UPDATED: We have a winner! Congratulations to Gilbert! I will be in touch!
You can win a nifty graphing calculator from Texas Instruments, the TI-Nspire. The TI-Nspire can be used from middle school through college, is allowed on many standardized tests and college entrance exams and comes with lots of perks like free computer software, access to tons of SAT/ACT prep questions from The Princeton Review, AP Test Prep for Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Physics and Statistics and free downloadable games and apps from TI’s Web site (but you don’t have to tell the kids that).
Rumor has it that the TI-Nspire is about as cool as they come, with interchangeable keypads, alpha-numeric keyboard, drag and drop cursor, large high-res screen, electronic document capabilities and built-in 20MB of storage similar to word processing and file storage of a computer. There are also customizable decals.
The TI-Nspire retails from around $139.99.
To qualify for the giveaway, just answer this question in the comments below:
You have until 6 p.m. EST today. I’ll randomly choose a winner from all of the qualifying comments. For a complete look at the giveaway rules, check out this prior post.
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{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
I was part of my high school’s team in the Math League. I didn’t think it was geeky until we traveled to other schools for meets and I saw the other competitors. And for the record, when I was in Math League we could only use a pencil. Our log tables were in a book. So, it would be nice to have this calculator.
I studied in the morning before classes started… and sometimes during lunch too.
Instead of having an off period or study hall, I did an independent study in genetics where I bred fruit flies in some back room of the science classrooms. Then I wrote some 50+ page typed paper with my results. (that was before the days of word processors) I should have taken some ceramics or photography class!
When my class was studying “Hamlet,” I went to the Brooklyn Public Library and read Richard Burton’s “Treatise on the Four Humours” so I could really understand the play.
That was around the time I got interested in Mesopotamian culture and cuneiform which led to an extensive exploration of ancient creation myths from around the world. I found that accounts from the Sumerians, Jews, Indians, etc., all speak of a great flood.
Oh, yes, and I dumped my boyfriend in high school because I was too busy studying. See above.
2 words, Debate Team
I live in the upper Midwest, only a couple of hours from the Canadian Border, and I had to walk to school. Back in Junior High we had to wear dresses to school, and sometimes it was below zero temps. So, in order to keep my legs warm, I had to wear pants under my dress, which, I thought, looked very geeky. I would instantly rush to the bathroom when I got to school, and take off my pants, hoping no-one would see me.
I was valedictorian of my high school graduating class. Never mind that it was overseas and there were only 14 of us — had it been in the US it would have been geeky to the extreme; the thick-lens glasses would have helped too.
I had really bad hair in high school. Natural curl plus a bob = Bozo the clown.
In grade school I study with the nuns during my free time instead of played outside.
Taught myself how to program reading a teacher’s “Basic BASIC” and the source code for StarTrek (downloaded on a teletype using a 150 baud acoustic coupler that was hidden behind the school cafetorium).
Physics Olympics competition of school-based teams from around the region. Though there was some athleticism involved. We did very well in the “heat water without chemical energy” competition by putting it in a soda can and holding it against the wheel of a stationary bicycle while we took turns pedaling madly.
I took calculus my junior year in a tv studio and the class was broadcast to other schools. We were not allowed to ask questions during class time. I dropped that class for calc done with paper & pencil, a remedial calculus at my nerd boarding school.
I bought a pen that could skim my textbooks and then put the file into my computer. Didnt work at ALL!
Pointed out to my teacher that I did not get a 100 percent on the test, but I had actually missed one.
Ran down the street in a dress for track meet day trying to catch the bus. I had a full backpack plus a flute case plus an extra bag for track clothes. The whole bus watched me run down the street and also watched as my sister’s too-big skirt fell down to my knees just before I reached the bus.
I joined the french club, yes I actually joined the french club! It was cheese tasting with french music and more!
As an editor for the school newspaper, I created a ficticious school mascot. I fooled a few people, but the whole ordeal was pretty lame.
Oh, and I created a BASIC program in my TI-85 to play Tetris.
I always studied during gym class.
I rebuilt the sound system in the high school auditorium. (This was back in 1963, long before the days of Radio Shack).
Well I can think of a few things (extra credit debates when I already had 105 in the class, correcting a teacher who marked my test as a perfect score, reading supplemental literature the teachers hadn’t even bothered to read), but probably the truly geekiest thing I did in middle and high school was teach myself HTML and build a web site that included photo albums, a journal (before they were called blogs!), and a quote of the day.
I collected all of the pennies the jocks threw at me and used them to buy lunch every day
I quit playing varsity volleyball with all the cool kids so I could be in more plays (I liked the drama crowd much better).
The calculator looks great! In addition to great supplies, it’s important to identify which tools you, your child, or your students should use throughout the school year to stay organized. A fantastic (and free) option is Office Live Workspace. Check it out here http://www.workspace.officelive.com/students.
Also, the Office Live Student Community on Facebook provides useful tips, tricks and resources to keep students efficient and productive all year! http://www.facebook.com/officelivestudent
Cheers,
Kate
MSFT Office Live Outreach Team
The geekiest thing I ever did was ignore the lame shape creation projects given to me in “Apple Logo” programming in Jr. High, and instead created a live action apocalyptic scene where a house had a little doggy walk in front of the picket fence, then the mushroom cloud bloomed and poof… I got an ‘A’ LOL
@ThePayrollGuy
Good: Chess Camp.
Better: I used my grandmother’s set of Encyclopedia Britannica to constantly write reports on various things, no assignment necessary.
Best: In 2nd grade my teacher asked all the students in my class what we wanted to be when we grew up and wrote those jobs on the blackboard. My answer? “Mathematician”, one, because I knew she couldn’t spell it; and two, because I wanted to have the longest word on the board. Cheers!
I was running down the hall and caught my backpack on a door knob and it threw me backwards onto the ground in front of a full classroom.
I sneezed and accidentally farted at the same time really loudly.
Being a geek, and a bit of a stoner, I really didn’t pay much attention to fashion. At one point, I decided that I really liked pink. A bit of a rough choice at that time for a large, straight, man, but I held firm.
One day, not paying attention, as usual, to what I was wearing, I went to school. As I got out of
my car a car full of girls was driving by. They slowed, pointed, shrieked, and whistled, all at the same time, or at least that’s how I remember it.
I looked around to see what was going on and saw nothing. Then, I looked down.
I was dressed in a pink polo, pink pants, and red/pink high top tennis shoes.
I was a walking fashion nightmare in the clothes, long hair, and bushy beard. I got right back in the car and went home to change. Never went out without looking in the mirror ever again.
I ran my car into a school bus and caused all the kids on the bus to be three hours late getting home because they had to find another school bus to transport them.
I had a crush on a boy in my grade and I would call his house over and over again and hang up when someone answered. I can see now why his mom would sound so angry.
When I was a freshman and senior threatened to beat me up at soccer practice (I made the varsity team and was the only freshman on the team), I took my much older sister to practice with me and had her stand on the sidelines and look mean.
I ran for student council and passed out about two thousand pieces of gum as part of my campaign and still lost.
I wore shorts under my pleated school uniform skirt.
I wore penny loafers with pennies in them, navy blue short socks with my navy blue pleated uniform skirt (along with the short underneath) with splatter-painted earrings and splatter-painted sunglasses along with a yellow banana bag purse made out of parachute material while walking down the hall listening to my Walkman cassette tape player. I was bitchin’ : )
I wore a splatter-painted sweatshirt cut up the front like a cardigan sweater with the seams bound with grosgrain ribbon.
I also joined the French Club but I have no idea why because I barely passed French which was most likely due to my undiagnosed dyslexia, or my refusal to practice pronunciation. The club meetings were in French and I never knew what was going on.