plan on Adding More Topics?

Yes!  We started with the usual 14 topics that you find in most sections of our website. But we are adding more ... lots more. We have entire units on the topics of rotational kinematics, rotational dynamics, rotation and torque, and fluid mechanics. We also hope to add units on magnetism and electromagnetism in the future. And we already have a large collection of Chemistry units and will likely be adding more. The Chemistry units can be found below our listing of Physics units.

 

Is Version 2 Free?

Automated problem-delivery and grading services tend to be very expensive. We've designed ours to have two flavors - the FREE version and the low-cost Task Tracker version. The Free version does all of the above. There are more than 2500 problems organized into more than 300 or more ready-to-use problem sets. Each problem set has a meaningful name and an understanding description that allows a student (or a teacher) to find the problem set that they want to practice. They can tap on the problem set to open it and begin their practice session. Our audio files, web pages, and videos will help them to learn as they put their physics (and chemistry) equations and math skills to use. Yes! Version 2 of Calculator Pad is better than Version 1 and still as FREE as ever.

 

What About the Task Tracker Version?

Using The Calculator Pad with Task Tracker provides benefits that never existed in the Legacy version. Automated problem-delivery systems are infamous for randomizing numerical information so that students are unlikely to have identical problems. For most teachers, this makes them more appealing than textbook problems as sources of student assignments. With a Task Tracker account, a teacher can turn our problem sets into assignments and we will track student progress and store it in a database. Teachers can then view student progress and scores on the assignments. Students can exit out of a problem set midway through a work session and return at a later time to continue where they left off. A Task Tracker subscription for The Calculator Pad also allows a teacher to modify assignments, make entirely new assignments by re-organizing our problems, and even create their own assignments by combining our problems with problems that they write themselves using our Problem Builder. There's a lot more that Task Tracker can do, but that's a story for another page. Task Tracker subscriptions are dirt cheap ... especially if you cash in on one of our discounted bundles. Learn more at our Pricing for Schools page.