Shadowfax Cluster Rant 2009-2024 Release 36.07: Teaching Math 4R: Chapter 12 Sequences, Quater I Week 3

Friday, September 13, 2013

Teaching Math 4R: Chapter 12 Sequences, Quater I Week 3

Teaching Math 4R

Chapter 12 Sequences

Quarter I Week 3:

We finished CH12 this week with a test! Our last topics included Proof By Induction and The Binomial Expansion Theorem!

Quarter I Week 2:

This week we covered Geometric Sequences and Induction! Included below you will find ScreenCasts based on TI83 and SAGE. I also have SmartNotes from the TI83 ScreenCasts as well as SAGE Worksheets for the SAGE ScreenCasts!

Quarter I Week 1:

PreCalculus is all new this year:

(1) My preCalculus for Juniors classes started the school year with Chapter 12 this year! We start with Chapter 12 so we don't waste a lot of time reviewing topics from Chapters 1 and 2 which are about solving Linear Equations and Quadratics! So, when midyear is upon us, we can switch to Calculus without skipping important topics at the end of the preCalculus text. As such, we cover as much preCalculus as we can in the Fall Semester and as much AP Calculus AB material as we can in the Spring in preparation for Calculus next year!

(2) We are using a Computer Algebra System called SAGE instead of the TI83. The grand experiment this year is to see how well students learn the Math while learning to code in python at the same time!

(3) We will be learning a lot of python in class. You can learn some python code on your own too with this online, interactive textbook!

I actually have 2 different preCalculus classes. PreCalculus 4R and preCalculus 4H cover the same material and is comprised mostly of Juniors. The difference between these to groups is that 4R takes AP Calculus AB next year and 4H takes AP Calculus BC. Also, we cover material a little more in-depth for the 4H student and our tests may be a bit more challenging.

ScreenCasts and SmartNotes and Code,

oh my:

Below, you will find ScreenCasts from this unit. The SmartNotes are from last year's TI83 based course. SAGE code from this week, in the form of worksheets, are also included below so you can see our new approach.