| MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT
Four semesters of Mathematics course work are required.
Applied Mathematics
Applied Math is designed to provide instruction in basic mathematics
needed for personal and business life. It is suitable for students who
will not be pursuing further high school mathematics beyond beginning
algebra and for all students wishing to develop a better understanding
of practical mathematical applications. The proper use of a calculator
is stressed. There are no prerequisites.
Algebra I
This is intended to be a first-year algebra course, for students
who have previously completed an appropriate pre-algebra course. The course
goal is to provide a rigorous development of the student’s mathematical
skills and provide him the tools to enable him to proceed into the higher
math subjects. The student by successfully completing this course will
have not only achieved the basic algebra skills, but will have exposure
into basic geometry and statistics.
Geometry
This course gives the student experience drawing, constructing,
measuring, visualizing, comparing, transforming, and classifying geometric
figures. With these activities students learn to reason about those figures
and separate fact from opinion.
Advanced Algebra
This course contains the mathematics that educated people around
the world use in conversation, and that most colleges want or expect you
to have studied. Familiar ideas such as properties of numbers, graphs,
expressions, equations, and inequalities appear, as well as new topics,
including matrices, logarithms, trigonometry, and conic sections. Throughout
the course we use the concept of function to help organize ideas, and
the graphing calculator is used for this purpose.
Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry
Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry covers a wide range of topics
and brings them together in a unified discipline. This course extends
learning about functions into technology, statistics, and trigonometry,
preparing the student for calculus. Even if the student takes no further
math in college, this work will apply to many fields, including engineering,
physical sciences, social sciences, and business.
Precalculus and Discrete Mathematics
Most of the math a student has taken involves Precalculus topics, such
as properties of functions, sequences and limits, algebraic expressions
of equalities and inequalities, and formulas for slope, distance, areas,
and volumes. These topics and others are used to prepare the student for
calculus, which is about sets of continuous elements. In contrast, discrete
means separate, as in the space between consecutive elements, so Discrete
Math refers to a collection of topics important for computer science.
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