Using statistical packages and calculators in the classroom

For over twenty years statistical software has been employed in introductory applied statistics courses. It has been used to calculate descriptive statistics, probabilities, confidence intervals, hypothesis test statistics, and linear regressions. Recently, statistical calculators with many of the capabilities of existing software have appeared. In this paper the authors explained the pedagogical advantages and disadvantages of each tool. They compared the capabilities of MINITAB, a widely-used general-purpose data analysis system, with the HP-21S, a relatively inexpensive Hewlett-Packard stat/math calculator. They also presented the preliminary results of an experiment comparing the use of these two computing tools in the classroom.