This is a wonderful free download: Runiter’s Graphing Calculator 3D. (The “try online” version is not very good).
In middle school, there’s little need for 3D graphing, but sometimes it’s good to show students where they’re going and not simply where they are. It also has 2D capability which would be more useful in regards to graphing linear equations or quadratic equations for Algebra.
It took less than a minute to install, and if you’re familiar with graphing calculators at all, it’s fairly self explanatory. For the Algebra 1 classroom, the basic functions you would need to know are:
1) Input your equation(s) in the “y=” on the top left.
2) Click on the coordinate plane icon at the bottom left if you want to change the default 5×5 grid to 10×10.
3) The table icon near the top middle will hide/show data.
It doesn’t do too much more than the TI software your school might have except that it’s more colorful and requires no set-up. But one school I taught at had very little technology resources at all – I wish I had known about this back then.
There are a few bugs, nothing that will affect your computer and nothing really important. For instance, the “example” button will show you various graphs. Each time you click this example button, a new graph appears. There’s only 10 or so that it cycles through but if you switch from 2D examples to 3D, then it’ll just stop graphing anything even though the data still appears to change. Well, like I said, this isn’t important.
Also, with this free version your capabilities are limited. Many of the functions are disabled such as the ability to save, etc. The most annoying part about that is that if you accidentally click on an icon that has been disabled, it will ask you if you want to upgrade (pay about $50 for the real deal). Which I understand since this is a free version, and they’d prefer to sell their product. But I think this free version is all that you would need for a middle school class, though maybe it would be worth purchasing for Calculus or Statistics (they have an advanced Stats calculator).
