Finding Aplets

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Finding Aplets and e-Lessons

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There are three main sources of e-Lessons on the web.  Hewlett Packard's site contains a set of aplets that were originally produced for the HP38G but have been updated for the more recent machines.  The two remaining sites this one, which houses by far the largest collection of aplets, and Eric Rechlin's site HPcalc.org. Eric's site does not contain any original aplets but does contain a very well organized collection of everyone else's aplets, including those from  HPs site.  It also includes many games.

On this site the aplets are broken into the categories of 'Games' and 'Aplets'. Click on the tags on the main page of this site to access them. The games are mainly written for the HP39G & HP40G. If you try to run them on the hp 39g+ then you may encounter problems in two ways. Firstly, the newer calculators are so much faster that many of the games are unplayable. Secondly, some of the games access the chip directly and this can cause problems on the newer calculators because the chips are slightly different. There is a risk of the calculator locking up and requiring a reset which may cause loss of stored memory (but no worse damage). 

In the 'Aplets' page the further categories are:

bulletMath aplets - these are the ones that are useful in teaching or doing mathematics. 
They are further broken down as:
bulletThe Curve Collection
A set of equations for a variety of interesting curves with instructions on how to display them on the calculator.
bulletFunctions & Calculus
bulletGeometry
bulletMatrices
bulletStatistics & Probability
bulletVectors
bulletHP Aplets - these are the same as the ones on HP's site, with more that they decided not to update.
bulletThe First 50 - a collection of 50 small programs. These were written at HP's request and perform a variety of small but useful tasks.
bulletScience Aplets - a collection that I wrote for the HP38G that I've never updated due to lack of demand.

I strongly suggest that you browse through these pages and have a look at what is there. Many of them are fantastically useful (if I do say so myself) and well worth keeping. Some of them have been so popular that HP incorporated them into the newer calculators as built in aplets!

All aplets contain a file, usually a Word file, containing instructions on how to use the aplet. Many of them also include worksheets that can be photocopied and used in lessons. All are free of charge and can be copied and used for educational purposes. You can give copies of them to students but you can't distribute them yourself for profit, nor can you place them on another website without clearing it with the author (generally me).

Note: Most of the material which you will find on these sites is supplied in compressed format as a ZIP file.  Before you can transfer it to your calculator you will need to expand the files using a program such as WinZip.  A trial version of this WinZip is often included on computer magazine CDs.  It can also be downloaded from the WinZip home site.

You must be sure to expand any ZIP files into empty directories so that there is no chance of overwriting the files of another e-Lesson with those belonging to the new aplet.

 

Last modified: 19 Dec 2007                                             Sitemap        Home        Contact Me