it seems as though algebra, geometry and calculus are now all taught together based more on difficulty and how they relate to one another instead of as separate distinct subjects. can any math wizards out there explain this more specifically?
my kid doesn’t seem to understand how you could teach them separately and i don’t understand how you don’t.
I teach a large public high school that sends lots of people to Ivys. I have also been researching schools for my kids.
I with that background, I have not really seen what you are talking about. The IB schools will integrate math some, but not to that degree (I have not researched it closely but that’s what I think). AP board still has AP calculus and they just came out with AP precalc, and there’s still AP stats. To take those classes you have to teach in the traditional way.
I don’t see how it’s possible. You can swap geometry and algebra 2 (and they do at my school). But you need algebra 1 to do precalc and Calc.
do you teach typing by chance?
her school isn’t IB, but she’s in AP and honors classes. can’t remember which one for math.
maybe it’s just algebra and geometry then?
Shots fired!!!
just joking around based on his screen name.
Close - CS.
I think you could integrate algebra 2 and geometry in a two year series of you wanted. You could have accelerated and regular versions.
You could do the same with precalc I guess.
No way with AP Calc. AP Calc BC is too much material to mix with something else.
How do you teach calculus if you dont ALREADY have the building blocks of geometry and algebra?
I didn’t realize you were done thus my original reply via typing.
Is she STEM? If so, Engineering (at least first year) to get a clue of Algebra and basic Calculus to see if she likes it.
No such thing as integrated (unless non STEM imo)
she’s in HS. but she’s very science focused. she took ap environmental science and think’s that’s probably what she wants to study in college. the field is huge now and includes jobs that didn’t even exist 20 years ago when it was pretty much a worthless degree. jobs like corporate carbon footprint reduction policy and fuel cell development. have a friend in IT that was a ES major at cornell. went into IT because there weren’t any jobs in 1998.
I would recommend hard sciences for a year (Biology, BioChem or Chem). If the kid is bright, she might like it or not but it is grunt fundamental’s (and looks great on a resume).
Good job btw regardless…
AP environmental science is known (at my school anyway) as the easiest of all AP math/science classes, along with AP stats and AP Computer Science principles.
Not a knock in your daughter, just that AP env science is not completely representative of college engineering.
They learned over the years that most kids dont retain shit, and they have to reteach previous maths every year. Contrary to popular belief, American kids overall have always sucked at math, and the old way wasn’t cutting it. I’m not saying the new ways of teaching math are better or worse, but we have to try something.
Hard sciences / math structure the mind to think differently but I get what your are saying regarding the western way of education (unfortunately)…
For example, they used to teach Algebra around 8th or 9th grade. 13 to 15 year old kids. They taught the basic algebra early in the year. Later it was a little more advanced. Then the next year they started with geometry, which only requires the basic algebra, which the majority had already forgotten.
So now, they go with basic algebra, to basic geometry, all within the same course. This is supposed to give them more time with using each skill, before moving on.
I went the Engineering route. F you Integral and Vector Calculus lol…
every science class she’s taken has been AP. she gets almost all As (has a 4.5gpa). she thought ES was the hardest. she was the only kid that got an A. but i’m sure it varies by school. but she really liked the class. the teacher was just written up in the paper. his resume is pretty impressive. seems like a very impressive guy. teachers are 95% of it.
i tried to take vector calculus a coupe years ago through stanford online. i gave up about 1/3 of the way through. fuck that shit.
i quit caring about math once i learned algebra and geometry. had girls do all my homework for the last couple years of high school. no ragerts.
Now you can take Algebra 1 and Geometry in middle school. Not all middle schools offer geometry.