My classes got around this by teaching how to make a TI84 quadratic solver program a short part of the curriculum. Introduced the students to the concept of building tools to help yourself pretty well. Most people didn't get programming because it was such a shallow dip into the field, but it sparked a couple minds. I had already done that basically a year earlier, when I had my programming awakening, so I did a lot of helping and after the lesson handing out my improved version of the code, as well as a self-made game