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Ray

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    has anyone used the great courses Pre Calc?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by Ray

    I am sure good deals can be had on Amazon or EBay, as I am pretty sure it is one of the Larson/Hostetler/Edward books which has many editions available used. I will be passing on this course mainly because I already have the Math Without Borders/ Foerster set.

    And I just signed up for a subscription to Educator.com (1/2 off cyber promo), don't know if it's any good yet, but I have been interested in human pathogen type stuff which their 'microbio' course lines up to help with my ignorance on that

     

    But if time were available I would add that course to our Great courses Library.

    • Like 1

    has anyone used the great courses Pre Calc?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Been looking at that one too based off user reviews + his used Precalc text availability. But the Chalk dust person has a subscriber service that may be more bang for the instruction $$ and it uses same Precalc text (assuming just digitized version of chalk dust courses)

    http://coolmathguy.com/

     

    I already have Foersters Precalc / Math without borders, so as much as I would like to get the above materials to check out, household comptroller is unlikely to approve the purchase.

    • Like 1

    Is all math called "algebra" now? Or are they starting earlier?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted · Edited by Ray

    I can't. I was an out of town house guest and I snooped on the math textbook :) as I tend to do (not really snooped--I asked because I thought it was the older child's book).

     

    Around here the trend is away from physical books which makes sating my curiosity about other math books hard. My Snooping opportunities lie mostly online but it helps to have a title for starting point. Thanks though.

    Changing math curriculum

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by Ray

    Buyer beware, but it does look like higher levels of the Singapore math texts are available for sale at this site http://www.sgbox.com/singaporemath.html

     

    I think your student having completed the 8b level is prepared to go which ever way they want with HS level math. Whether that's to continue the blended Alg/geo approach or go retro and study separates. http://mathwithoutborders.com/

    It is worthwhile to spend time on odd ball classes like Counting & Probability concurrent with traditional math courses to give a taste of the possible.

    Common Core Math: Interesting Article

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    No. That is a gross misunderstanding of what kind of policy this is.

     

    There is a government initiative to set benchmarks nationally so that students across the country can see how their schools compare to others before the SATs; so that children can move from school to school more fluidly and missing less material; so that schools cannot abrogate their obligation to provide each child a full education by skimping on education. This might seem silly, because wouldn't every community want the same for their children? But it was increasingly obvious that even comparing students from the same race, socio-economic background, and so on, that they were NOT all getting even close to equal opportunity in education.

     

    This is a government standard policy and NOT a curriculum nor a tool to achieve the standards. That is left to implementing school districts. You can adopt any standard you want but it should be clear that unless you provide the necessary <quote  sniped>

     

    So it is a measuring device to ensure schools are providing a timely education for students with a component of the benchmarks being a judgment of the students understanding of the why behind the math?

     

    Question: If a student were asked "explain why 6984 is a multiple of 18" would an answer of 6984/18 = 388 be good?

    Answer key for Perpendicular Press Math 6 book

    in Logic Stage & Middle Grade Challenges

    Posted

    Thank you very much, Ray. It helps to hear from someone who has BTDT.

    You are welcome. The Mathematics 6 book is more like a regular math book having a mix of expression and word type problems and being fairly terse, whereas the AoPS has more prose in its explanations and working sets. Because of my eagerness and confirmation bias DD got a bad first taste of AoPS by skipping their prealgebra and going straight to AoPS's intro Algebra class. That was our btdt. { I was pushy}
    • Like 1

    Answer key for Perpendicular Press Math 6 book

    in Logic Stage & Middle Grade Challenges

    Posted

    Ray, I have been reading a lot of your older posts. Have you seen AOPS's prealgebra book? How do you think it compares with Mathematics 6? I am asking because I already have a lot of curriculum (Dolciani, AOPS and 2 others) and it would be nice to know a little more about this one before I click the buy button :)

    I do cringe about some of my past posts, just so you know. I get what you mean "having a lot of curriculum", the only thing that works for me is- bookshelves.  :laugh:

     Right off the top AoPS Pre algebra paper/online book package match the AoPS style. It does not shy away from things like " let x and y be..." or " subtraction is neither commutative nor associative" by which I mean it has a higher maturity level than Mathematics 6.  I would say both have hard problems neither of which go soft nor do they give problems that are solved by just inserting different numbers. Mathematics 6 has more problems than the AoPS book, but with AoPS having the harder problems. Mathematics 6 does not have square roots or exponents while  AoPS Pre Algebra does.The explanations for exponents and radicals can come from an Algebra book, but the wider topic coverage should go to the AoPS title in a comparison.

     

     RM6 has shortcomings yet I think it may be the right one to use for us as DS is a big fan of his sister, and expects his turn at the infamous 'Russian' Math whose reputation DD stirs like cream in coffee. 

    • Like 1

    Answer key for Perpendicular Press Math 6 book

    in Logic Stage & Middle Grade Challenges

    Posted

    Did you end up using it? Could you tell us your thoughts?

     

    Hello-

     

     DD did use and complete the Nurk RM 6 text. It had some variation on ways of doing things I liked. It did not give any special math genius to her because it was 'Russian Math'. It took effort to get through that book and by the end marked a transition in her personal efficacy as a maturing student. I have asked DD about this course because her younger brother is now within striking distance DD said with pride "it's a rite of passage". 

     

    After finishing it she took a summer AoPS Intro to Algebra  online class. She passed- with scaffolding from her math minded mom.

     

    Next came a confidence recovery period dipping in and out of other math materials solo style. DD redid Algebra 1 with Derek Owens and currently is finishing up D.O. Algebra 2 and a AoP'S intro C&P class. DD is weighing testing through Foerster's  Alg/trig book with Math Without Borders, or taking the AoPS Intermediate Algebra class or going with Foerster Precalc w/MWB. Tenacity is what Mathematics 6 has given her.

     

    Hey Bill how is it going hope things are treating you well.

     

    Ray

    • Like 3

    HELP! AoPS Intro to Counting and Probability (Cross-post)

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    • Tanton  can be as difficult to follow as AOPS because he tends to make you work for it also. 

    There might be explicit instruction found in a Jason Gibson 'Probability & Statistics' tutor video found at (Amazon Prime or Mathtutordvd.com)

    Our daughter is doing one of the AOPS intro counting/ prob session too

    Her objective is to get a chapter ahead  so the lectures have more value (she is not ahead just almost even)

    Hard to say whether time spent using other resources is better than just working with the AOPS resources.

     

    • Like 1

    Division and two digit divisors

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted · Edited by Ray

    Well if I did this right the attachment shows a drawing done in 'paint', using borrowed ideas. The example is 180/12 where one sees what 180 and 12 look like when using dots and boxes. This works off of how we write numbers using place value, hundreds,tens,ones etc.

    Not so much a 'trick' to speed up computations, but a 'trick' to spark insight;)

    post-3740-13535087624_thumb.jpg

    post-3740-13535087624_thumb.jpg

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