The document discusses online calculators that can help math-averse students with tasks like calculating body mass index and bone strength. It provides code for a JavaScript calculator for BMI and describes how another calculator can be used to determine the diameter of leg bones needed to support a given animal's weight without breaking. The author notes that using such calculators on exams helped students perform better on math problems compared to the previous year and that they requested the calculators for other problems as well. However, the calculators are tricky to write and online exams need improvements like multiple question variants and better help systems, which require significant time investments.

1. Online calculators for math-averse students Paul Calvert Department of Bioengineering “ MTX 105 Materials for Medicine for the year 2020” is like a camel half the students are competent in arithmetic half are not

2. Online calculators Model Calculator for Body Mass Index written in Javascipt

3. <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=&quot;JAVASCRIPT&quot;> <!-- hide this script tag's contents from old browsers //Body Mass calculator- by John Scott (johnscott03@yahoo.com) //Visit JavaScript Kit (http://javascriptkit.com) for script //Credit must stay intact for use function ClearForm(form){ form.weight.value = &quot;&quot;; form.height.value = &quot;&quot;; form.bmi.value = &quot;&quot;; form.my_comment.value = &quot;&quot;; } function bmi(weight, height) { bmindx=weight/eval(height*height); return bmindx; } function checkform(form) { if (form.weight.value==null||form.weight.value.length==0 || form.height.value==null||form.height.value.length==0){ alert(&quot;Please complete the form first&quot;); return false; } ETC.

4. Enter two choices out of the stress, the modulus and the strain in the form below. Put a &quot;?&quot; in the other box and press the &quot;Let's see&quot; button. Units of Stress are MegaPascals (1e6 N/m2) and Modulus are GigaPascals (1e9 N/m2) , Strain is in %. (This is because I don't know how to get javascript to write in scientific notation like 4.5e6 even though it reads it fine). Example: calculate modulus, stress or strain

5. Example: Design animal leg bones for strength Use a bone strength in the range of 50-250 MPa (Megapascals) in compression On the first line, enter the weight of the animal in kilograms and the calculator will give you the force in Newtons On the second line put in the diameter of the animal's leg bones, the calculator will give you the breaking force of the bone in Newtons .

6. Using the calculator for bone strength: MTX105 Bend Problem 2 Cat A bone has a strength of 220 MPa. A cat weighs 5 kg and has legs 12 cm (0.12m) long. If the bone is solid, what diameter should it have? (Put numbers of about 0.3 to 1 in the OD box until you get 5 kg for the max. weight

7. Tutorial Practice Problems These problem sets precede a homework assignment

8. Results Students did much better on math problems compared to last year They asked for the calculators on other problems

9. Problems & future The calculators are tricky to write, need a simple interface Math exams online need multiple question variants, like in webCT but less clumsy. The tutorials could have better help but this is time consuming to write. The time investment favors courses which change little from year to year. WebCT/myCourses is not a good tool for Engineering (or Science)