0 What if My Students Use Programming to CHEAT?

One question comes up as I've recently dipped my toes into programming on calculators with my students . . . You teach your students to program, but what if they start programming formulas into their calculators?

I've been thinking about this question, and playing out a few scenarios in my head . . .

1. Don't teach students to program. Maintaining ignorance is a good way to keep students from doing things you don't want them to do.

2. Teach them to program, but make sure they don't use it for cheating. Reset calculators before every test. This is a good way to make sure students don't spend too much time on any programs.

3. Let them program away. What might happen? Student who learns about the quadratic formula might think about programming it into her calculator. Later on, student encounters an equation, recognizes it is quadratic, correctly identifies a, b, and c and then executes a program she has coded herself to solve the quadratic.

I think I can live with option 3.

In fact, I'm over here smiling.