A course for secondary school teachers concerning the use of programmable pocket calculators

This paper describes the development of a course concerning the use of programmable pocket calculators given by the author to upper secondary school mathematics teachers. The search for the approximated solutions of equations is used as an example. This problem illustrates many important aspects of computer use, such as algorithm construction and the need for precise numerical considerations. The possibility that computers offer to examine some traditional mathematical subjects in more depth is also discussed.