| Introduction
Today we live in
a society that is largely shaped by mathematics -- though by one of
life's paradoxes, the more important mathematics has become in our
lives, the more it has disappeared into the background. You would not
know it unless you looked closely, but large parts of modern
communications, transport, medicine, entertainment, sport, financial
trading, and even law enforcement, all make heavy use of, often
sophisticated mathematics. In the industrial age, we burned fossil
fuels to drive the engines of society. In the information age, the fuel
we burn is mathematics. The mathematics involved is so specialized that
we cannot hope to teach it in our schools. What we can -- and should --
do is make sure our children are prepared to acquire, quickly and
efficiently, what particular math skills they require when the time
comes.
The bulk of
that basic skill set on which each individual can build in later life
has little to do with numbers or arithmetic. The industrial age was an
age of number and arithmetic. The information age is quite different.
The mathematics used today is the mathematics of abstract patterns,
relationships, and structures. As we continue to revise our curriculum
for the high school math class of the next millennium, we have to
accept the fact that the mathematics we teach today's students will not
be (at least, should not be) the same as their parents learned. But
that does not make it easier or less rigorous. Quite the opposite.
The need for
accurate, rigorous, precise logical thinking is more important to more
people today than at any time in history. To try to achieve that
ability by harking back to the mathematics taught a half century ago,
as continues to happen in states across the nation, will surely fail
with today's students. They -- and we -- deserve better.
Keith Devlin; Devlin's
Angle, MAA
Expectations
| Expectations |
Consequences |
- Respect yourself
- Respect others around you
- Respect your school and property
|
- Warning
- Parent Contact
- D-Hall
- Office Referrall
|
No
Food or Drink is allowed in the classroom!
Students
are expected to stay in class until the bell rings !
Supplies
- Pencil
- Spiral
- Folder with pockets and brads
- Individual class has individual
requirements
Late
Work Policies
- No Late Work Accepted
- Failed
Quizzes and Tests and Projects: Student will get tutoring and make up
failed test/quiz
- Missed
Quizzes or Tests are expected to be made up within ONE WEEK of absence
Grading
Policies
| Type |
Weight |
Quantity |
|
Daily
|
25%
|
10-12 per six
weeks
|
|
Quizzes
|
25%
|
4-5 per six
weeks
|
|
Tests
|
50%
|
2-3 per six
weeks
|
|
Projects
|
Test Grade
|
1 per six
weeks
|
Exemption
Policies
- Have to
have a grade of 85% or higher
- Can have no more than 2 absences
- Must complete at least 1/2 of the
semester exam review
"Geometry is perhaps the
most elementary of the sciences that enable man, by purely intellectual
processes, to make predictions (based on observation) about physical
world. The power of geometry, in the sense of accuracy and utility of
these deductions, is impressive, and has been a powerful motivation for
the study of logic in geometry.
H. M. S. Coxeter (1907-2003)
|
